Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour

The tour hosts fully-funded events with authors, illustrators, poets, storytellers and other creative practitioners in every local authority in Scotland to inspire a love of reading, writing and illustration in schools. The tour also visits schools in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. Previous tours included Julia Donaldson, Chris Riddell, Joseph Coelho, Pamela Butchart and David Almond.

Following the announcement from Scottish Government about the latest COVID-19 restrictions the virtual author tours planned for January – March will go ahead with a limited schools audience. These live events will be available to watch on demand. Applications will be open to anyone who wants to join live.

Watch events on demand

Upcoming events

• Ross MacKenzie in-person events (Monday 20–Tuesday 21 June, P6–S2)
• Ross MacKenzie virtual event (Wednesday 22 June, P6–S2)
• Kate Gilby Smith in-person events (Thursday 23–Friday 24 June, P5–7)
• Allison Galbraith and Keep Scotland Beautiful (Monday 6 June, P4-7)

Hospital visits

As well as running school events, the Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour also runs storytelling sessions and author visits in hospitals in Scotland.

Find out more about our hospital visits

Scottish Friendly Assurance

Scottish Friendly Assurance has been sponsoring the tour for over 20 years(this will open in a new window). Through its support, The Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour reaches an average of 6,000 children every year in a vast range of communities, from rural schools with as few as 8 pupils to 2,000 seat theatres.

Scottish Friendly Assurance is a progressive and modern financial services group, which has been around for over 150 years. It provides investors and families with a wide range of financial products.

You can find out more about Scottish Friendly on their website(this will open in a new window).