Children will always find their happy place at the Bocas Lit Fest. At the heart of the programme is a simple but powerful vision: Discover, Develop, Elevate, Celebrate. That’s the philosophy guiding everything Bocas does for growing a new generation of active readers and writers. Far beyond presenting the Caribbean’s only and longest literary festival completely dedicated to children, the Children’s Programme continues to work on building confidence, sparking creativity, and giving young voices a real platform to shine.
2026 festival events not to miss!
Family Reading Circle
Hosted by the Bocas Lit Fest in collaboration with Let’s Read, the Family Reading Circle is a read-aloud session that brings books alive for children, setting the foundation for a lifelong love of reading, and helping build crucial language, comprehension, and emotional skills. These monthly interactive sessions are targeted to children 12 and under with their parents and caregivers at The Writers Centre and locations nationwide. Each session features a children’s writer who brings their books to life. Free and open to the public.
Children’s Storytelling Caravan
The Storytelling Caravan has arguably been the most sustained and successful intervention in Trinidad and Tobago to grow young readers and writers.
Over the past fifteen years, the Children’s Storytelling Caravan has impacted over 5000 children – mostly from the country’s most remote pockets – helping them to fall in love with storytelling. From there, a new generation has developed better critical thinking, empathy and enhanced literacy.
They have told their own stories, been published as legitimate writers which have been read by hundreds of children – even from countries as far as Kenya and Columbia. Their stories have been animated and viewed by thousands on Bocas Storytime on YouTube.
“First Words” Young Writer Development Programme
The “First Words” Young Writer Development Programme aims to discover and mentor five young writers at different stages of their creative writing journeys, from childhood through youth and, ideally, into becoming award-winning, globally acclaimed adult writers. In the first cycle, four young T&T writers mentored by children’s author Alake Pilgrim have completed their original works for publication.
After fifteen years of offering lively, innovative events and programmes for young readers, the Bocas Lit Fest presents an exciting new resource — Bocas Storytime, a dedicated YouTube channel for children! Bocas Storytime has a diverse range of videos available on demand — read-alouds, animations, storytelling, and fun workshops — all inspired by Caribbean writing and culture.
Head to Bocas Storytime to watch our playlist of videos in the programme below, and make sure to subscribe on YouTube to get notifications about our growing library of children’s content!
The Children’s Bocas Lit Fest’s move to producing online content for young viewers was a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, after health restrictions made it impossible to continue the festival’s beloved in-person events in 2020 and 2021. Over the past two years, dramatised storytelling videos, animations, and Dragonzilla’s Short Story Writing Challenge gave young audiences access to stimulating local content, even during the pandemic lockdown. The new YouTube channel is the next step in stewarding this treasure trove of free, age-appropriate online content for children, even as we plan the return of the Children’s Storytelling Caravan later this year!