Center for Children’s Literature

BookFest @ Bank Street

BookFest is an event devoted to the celebration, discovery, and discussion of books for children and teens. This event, designed for adults, features luminaries from the children’s literature community. Authors, illustrators, editors, reviewers, and scholars will take part in panel discussions and breakout sessions.

BookFest was founded in 1971, by Frances Henne, a faculty member of the School of Library Service at Columbia University. The event was originally known as Let’s Talk About Books for Children and Youth Day, or Velma Varner Day, in honor of Henne’s close friend and colleague, Velma Varner, editor of Viking Press. The event has been hosted by Columbia University, Teachers College, and the New York Public Library. Bank Street College of Education has been a proud producer of this wonderful event since 2010.

Events All Year!

There is a change in the format to this year’s BookFest @ Bank Street. To celebrate the 55th annual celebration of literature with the rock stars of the kid lit world, there will be events throughout the academic year! Check this page for new offerings. We will also post on social media. We start our series with children’s literature historian Leonard S. Marcus.

October 16, 5:30 PM (EST) 

Dial “B” for Biography: My Quest for Margaret Wise Brown

This wide-ranging tale of literary detective work is an illustrated, behind-the-scenes look at the ten-year-long, no-stone-left-unturned research and writing adventure that culminated in Leonard S. Marcus’s award-winning biography, Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon. Through a combination of archival sleuthing, word-of-mouth networking, and sheer persistence, Leonard not only pieced together a vast array of unpublished letters, photographs, diaries, and other primary source materials (from the Bank Street Archive and numerous other collections), but also interviewed 100 of Brown’s closest collaborators, friends, and family members, and discovered the meaning for Brown of the special places from which she drew inspiration, from her wonderland “Only House” in seaside Maine to Ireland’s storm-tossed Ring of Kerry.

In-person
In-Person Registration Link
Limited to 40 guests ($20.00 includes Eventbrite Fees)

Zoom Only
Zoom Registration Link ($20.00 includes Eventbrite Fees).

Refreshments Served. Books for Signing Provided by Books of Wonder

2025 BookFest News Coverage

Bank Street Bookfest 2025: Creators Celebrate Community and Craft
Publisher Weekly, November 6, 2025

BookFest @ Bank Street Celebrates the Joy of Books for Children and Adolescents
Headlines. Bank Street College of Education, December 8, 2025