2025 WBD flyer banner The Children's Bookshow presents Michael Rosen's Free Request Show

On the Calendar for Schools is where you’ll find information we hope schools will find useful! It’s a place to find booklists for schools, news about events schools can participate in, book awards and more.

Read on to find some exciting news from The Children’s Bookshow about a free event happening for schools on World Book Day 2025.

The Children’s Bookshow is a charity that inspires children with a love of reading. We are lucky to work with some of the very best authors and illustrators in the world, and that includes legendary children’s poet and author, Michael Rosen who is one of our patrons, and has been involved in every Children’s Bookshow tour since we began in 2003!

Our main activity is our annual Autumn tour, where we host live events with authors and illustrators in different theatres around England and arrange in-school workshops, but we know it’s not always possible for schools to get to in-person events, so we also host digital performances throughout the year.

This year, we are celebrating with World Book Day and hosting a FREE live online event with Michael Rosen on Thursday 6th March.

How will the event and the requests work?

Schools can sign up for an inspiring poetry performance broadcast live into their classrooms. Michael will perform some of his poems, talk about the importance and joy of poetry and give tips on how to start writing your own.

This is a special event, as Michael would like school children to send in requests for their favourite poems before the show. Whether you want to hear The Rhythm of Life, or to get a taste of Chocolate Cake, we are collecting requests from everyone who registers for the event, and Michael will perform the most-requested poems during the show.

Almost all the events we have hosted with Michael Rosen in the past have ended with a request. Children often make use of the Question and Answer session to ask for the poem they have been waiting for. It is brilliant to be able to harness that excitement and turn it into a request show, creating lots of buzz about poetry in school. We hope it will give children an extra level of engagement as they anticipate hearing their favourite poem!

We are also collecting questions for Michael ahead of the show, and there will be an opportunity for teachers to put questions live to Michael during the performance.

Reading is such an important way for children to explore the world, find solace and recognition, humour and surprise. The Children’s Bookshow believes in championing the fun of reading and we are delighted to be celebrating with World Book Day and hosting this performance with Michael Rosen. It should be a wonderful way for children (and their teachers!) to have fun with poetry and we are especially pleased to be able to offer this as a free event.

Every school who registers for Michael Rosen’s Request Show will also be entered into a draw to win a bundle of Michael Rosen’s books, with the winner announced at the end of the live performance.

Details & How to Register

Michael Rosen’s Request Show

Date: Thursday, 6th March 2025

Time: 11:30 am

Duration: 45 minutes

Age range: Key Stage 2

Tickets: FREE

Teachers can book a FREE spot on here

Simply follow the instructions to ‘Save Your Spot’ for the event. You will need to use the same email address to access the live broadcast on the day of the show. Please note: each teacher or device accessing the event must register individually. For example, if three teachers in the same school would like to watch the performance in separate classrooms, they will each need to register with their own email address and use the link they are sent to access the event.