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Bookville Kilkenny: Children's Book Festival

Bookville Kilkenny

The Kilkenny Library Service and Kilkenny Arts Office are working together to celebrate books, writing, animation, illustration, comedy and all those magical things that come together to create a good story! 

Our 7th consecutive annual Bookville Festival takes place from Thursday 12th to Wednesday 18th October 2023.

Bookville will bring you 47 live workshops, five online video workshops and, NEW for 2023, we also have a programme of five virtual Zoom workshops which can be accessed free online by all schools and the public.

25 of the best contemporary children’s authors and illustrators from across Ireland and the UK will be taking part in our workshop programme.

There will be an exceptional variety of events catering for all children including storytelling, music, drama, drawing, creative writing and comedy, as well as a workshop as Gaeilge and videos in Ukrainian, Polish and Irish sign language.

We are excited to once again bring live events to our Kilkenny fans, for schools and the general public, as well as the hugely popular Bookville Festival book, online videos and a Bookville exhibition.

Bookville Activity Book

 Public Events

School Events

Bookville Exhibition

As a taster see below what happened in previous years!!:

For 2022 we have an exciting programme of six FREE videos for you to enjoy at home or at school, with something for all tastes and ages. 

Tree Dogs, Banshee Fingers and Other Words for Irish Nature, With author Manchán Magan

Manchán explores the unique insights that Irish words offer us into the natural words and the secret insights into how we used to live, hunt, farm and dream that are encoded within the Irish language. He shares with us some of the beautiful illustrations from his book Tree Dogs, Banshee Fingers and Other Words for Irish Nature, and tells us the lore and hidden meanings behind certain Irish words.

Scúnc agus Smúirín 
Údar Muireann Ní Chíobháin & maisitheoir Paddy Donnelly

Caith seal le údar Muireann Ní Chíobháin agus maisitheoir Paddy Donnelly agus iad ag léamh an leabhar Scúnc agus Smúirín agus ag tarraingt pictiúir ón leabhar.

Spend some time with author Muireann Ní Chíobháin and illustrator Paddy Donnelly as they read the book Scúnc agus Smúirín and draw illustrations from the book.

A little book about Justice
with Author & Illustrator, Ashwin Chacko

What is justice? Not sure? Sound complicated?
Join Ashwin Chacko and his characters Sunny and Dandy as they find out what justice is really about with a read aloud story from A little book about Justice. After storytime Ashwin will teach you how to draw a fun, quirky character from his book. Join in the fun!!

Until the End, Skulduggery Pleasant
With author Derek Landy

​Meet Derek, his cats and pet moth Howard and discover if you are a panster or a plotter. Hear how despite Derek Landy's short attention span (and failure to do homework) his ability to use his imagination and have fun is key to his writing.

My Little Album of Ireland
With illustrator Tarsila Krüse

Meet award-winning illustrator Tarsila Krüse and get a snapshot of her book My Little Album of Ireland, co-authored with Juliette Saumande. There are lots of things to spot and find! Maybe you will even find yourself in it, but if you don’t, Tarsila has you covered! She will show you how to DRAW YOURSELF, using a few simple shapes to create a basic skeleton and YOU will use YOUR imagination to add all the wonderful details that make you, well…YOU!

2021

Click the picture to download our 2021 Activity book

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Click the picture to download our 2020 Activity book

Bookville in a book cover

Watch previous years highlights below: