Mumbai’s only annual literary festival for children, The Little Festival, where books are a lot of fun! will reprise at the NCPA this year, alongside Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest. It will be attended by children from private, public, and NGO schools.
The festival is held in collaboration with the H T Parekh Foundation and will offer a range of fresh ideas through books, storytelling and performative narration to unleash the imagination of children in the age group 7 to 13.
While the youngest group (ages 7 and 8) will be involved in activity-based fun sessions such as imagining animals in the wild, writing letters to humans (what do we think they would say?) and storytelling in different forms like maps, art and dance, including Kathak. Those of ages 9 and 10 will be treated to bilingual stories through music, films and performative storytelling. The oldest group (up to age 13) will participate in conversations and discussions ranging from map-reading, interpreting graphic novels, lesser-known marine life, human-animal conflict and Mumbai’s heritage, to inclusivity and empathy.
There will also be nature walks and age-appropriate workshops aimed to enrich the participants’ skills, including the art of writing poetry, scenes for theatre, illustrations, and building resilience through reading.
The festival continues to emphasise its key themes around nature and the environment, art, history, diversity, the spoken word and physical books. Leading children’s practitioners and writers from these fields, such as Devashish Makhija, Fiona Fernandes, Katie Bagli, Lavanya Kartik, Nandita da Cunha, Neha Singh, Raviraj Shetty, Sonal Gupta Vaswani, and Sonia Mehta, among others, will stimulate enthusiasm and learning. Famed comedian Cyrus Broacha and nationally known sportswriter Boria Majumdar will conduct child-oriented sessions. The children will also interact with a professional clown, Martin “Flubber” D’Souza, whose book talks of the dignity and hard work of this calling.
A stirring new international family musical, ‘Grandpa Poseidon’, will be staged, leading children through the concepts of change, perhaps feeling lost, and finding their way back.
The winners of the Binod Kanoria Awards for Children’s Literature will be announced during The Little Festival.
A highlight of the festival, the ever-popular Doorbeen Tent, will be set up again for activities and interactive sessions, including the book swap.
Associate Festival Director Reena Agrawal, who curates The Little Festival, said: “We have seen in previous years how the children have enjoyed and appreciated our innovative programme of storytelling, art, music, nature, and conversations in which they are taken seriously. The lure of the ever-dominant phone/tablet screen still fades in the face of direct interaction with people and the outdoors, a shared laugh in a theatre, the thrill of making one’s own map or book cover. We want to give children this exposure, infuse new ideas into their lives, and help them explore their innate creativity. We are grateful to the H T Parekh Foundation for sharing our values and for their continued support for us.”
H T Parekh Foundation expressed its support: “Our partnership with The Little Festival reflects a shared belief that children can discover and engage with books in many different ways: by reading, listening, creating, exploring and finding stories that speak to them. Through Doorbeen, H T Parekh Foundation works to create opportunities for children to discover books and build a meaningful relationship with reading. The Little Festival extends this experience beyond the library, bringing children together with books, writers, artists and ideas through conversations, performances and creative experiences. We are delighted to be part of the festival for the third year and to continue supporting this unique opportunity for children to engage with books and literature in new and engaging ways.”
