KUCHING: The Sarawak Children’s Literature Festival (SCLF) 2025, organised by Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, will take place from this August 16-17 at the State Library from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.
The highly anticipated festival will feature 11 interactive activity zones designed to spark imagination and creativity among children through a variety of engaging approaches.
Activities will include hands-on workshops, music and dance performances, storytelling sessions, interactive games, sales booths, and more, aiming to nurture creativity, hone talents, and build social skills among young participants, while promoting a love for knowledge and lifelong learning from an early age.
Participation in the festival is free and open to children of all ages.
The opening ceremony on August 16 will be officiated by wife of the Head of State,
Toh Puan Datuk Patinggi Fauziah Mohd Sanusi, at the library’s gallery.
She will also launch the Reading Seeds Kit Version 4.0, a major initiative supporting early literacy development.
Coinciding with the SCLF launch, the Reading Seeds Kit 4.0 will be unveiled at a special event from 11:00 am to 12:00 noon at the gallery.
An extension of Pustaka’s ongoing efforts to instil a reading culture from the earliest stages of life, even from pregnancy, the initiative aligns with the National Reading Decade (DMK) 2019-2030.
The kit is designed for parents, guardians, educators, and the wider community, providing reading materials and guidance tailored to children’s developmental stages from the antenatal period to the age of three.
It consists of six comprehensive modules arranged by age, beginning from the fetal stage through to toddlerhood.
Each module is grounded in research, based on Reading Milestones (Laura A. Jana & Jennifer Shu, 2023) and Paediatric Protocols Malaysia (2019).
Reading Seeds 4.0 also offers flexibility and inclusivity, where a colour-coded system makes it easy for parents and educators to select appropriate materials, while still allowing choices to be adapted according to a child’s interests and readiness.
The kit caters to all children, including those with special needs, by providing braille books for visually impaired readers and materials in dyslexia-friendly fonts for children who face reading challenges.
Recognising the crucial role of parents, the kit includes a dedicated “Parents as Reading Partners” module, offering practical strategies for making reading sessions enjoyable, interactive, and filled with warmth.
Its contents range from interactive picture books and braille publications to dyslexia-friendly printed materials, educational wooden toys, and infant development guides, all curated to ensure children build a strong literacy foundation from the very beginning of life.
