About the festival

The Reading is Magic Festival ran from 2020 until 2023 and was watched by thousands of schools and families across the globe.

Members can still watch the past events by logging in here

Inspiration for the Reading is Magic Festival came from Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2019-2022 Cressida Cowell’s key message ‘reading is magic, and magic is for everyone’. We are proud that award-winning children’s author and creator of How to Train Your Dragon and The Wizards of Once book played a key role in the festival.

In 2023 we teamed up with festival partners in different parts of the world, with events coming from across the globe. The partnership of festivals and programmers was made up of Bath Children’s Literature Festival, BookTrust, Waterstones Children’s Laureate, Toronto International Festival of Authors, Bocas Lit Fest, Wigtown Book Festival, Flip Through Flounders and Black British Book Festival.

2023’s programme included Joseph Coelho, Harry Woodgate, David Almond, Benjamin Zephaniah, Cressida Cowell and more..