Bestselling, multi-award-winning children’s author, Robin Stevens, will headline this year’s Stepping Into Stories Kids’ Lit Fest, which returns to Herne Hill for the sixth time from 4 to 9 February 2025.
Organisers say tickets are already selling fast.
Internationally celebrated for her Murder Most Unladylike series, Robin Stevens will be joined by more than 50 other children’s authors and illustrators for a week of public and school-based events celebrating children’s books.
Other much-loved names taking part include former children’s laureate, Joseph Coelho; award winning “Big Book” creator and environmentalist, Yuval Zommer; celebrated designer and illustrator to Julia Donaldson, Sharon King-Chai; and a team of Phoenix artists, including Thiago De Moraes, who will be leading an afternoon of comic creation workshops.
The festival attracts around 6,000 participants each year, with virtual and school events expanding the number of participants.
The week-long celebration of children’s books unites leading lights from children’s literature to share and celebrate stories.
Centre stage for 2025 is the “Stepping Into Stories” competition, which invited children of all ages to tell their own stories, in any format, using this year’s theme, Reach For The Stars.
Deadline for entries is 10 January and prizes will be awarded on Saturday 8 February by Robin Stevens.
This year also sees the return of Herne Hill’s Paper Cat bookshop as the festival’s official bookseller, led by award-winning author-illustrator, Frann Preaston-Gannon and co-founder, Anja Stobbart.
Inclusivity and diversity underpin the festival, as noted by Mo O’Hara, New York Times bestselling author of the My Big Fat Zombie Goldfishseries and festival co-director. “Our aim through this festival is to make sure that children from all backgrounds have access to amazing books and diverse role models to spark a lifelong love of reading,” she said.
All events need to be booked and concessions are available to ensure cost is never a barrier. Email steppingintostories@gmail.com to find out more.
Although the festival now features 60 events across the week, involving some of the nation’s most highly regarded authors and illustrators, it was started entirely by and for the local community and is run by a small core team of creative women – children’s authors Mo O’Hara, Lucy Reynolds and Margaret Bateson-Hill, together with theatre company director Hayley Byfield.
Other speakers for 2025 include Chitra Soundar (Ballet Besties); Ken Wilson Max (Aqua Boy); Miriam Halahmy (The Bronte Girl); Sam Sedgman (Clockwork Conspiracy); Jennifer Bell (Magicia); Gabby Dawnay and Alex Barrow (If I Had A Dragon); Matt Goodfellow (The Final Year); and many more.
For the full Stepping Into Stories programme, ticket sales, festival information and details about the competition, visit www.steppingintostories.org.
The 2025 festival is funded by Arts Council England, the Sir Walter St John Foundation, and T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Practical Cats Fund.
The main venue is Station Hall above Herne Hill station which can host events with up to 100 participants.
To ensure accessibility needs are met, and to enable a programme of parallel events, the organisers also take authors and illustrators directly into local schools (including specialist schools for children with complex needs and disabilities), and work closely with 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning near Herne Hill station on Railton Road to host events from their fully accessible events space.
The festival is run as a partnership between Station Hall Herne Hill, Children’s Writers and Illustrators for Stories and Literacy, and the Paper Cat Bookshop.
It is supported by the wider Station Hall team, the Herne Hill Forum team and local schools, businesses and volunteers. Hundreds of hours of volunteer time have been given for free to help deliver each festival week.
