The inaugural St Austell Festival of Children’s Literature took place in 2023. Following its success, we are returning in June 2024.

Our Festival Aims

Making a difference to young lives through the power of reading.

• Celebrate the fact that choosing to read improves life outcomes
• Enable children to experience a live author or illustrator event
• Support families in choosing to read together
• Inspire a community that embraces reading for pleasure

What does the research show?

We know that research shows that reading for pleasure has the biggest impact on children’s life chances (OECD 2002). It counts for more than test scores and exam results. It counts for more than socioeconomic background.

Between 2012 and 2021, the number of children reading for pleasure everyday has reduced from 38% to 23%

The number of 3-4 year olds who are read to every day or nearly every day reduced from 68% to 50% in the same period.

What will our legacy be?

We know some children don’t own any books. We want to put books by the visiting authors in to the hands of the children attending, and into more school libraries to reach those in the community not able to attend.

We’d also like to make this an annual event where we pay authors a fair price for their time.

Reading changes everything.