OUR WORK
projects
Books are how we started. Projects are how we grow. Everything here began with a community, a question, or a craft worth preserving — and ended up as something that didn't exist before.
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
Threads of Tales
A centuries-old embroidery tradition. A children's book. Two organisations, two countries, one shared question: what happens when you listen to the women who kept the stories alive?
Funded by the British Council, Bok Bok Books partnered with HerStory Foundation in Bangladesh to explore nakshi kantha — an embroidery practice where women stitched personal journals into cloth, embedding social commentary, cultural memory, and acts of quiet resistance into fabric. That research became two books. Bok Bok Books produced Stories from Bengal, a children's illustrated book retelling myths and folk tales from the Bengal region. HerStory's artisans produced 200 hand-embroidered editions — tactile archives, each one made by hand.
Explore the full project
Our Partners
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
Threads of Tales
A centuries-old embroidery tradition. A children's book. Two organisations, two countries, one shared question: what happens when you listen to the women who kept the stories alive?
Funded by the British Council, Bok Bok Books partnered with HerStory Foundation in Bangladesh to explore nakshi kantha — an embroidery practice where women stitched personal journals into cloth, embedding social commentary, cultural memory, and acts of quiet resistance into fabric. That research became two books. Bok Bok Books produced Stories from Bengal, a children's illustrated book retelling myths and folk tales from the Bengal region. HerStory's artisans produced 200 hand-embroidered editions — tactile archives, each one made by hand.
Explore the full project
Our Partners
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
Threads of Tales
A centuries-old embroidery tradition. A children's book. Two organisations, two countries, one shared question: what happens when you listen to the women who kept the stories alive?
Funded by the British Council, Bok Bok Books partnered with HerStory Foundation in Bangladesh to explore nakshi kantha — an embroidery practice where women stitched personal journals into cloth, embedding social commentary, cultural memory, and acts of quiet resistance into fabric. That research became two books. Bok Bok Books produced Stories from Bengal, a children's illustrated book retelling myths and folk tales from the Bengal region. HerStory's artisans produced 200 hand-embroidered editions — tactile archives, each one made by hand.
Explore the full project
Our Partners
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
Threads of Tales
A centuries-old embroidery tradition. A children's book. Two organisations, two countries, one shared question: what happens when you listen to the women who kept the stories alive?
Funded by the British Council, Bok Bok Books partnered with HerStory Foundation in Bangladesh to explore nakshi kantha — an embroidery practice where women stitched personal journals into cloth, embedding social commentary, cultural memory, and acts of quiet resistance into fabric. That research became two books. Bok Bok Books produced Stories from Bengal, a children's illustrated book retelling myths and folk tales from the Bengal region. HerStory's artisans produced 200 hand-embroidered editions — tactile archives, each one made by hand.
Explore the full project
Our Partners
COMMUNITY PUBLISHING
Roll to Reimagine
A board game about race, culture, and belonging, co-designed by the children it's made for.
Working with pupils from two Middlesbrough primary schools, Bok Bok Books and game designers Strong Point Games developed Roll to Reimagine: a cooperative game where players work together to gather knowledge and challenge misinformation in their community. Nobody wins by beating each other. You win by standing together.
In collaboration with Borderlands, and developed across co-design sessions at Breckon Hill Primary and Berwick Hills Primary, the game puts children in the role of designers, not just players – their ideas, experiences, and questions shaped every mechanic.
Our Partners
COMMUNITY PUBLISHING
Roll to Reimagine
A board game about race, culture, and belonging, co-designed by the children it's made for.
Working with pupils from two Middlesbrough primary schools, Bok Bok Books and game designers Strong Point Games developed Roll to Reimagine: a cooperative game where players work together to gather knowledge and challenge misinformation in their community. Nobody wins by beating each other. You win by standing together.
In collaboration with Borderlands, and developed across co-design sessions at Breckon Hill Primary and Berwick Hills Primary, the game puts children in the role of designers, not just players – their ideas, experiences, and questions shaped every mechanic.
Our Partners
COMMUNITY PUBLISHING
Roll to Reimagine
A board game about race, culture, and belonging, co-designed by the children it's made for.
Working with pupils from two Middlesbrough primary schools, Bok Bok Books and game designers Strong Point Games developed Roll to Reimagine: a cooperative game where players work together to gather knowledge and challenge misinformation in their community. Nobody wins by beating each other. You win by standing together.
In collaboration with Borderlands, and developed across co-design sessions at Breckon Hill Primary and Berwick Hills Primary, the game puts children in the role of designers, not just players – their ideas, experiences, and questions shaped every mechanic.
Our Partners
COMMUNITY PUBLISHING
Roll to Reimagine
A board game about race, culture, and belonging, co-designed by the children it's made for.
Working with pupils from two Middlesbrough primary schools, Bok Bok Books and game designers Strong Point Games developed Roll to Reimagine: a cooperative game where players work together to gather knowledge and challenge misinformation in their community. Nobody wins by beating each other. You win by standing together.
In collaboration with Borderlands, and developed across co-design sessions at Breckon Hill Primary and Berwick Hills Primary, the game puts children in the role of designers, not just players – their ideas, experiences, and questions shaped every mechanic.
Our Partners
COMMUNITY PUBLISHING
What's In My Suitcase
Ten objects. Ten stories. Ten windows into what it means to carry your culture with you.
Children from four Middlesbrough primary schools brought objects connected to migration and family heritage into workshops — a piece of jewellery, a photograph, a recipe. Those objects became the heart of a children's illustrated book: each one a chapter, each chapter a different experience of movement, memory, and belonging. A collecting magpie travels between ten migratory bird visitors, gathering their stories one by one.
What's in My Suitcase? is the legacy publication of the Mobile Museum of Migration — a programme that placed children's voices and experiences at its centre, from the first workshop through to a school-based editing phase where pupils shaped the final text. Illustrated by Miki Rogers. Publishing October 2026.
Our Partners
COMMUNITY PUBLISHING
What's In My Suitcase
Ten objects. Ten stories. Ten windows into what it means to carry your culture with you.
Children from four Middlesbrough primary schools brought objects connected to migration and family heritage into workshops — a piece of jewellery, a photograph, a recipe. Those objects became the heart of a children's illustrated book: each one a chapter, each chapter a different experience of movement, memory, and belonging. A collecting magpie travels between ten migratory bird visitors, gathering their stories one by one.
What's in My Suitcase? is the legacy publication of the Mobile Museum of Migration — a programme that placed children's voices and experiences at its centre, from the first workshop through to a school-based editing phase where pupils shaped the final text. Illustrated by Miki Rogers. Publishing October 2026.
Our Partners
COMMUNITY PUBLISHING
What's In My Suitcase
Ten objects. Ten stories. Ten windows into what it means to carry your culture with you.
Children from four Middlesbrough primary schools brought objects connected to migration and family heritage into workshops — a piece of jewellery, a photograph, a recipe. Those objects became the heart of a children's illustrated book: each one a chapter, each chapter a different experience of movement, memory, and belonging. A collecting magpie travels between ten migratory bird visitors, gathering their stories one by one.
What's in My Suitcase? is the legacy publication of the Mobile Museum of Migration — a programme that placed children's voices and experiences at its centre, from the first workshop through to a school-based editing phase where pupils shaped the final text. Illustrated by Miki Rogers. Publishing October 2026.
Our Partners
COMMUNITY PUBLISHING
What's In My Suitcase
Ten objects. Ten stories. Ten windows into what it means to carry your culture with you.
Children from four Middlesbrough primary schools brought objects connected to migration and family heritage into workshops — a piece of jewellery, a photograph, a recipe. Those objects became the heart of a children's illustrated book: each one a chapter, each chapter a different experience of movement, memory, and belonging. A collecting magpie travels between ten migratory bird visitors, gathering their stories one by one.
What's in My Suitcase? is the legacy publication of the Mobile Museum of Migration — a programme that placed children's voices and experiences at its centre, from the first workshop through to a school-based editing phase where pupils shaped the final text. Illustrated by Miki Rogers. Publishing October 2026.
Our Partners
Community Publishing
WASHED-UP
Washed-Up
Middlesbrough is a town built on migration, shaped by people arriving from all over the world with their own languages, cultures and stories.
Washed Up set out to capture those stories. Over six workshops at The Edible Forest Garden, Open Door North East, and MAP (Methodist Asylum Project), participants shared personal memoirs, family histories and retold folktales, guided by local poet and storyteller Bob Beagrie and co-facilitator Rumana Yasmin.
The project takes its name from Middlesbrough's landmark sculpture, The Bottle of Notes – stories washed up here, carried by journeys from elsewhere, now part of the town's fabric.
The results: a published book of stories, a story trail featuring textile artist Barbara Griffin's exhibition, and a live story-sharing session and book launch at the Middlesbrough Storytelling Festival.
Middlesbrough is a town built on migration, shaped by people arriving from all over with their own languages, cultures and stories.
Washed Up set out to capture those stories. Over six workshops at The Edible Forest Garden, Open Door North East, and the Methodist Asylum Project, participants shared memoirs, family histories and retold folktales, guided by poet Bob Beagrie and co-facilitator Rumana Yasmin.
The project takes its name from Middlesbrough's Bottle of Notes sculpture: stories washed up here, now part of the town's fabric.
Results: a published book, a story trail featuring Barbara Griffin's textile exhibition, and a live story-sharing session and book launch at the Middlesbrough Storytelling Festival.
Middlesbrough is a town built on migration, shaped by people arriving from all over with their own languages, cultures and stories.
Washed Up set out to capture those stories. Over six workshops at The Edible Forest Garden, Open Door North East, and MAP (Methodist Asylum Project), participants shared memoirs, family histories and retold folktales, guided by poet Bob Beagrie and co-facilitator Rumana Yasmin.
The project takes its name from Middlesbrough's Bottle of Notes sculpture: stories washed up here, now part of the town's fabric.
Results: a published book, a story trail featuring Barbara Griffin's textile exhibition, and a live story-sharing session and book launch at the Middlesbrough Storytelling Festival.
Our Partners
COMMUNITY PUBLISHING
Community Action Map
Over the summer, Newport residents from Bridgehill Day Service and pupils from Newport Primary School came together to create a Community Action Map of Newport. Through conversations, drawing activities and guided journeys with The Rekalibrator labyrinth, participants explored what it means to care for people, care for the earth and share resources fairly.
Together, they identified places they value, spaces that need attention, local strengths and simple actions that can help make Newport a more sustainable and connected community. The resulting map brings together local knowledge, experiences and ideas, creating a community-led vision for positive change. The project, facilitated by The Rekalibrator and Bok Bok Books, supported participants to see climate action not as a distant global challenge, but as something rooted in everyday life, care and community.
Our Partners
Community Publishing
When the geese come
when the geese come
Every autumn, geese cross borders that mean nothing to them, following routes older than any nation. When the Geese Come: Lullabies, Creatures and Crossings follows their lead, gathering lullabies, folk stories, and animal tales carried by refugee, asylum-seeking, and migrant communities in Middlesbrough and Dumfries & Galloway.
Working with The Stove Network in Scotland and Folklore Expedition Bangladesh, we're exploring how communities tell stories through the animal world, building a recorded archive of songs and stories passed between generations and across distances.
When the Geese Come is a Four Nations International Fund–supported project, rooted in place, community, and the creatures that connect them.
Middlesbrough is a town built on migration, shaped by people arriving from all over with their own languages, cultures and stories.
Washed Up set out to capture those stories. Over six workshops at The Edible Forest Garden, Open Door North East, and the Methodist Asylum Project, participants shared memoirs, family histories and retold folktales, guided by poet Bob Beagrie and co-facilitator Rumana Yasmin.
The project takes its name from Middlesbrough's Bottle of Notes sculpture: stories washed up here, now part of the town's fabric.
Our Partners
International Collaboration
Perfect strangers
Bok Bok Books is proud to be part of this exciting international collaboration, bringing together community arts organisations in Middlesbrough, UK, and Oberhausen, Germany, to explore the power of folklore. Working alongside Story and Studio CIC, The Auxiliary, and kitev – Kultur im Turm e.V., the project uses folklore as a shared creative framework to celebrate the unique identities and cultural connections within our communities.
Through storytelling, publishing, and community engagement, we will help build meaningful relationships across borders, creating the foundations for an ambitious long-term partnership that connects people through stories, creativity, and shared cultural heritage.
Our Partners
Want to work with us?
Whether you're a school, a community organisation, or a funder who wants to back work that matters — we'd like to hear from you.
International Collaboration
Perfect strangers
Bok Bok Books is proud to be part of this exciting international collaboration, bringing together community arts organisations in Middlesbrough, UK, and Oberhausen, Germany, to explore the power of folklore. Working alongside Story and Studio CIC, The Auxiliary, and kitev – Kultur im Turm e.V., the project uses folklore as a shared creative framework to celebrate the unique identities and cultural connections within our communities.
Through storytelling, publishing, and community engagement, we will help build meaningful relationships across borders, creating the foundations for an ambitious long-term partnership that connects people through stories, creativity, and shared cultural heritage.