Over the course of 5 weekends in 2021, the city hosted a book festival featuring its first children's bookstore that had amassed the best collection of children's visual literature penned by authors from around the world. With the start of each weekend, the store's selection would be changed completely, with each new collection complemented by visits by the books’ authors and by a fascinating program of activities for children and parents, including tours, quests, master classes, and an exhibition called 50 Books About the City.

A full photo account of the event can be found in the event's group at: https://vk.com/knigi_v_gorode

The 2022 edition of the Books in the City festival included a business program at the Moscow International Book Fair that was attended by twelve-year-old Tobolsk resident Matvey Kiyko, a children’s book blogger who plunged into his field of activity after being inspired by the previous year's festival. After setting out from Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor, the touring festival moved to Tobolsk that became home to the Books in the City on the Road exhibition featuring a collection of 50 best illustrated books published by renowned publishing houses who had brought to the city hundreds of their best books and put on 74 master classes for attending children and their parents. The festival also featured lectures and master classes for teachers, librarians, and museum professionals on visual literature and book culture, an interregional Kazan - Tobolsk: the route has been established program to exchange these cities’ urban development experiences, a children's book artist’s residence, tours by the festival’s curators, and rides in a hot-air balloon. The 10-day festival’s program included over 170 events attended by more than 5,500 residents and guests of Tobolsk.