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It all began with a jokey conversation on Twitter.
Polly (who has her début collection of stories, Mango & Bambang: The Not-a-Pig, out this September, illustrated by Clara Vulliamy) shared a picture of an igloo built of books and from there, things pretty quickly spiralled out of control.
I just knew I had to build something out of books. It was one of those moments where you are vaguely aware that the idea is slightly bonkers but you know the thought won’t leave you alone until you succumb to it.
And so it was I set about planning to build a book den out of books, using the opportunity to raise some funds for a charity I’ve a long-standing relationship with, Book Aid International.
First I did my research and scoured the web for other buildings made from books.
Then I started stockpiling books from all over my home in one place.
It was rather disconcerting to see my shelves gradually empty.
I stocked up on coffee and cake and then World Book Day arrived.
It was time to start building.
The kitchen table was dismantled to create enough space for the den; I knew I wanted it to be large enough to comfortably sit inside and read.
Then building began in earnest. I used encyclopedias and other large non-fiction books to create foundations. The big Dorling Kindersley books were excellent for providing stability!
Although my hands got very dry handling all the books, and there were dust fairies flying everywhere, it was a sheer delight to go through my books, remembering when and where I’d read them, who had given them to me, who I’d given copies to. It was a little like watching my life on a screen before me, going through so many memories of people, places and times.
Much as I adore picture books, I soon learned that paperback picture books are not the best thing to build with; you need about a zillion to gain any height, and they tend to be rather slippy. Topsy and Tim books and Beatrix Potter books worked excellently for chinking, but the books I really loved building with were great tomes like SF Said’s Phoenix, or Marcus Alexander’s Charlie Keeper books; these are not only immensely satisfying to read, they give you a real sense of achievement and reliable strength when building!
My biggest worry in all the building was the roof. I really wanted to build using the fabulous technique seen in Maes Howe and other chambered cairns I’ve visited in Orkney, a technique known as corbelling (here’s a good example, and one I’m hoping to revisit this summer), but I felt that for safety’s sake I had to go for something more lightweight.
Thanks to inspiration from my engineer Dad I decided to give magazine and comic tiling a go instead. And I’m very pleased I did so! (Thanks, Dad!)
All in all, once the books were stockpiled, it took me about five hours to build. It’s only up for 24 hours, but we’ve made excellent use of it in this time.
We’ve eaten in it, read in it, simply relaxed in it, giggled in it and generally had a VERY good time!
Late last night I was going to treat myself to a glass of wine and a little bit of piece and quiet in it, but when I went into the kitchen I found my eldest has snuck out of bed to read in it!
I left her to it and took my wine elsewhere 
And now it is the morning after the night before and shortly I’ll begin dismantling my dear book den. But what did I learn in the process? What are my top tips for building with books?
1. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Stockpile your books by approximate size for easy, level building.
2. Remove book covers. Dust jackets make books slippery when building.
3. Keep small or thin books in a separate pile – they are excellent for filling in little gaps and levelling things up.
4. Keep some moisturiser near by – as any librarian will probably tell you, handling lots of books, especially dusty books, can leave your hands very dry.
5. Give yourself time to stroke all your books. You’ll find books you’ve not looked at in years and you’ll want to sit down and re-live them.
6. Allow yourself more books than you think you will need; I had to raid some extra shelves as I was beginning to run out of books towards the end. I reckon I used about 1500 books and 40 odd magazines/comics to build this den (which easily accommodates two, with blankets, cushions and a small table).
NOW. Before you click on to your next blog or read your next email, here comes the serious bit.
I did all of this to raise funds for Book Aid International, and it’s not too late to add a small donation (you can donate from anywhere in the world, in several local currencies):
https://www.justgiving.com/Zoe-Toft-2015/
If you’ve ever enjoyed my blog or my banter on Twitter, please consider donating a small amount today. Book Aid International works in partnership with libraries in Africa, including in Zambia where I was born (hence my support of this charity), providing books, resources and training to support an environment in which reading for pleasure, study and lifelong learning can flourish.
I want to say an enormous THANK YOU to everyone who has already donated, including Daisy, Katherine, Anamaria, Elli, Zehra, Damyanti, Catherine, Polly, Jonathan, Ann, Helen, Anabel, Melanie, Abi, Book Island, my parents, my sister, Emma, Clare, Colin, Anne-Marie, Lizz, Natalie, Maxine, Sara, Kate, Bea, Tasha, Sam, Susie, Sandra, SF, Christine, James, Anne, Dan, @storyvilled, Alex, Nicky, @OlivaceousD and all the anonymous donors. YOU are the real stars in all of this.
To celebrate World Book Day 2015 and to support the work of Book Aid International, I’ll be spending most of Thursday 5 March 2015 creating utter chaos in my home, using hundreds of our books to build the largest book den I can.
As a reader of this blog, you’ll know that I’m utterly passionate about children’s books and doing crazy things inspired by them. It’s what gets me up in the morning. But building a large scale book den out of books is wackiest thing I’ve yet tried to do. I haven’t done a recent book count, but I reckon I’ve got about 3000 to play with, so that gives you some sense of the scale of the challenge.
It’s going to be pretty disruptive, probably physically knackering and quite possible a challenge to the laws of gravity so please donate to Book Aid International to make it all worthwhile! You can donate securely online here:
https://www.justgiving.com/Zoe-Toft-2015/
Or if you prefer you can donate via text by texting BOOK62 £3 to 70070 (you can change the amount by swapping £5 or £10 for the £3).
I’ve been a supporter of Book Aid International for several years now. Book Aid International increases access to books to support literacy, education and development in sub-Saharan Africa, including in Zambia where I was born. In 2011 the girls and I completed a fundraising Librarithon, and in 2012 we played “guess the number of books in my home“.
In sub-Saharan Africa 151 million people are illiterate. 72 million children still do not got to school, and most people simply cannot afford books of their own. But without literacy people are not able to access education or healthcare, their work opportunities are limited as are their opportunities for participation in the social, economic and political decisions which affect their lives.
Each year Book Aid International sends 500,000 brand new and carefully selected books to libraries in communities, schools, universities, prisons, cities and refugee camps and more. They also provide grants for purchasing books locally (especially those in local languages), and training and advice to ensure that books are targeted to the right groups of people and are well used.
When it comes to donations…
£2 will send one book to sub-Saharan Africa
£10 could send five dictionaries to a university library in Tanzania
£24 could send 12 health books to a community library in rural Eritrea
£60 could send 30 books to a refugee camp in Kenya
£100 could help purchase 70 HIV/AIDS awareness books for children
£380 will send a starter collection of 200 books to a community library
I’m aiming to raise £500.
I’ll be tweeting my progress throughout the day on March 5 (@playbythebook), and will then blog about it once the den is built and habitable. You can donate any time (before, during or after the build).
If you’ve ever enjoyed my blog, found it useful, or been helped out on twitter by me, please consider “paying it forward” by donating today to Book Aid International.
*Thank you* (and please wish me good luck and stable building skills!)
This really speaks to my heart.
Open Doors is Book Aid International‘s new appeal to create library environments for children in which reading for pleasure and learning can flourish.
Soroti Library’s Children’s Corner, Uganda, 2013. Photo: bookaid.org
Between now and 2018 they are planning to create create a total of 60 child-friendly spaces – Children’s Corners – in libraries in Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Cameroon, Zambia and Zimbabwe, in conjunction with local partners. They will train librarians to work effectively with children, supply new books from the UK and provide each library with a grant for refurbishments and the local purchase of books.
Children’s Digital learning pilot project in Kenya. Photo: bookaid.org
Why am I telling you this?
Open Doors will revolutionise access to books for thousands of children in sub-Saharan Africa, where many children live below the poverty line and literacy levels are among the lowest in the world.
With few books in their schools and no books at home, children struggle to read and to learn. For most children, a local library – where one exists – is the only place where they can read the books they need to prepare them for adulthood. However, few libraries have suitable spaces for children and most librarians are not trained to work with children.
It happens that I was born in Zambia and had my first books read to me there.
Me in Zambia
We didn’t have access to many books, but my favourite was Tiger Flower by Robert Vavra, illustrated Fleur Cowles which my Mum found in a bookshop in Ndola.
My first introduction to the power and beauty of books, and the way they open doors into worlds of opportunities happened in Zambia, one of the countries where Book Aid works. So this campaign not only appeals on a professional level, it matters to me personally.
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Please consider making a donation to the Open Doors Campaign – you can do so via this link: http://www.bookaid.org/get-involved/opendoors/
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If you’re reading this as a publisher or book distributor please do take a look at this information sheet about how you can get involved. Each library is looking for new stock and you could be the one to make a huge difference. The number of books being sought really isn’t enormous.
Each of the 60 participating libraries will receive 2,500 children’s books. This will be broadly made up as follows:
80 board books
80 big books
350 picture books – to age 6
500 fiction titles (including graded readers), ages 6-12
350 fiction titles ages 12+
400 non-fiction titles for ages 6-12
400 non-fiction titles for ages 12+
40 reference books
300 primary-level educational non-fiction (eg geography, history, science)
If you, as a publisher, do decide to get involved, let me know and I’ll be so delighted to tell the world what fab folk you are!
With pretty much all clock-watching abandoned for the summer holidays we’ve been sneaking reading into unusual places. First we boosted breakfast feasting on books with our toast rack displays, and since then we’ve been squeezing in extra reading at the other end of the day – at bathtime. When the kids were little we were big fans of the plastic books you could immerse in water but now we tend to have a stack of comics and magazines (for all ages) on hand in a magazine rack.
It doesn’t matter so much if comics and magazines get wet – a short spell on the washing line or a radiator fixes that, and if they end up really too wrinkled and dog-eared for reading, they’re ripe for recycling as collage material.
Of course, another way to enjoy reading at bath time is simply to sit on the floor and read a favourite book to your kids whilst they can’t escape from the tub, and what better than a bath-time themed book for such an occasion (Scottish Book Trust has some great recommendations here)?
When news of a flying bathtub which saves animals in distress reached our ears we had to check it out…
In The Flying Bath by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by David Roberts there’s a hotline to a team of firefighting, thirst-quenching, mud-washing pals who use their bath to fly the world over, saving animals who have come unstuck thanks to a lack of water.
As you’d expect from Donaldson, the superhero antics are told in rhyme, with a refrain which kids will quickly sing-song along with. Roberts’ illustrations are detailed and have an older feel to them especially when compared to some of the other illustrators Donaldson is often paired with. I personally love his eye for pattern and texture. His architectural drawings are beautiful in their clarity and precision, and Roberts has had enormous fun with the choice of telephones used to dial 999.
Despite all this, I have to admit that this isn’t a book I’ve fallen madly in love with. I found Donaldson’s text requires a little practise to read out loud (a surprise, given that normally her poems-in-picture-book form trip off the tongue). This makes me too aware of the technicalities of the rhyme to simple enjoy the ride with the rescuing animals. And the text is more a series of flights of fancy rather than an extended narrative with a traditional story arc.
HOWEVER.
However, however, both my kids thought this book rather delightful and funny, and had a lot of fun spotting nods to other books Roberts has illustrated. Indeed my kids enjoyed this book so much they immediately came up with an idea for ‘playing by the book’ by creating a bathtime mosaic set, mirroring the tiled wings of the flying bath.
We grabbed a bunch of foam sheets (such as these) and cut them up into squares before letting them loose in the bath.
The kids loved having the tiles floating all around them – it was like “bathing in a rainbow” said J! Both kids enjoyed making different tiled patterns around the bath, exploring repetition – a visual rhythm, if you like!
Whilst it turns out this book was great for maths play, it’s also a book that could be used in science classes for kids in nursery and the first years of school, gently exploring drought, forest fires, and the need for water for life (both for animals and plants). You could team it up with some research about water charities, for example Waterbridge Outreach.
I’m a supporter of this particular charity because it aims “to give children in developing communities hope for the future through nourishing their minds and bodies with books and water.”
Yep, water and books. A good combo, no?
Waterbridge Outreach donates books in English and local languages and funds clean water and sanitation projects in communities and villages in the developing world. You can read about some of their projects here.
So it turns out that even if a book isn’t the best thing I’ve read all year, there’s still a lot to be said for it. It can inspire play, it can make children laugh, it can start conversations, it can even lead to a good deed or two!
If you want music to go along with reading The Flying Bath you could try these songs:
Bartleby Finkleton Will Not Take a Bath by Steve Weeks
Bath Time by The Sing Sings
Bathtime Blues by Uncle Moondog (listen for free on Myspace)
For more extension activities which work well with this book why not try:
15 Fun Bath Time Activities That Don’t Include a Rubber Duck! (from Babble.com)
Water Math & Science Activities for Kids Ages 3-6 from The Measured Mom
Taking books and bath times one step further with this bath tub made out of books!
Are you a bath or a shower person? Do you have a bathroom library?
Disclosure: I received a free review copy of The Flying Bath from the publishers.
Back in March you did something wonderful. You helped me to raise nearly £600 for Book Aid International when you tried to guess the number of books in my home at that moment in time. Just 6 months later I can now tell you how your donations have made a huge difference to these very children:
ZOCS children and Billy Kadondwe, the teacher responsible for looking after their library
These kids are enrolled in Chilambila Community School, 60km from Lusaka, in Zambia. Chilambila Community School, built and supported by Zambian Open Community Schools (ZOCS) provides vital access to education in an area that lacks any government provision specifically targeting orphaned and vulnerable children.
In 2009, Book Aid International started providing support to develop a school library which is now equipped with furniture and a great range of reading material suitable for all levels of reader, and it’s this library which recently received a new batch of books funded, in part, by your generosity.
Pupils working in the library at Chilambila Community School
Book Aid‘s Programme Development Librarian, Judith Henderson, recently visited Chilambila Community School and met with Billy Kadondwe, the teacher responsible for looking after the library. He introduced Judith to some young library members who were excited to tell us about their favourite books: for Betha, Charlotte’s Web was her favourite, Miriam was drawn to the books that contained cartoons, and Elvis’s favourite books were those that taught him about the environment.
Harriet Sianjibu Miyato, Programme Coordinator for ZOCS said “With the help of Book Aid International, ZOCS has helped to provide books and teaching materials to numerous schools to help lower the very high pupil-book ratio. This has helped to improve reading culture and ultimately increased the pass rate for children in all grades.”
Chilambila Community School
So thank YOU for believing Books Change Lives. Thanks also go to the wonderful illustrators Katie Cleminson who provided a gorgeous original illustration, and Chris Haughton who provided signed prints as part of my fundraising project.
If seeing how your donations make a real difference has inspired you, you can donate to Book Aid via my Just Giving page here.
…And with Lauren Laverne, Shami Chakrabarti and even Jamie Oliver!
All these people have made a very simple promise: during 2012 they will share 20 books with others.
It’s simple isn’t it?
And why have they made this promise?
Because they know the importance, value and joy of books.
Because they know what a difference a love of reading can make.
Because they know books can bring people together.
Because they want to pass on their passion for books to the children in their lives.
Because they want to support Bookstart.
Bookstart is a UK-based, world-renowned reading programme which gifts free books to babies, toddlers and 3-year-olds. This year Bookstart is 20 years old and one of the ways it is celebrating this milestone is by encouraging you, me and anyone who loves books to take their pledge – to pledge to share 20 books with others this year.
In a year when Bookstart, and two other UK bookgifting schemes Booktime and Booked Up, have had to weather a 50% cut in government funding and face a further 20% cut in funding this year, I’m standing up for books, and especially for sharing books with children. I’ve taken the pledge – will you?
We just did something amazing!
Together we raised £582 for Book Aid International!
A very heartfelt Thank You to everyone who supported me, encouraged me, and who donated to
Book Aid
Thank you to Katie Cleminson, whose donation of a wonderful illustration, and two signed books made this all possible.
Thank you to Chris Haughton, whose donation of five signed prints made my fundraising efforts go with an even bigger bang!
Thank you to Ellie, who writes lovely poetry that will make you smile at Taking Words for a Stroll.
Thank you to Tasha, who writes about books, and about books and cakes at Children’s Books for Grown Ups.
Thank you to Polly, who started writing about children’s books just this year over at The Little Wooden Horse.
Thank you to Jackie, who donated all the way from Australia where she writes her wonderful website My Little Bookcase.
Thank you to Louise, whose first novel is ‘Girl Meets Boys’, an internet age rom com. She also writes freelance articles for MK Pulse mag.
Thank you to Jill, a doodler and writer, who is great company on twitter, @Jill_Adams_ .
Thank you to Becky, who writes about living well and creatively with a young family on a budget over at Baby Budgeting.
Thank you to Helen, a stay at home mum tweeting about raising small kids, & especially interested in preschool children’s books + apps, @aitcheldee.
Thank you to Kate, my SISTER! She makes gorgeous fibre art jewellery, and you can find out more on her blog, Tastykaeru, or in her Etsy shop.
Thank you to Sheonad, who blogs eloquently at Touch and Tickle all about living an unfamiliar life with a disabled child and managing somehow to make it wonderful.
Thank you to Damyanti, a librarian who knows all about the power of books to change lives. She’s great on twitter, @damyantipatel, and also blogs at Buns! Blankets! Bears!
Thank you to Louie, who writes and edits children’s books we love. You can find her on twitter, @louiestowell, and on her blog Stowell’s Cosmology.
Thank you to Ali, an extremely dear blog and twitter friend. She writes excellent posts about children’s literature on her blog Fantasti
You’ve just got a few hours left to help me raise funds for Book Aid International…
“Lines close” at 9 pm tonight (UK time), and the winner of the original illustration by Katie Cleminson, plus the lucky folk who get signed books from her, or signed prints from Chris Haughton will be announced shortly there after.
What am I on about, you say?
To celebrate World Book Day I set you a challenge:
Guess how many books I had in my house on World Book Day.
The person who guesses nearest the mark wins Katie’s illustration above, and 7 others chosen at random get the signed books and prints. To make a guess, leave a comment ON THE ORIGINAL POST (I’ve disabled comments on this post).
How does this game raise money for Book Aid? Whilst I can’t require you to make a donation, I can strongly urge you to do so. As it happens, everyone who has commented so far has also donated, even though they didn’t have to!
You can make a secure donation via my Just Giving site: http://www.justgiving.com/Zoe-Toft.
International friends! My Just Giving site is totally secure and you can donate via PayPal. Please don’t be put off by the fact that payments appear in £(Sterling) – this will just be converted into your local currency on your bank statement, and there aren’t any currency charges or anything like that. I’m happy to post the illustration and other prizes securely worldwide, so there’s nothing to stop you taking part, I hope
Yes, I’ve reached my target, but don’t let that stop you! I’m now aiming for £500 in fundraising. I’m sure you can help! Even a donation of £1 is much appreciated.
So… if ever you’ve enjoyed a post of mine, or found the tweets I share useful, please consider making a donation to Book Aid. And then do come back and try your luck with my books!
Thankyou!
Hip, Hip, Hooray! Today is World Book Day!
World Book Day is a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.
And to celebrate it here on Playing by the book, I’ve teamed up with the brilliant author and illustrator Katie Cleminson to raise funds for Book Aid International.
Book Aid International increases access to books and supports literacy, education and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Last year I raised funds for them by carrying out a Librarithon with M and J. This year, you can once again donate to Book Aid International via my Just Giving page:
http://www.justgiving.com/Zoe-Toft.
To help me reach my fundraising target Katie Cleminson, one of Booktrust’s Best New Illustrators 2011, and the creator of Box of Tricks, Wake Up!, and Otto the Book Bear, has donated this original, signed illustration:
This wonderful illustration (inspired by the traditional fundraising game, Guess the Number of Sweets in the Jar, with Otto the Book Bear looking on lovingly) is approximately 12cm x 15cm and is drawn in ink, watercolour, and charcoal. It was drawn with a pipette, and a fine nib.
It could be yours!
How? Simple! Make a donation to Book Aid, via my Just Giving page, and then come back here and guess the number of books in my house today (March 1st 2012). The person with the number nearest to the correct answer wins Katie’s amazing illustration.
Practicalities: To enter this free prize draw simply leave a comment on this post with your best guess as to the number of books in my home.
Technically speaking (because of the intricacies of UK Gambling law) I cannot require you to make a donation to Book Aid to enter this free prize draw, so theoretically speaking you can enter the prize draw simply by leaving a comment on this post… BUT Katie and I have teamed up because
Siobhan Dowd
Siobhan Dowd was a writer of novels for young people, who died from cancer aged 47. There aren’t many novelists who have won awards for every single book they’ve written, but Siobhan Dowd’s name is on that list. Amongst other accolades, her books have won the Carnegie Award (2009), the Branford Boase Award (2007), and the Red House Children’s Book Award (2008).
As well as writing, Siobhan was something of an literary activist, working not only against censorship, but also for the human rights of writers in Indonesia and Guatemala. In the UK she was committed to working with children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds; she co-founded a program which takes authors into schools in socially deprived areas, as well as prisons, young offender institutions and community projects.
In the very last days before she died Siobhan set up The Siobhan Dowd Trust with the specific aim of bringing books and reading to UK kids who might not otherwise have access to great books and inspiring authors. The Siobhan Dowd Trust exists to fund any person or groups that:
Take stories to children and young people without stories;
Bring the joy of reading and books to children and young people deprived of access to books and of the opportunity to read;
Fund and support disadvantaged young readers where there is no funding or support. In accordance with Siobhan’s wishes, their funding process is very open, flexible, and they hope, simple.
Wanting to find out some more about the The Siobhan Dowd Trust I recently interviewed Kate Powling, the Director of the Trust.
Playing by the book: Kate, could you tell me a little about why Siobhan set up the trust in her name? What was it that inspired her to do so?
Kate, Director of the Siobhan Dowd Trust: Siobhan set up the Trust just before she died. Her life was spent working for charities and then writing – so the Trust was a way to bring together the things she cared about. I don’t know where the inspiration came from: perhaps her extraordinary generosity and belief in the power of books and reading to help children who most need help.
Playing by the book: What sort of projects has the trust already funded? What sort of projects would the trust like to fund?
Kate: The trustees of the fund wish to fund start up innovative schemes, where a small grant will act as “start-up” or seed money to grow into something bigger and ideally self-sustaining. We also want to encourage scattered groups to work together to learn from each other, not act in isolation or in competition with each other.
Our biggest grant so far is to Letterbox Green, which sends books to young adults in care (more information about this project can be found
1 Comments on The Siobhan Dowd Trust – Bringing books and reading to disadvantaged kids in the UK, last added: 2/27/2012
For the last two years I’ve published a list of charities whose work focuses on reading and literacy (here’s the most recent list). It’s now time for me to start work on updating my list (so if you notice a charity I haven’t included, and who doesn’t appear in the comments please let me know). In the meantime, I wanted to highlight one of the most interesting book charities I have discovered since last winter – Pelican Post.
Pelican Post is a UK based charity that helps individuals like you and me to directly, personally support reading for pleasure in schools in Africa. Throught Pelican Post you choose a book (or more) you like (from a relevant list) and send it directly to a participating school in Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia. It’s simple, direct and personal.
To find out more I recently interviewed Nick Johnson, the Founder Director of the Pelican Post about the charity, how it works and his favourite books by African authors. Here’s how our conversation went…
Playing by the Book: Tell us a little about Pelican Post and how it differs from other charities which send books to schools and communities.
Nick Johnson, Founder Director of The Pelican Post : I guess the key differentiating factors is that the Pelican Post is primarily focused on the relevance of appropriate reading material as opposed to the numbers game.
For us, it’s not about getting a million books out to some region of Africa for blanket distribution to schools in that area, but about ensuring that the books delivered will have an immediate and sustainable impact. That is why we focus only on delivering stories that children can relate to, and identify with.
We want to be able to engage and inspire young minds to discover that reading can be a pleasurable experience and not to be viewed purely as something one must learn to improve one’s chances in life. Few children that learn to read at school in Africa go on to continue their education past primary level. Books and children’s stories are therefore vital in establishing a child’s own sense of self worth as well as providing the impetus to fuel a child’s imagination, and aspirations once their leave school.
And what better way to awaken a child’s imagination than reading the same story together in the classroom. We often take our education for granted but for many schools throughout the developing world, not only are books generally in short supply but multiple copies of the same story are almost unheard of.
That is why we aim to deliver enough copies of the same book so that teachers can practice shared classroom reading and children can discover the joy of sharing the reading experience together as a class.
Pupil at Kasubi Primary School, Uganda
Playing by the Book: Why have you ado
Last Friday saw our final push to hit our Librarithon target of 14 Libraries in 3 different counties. We hopped on a train that whisked us through fields of horses, much to the delight of M and J, before ending up in a small, beautiful city, home to our 13th library.
It has a pretty grand entrance!
Inside they had just finished a major building programme and so lots of the library was bare, but the bits still fully functioning were lovely – the great big windows were super for filling the space with light (the building was formerly a school).
As you can see we were wearing wonderful Book Aid T-shirts – the girls were really proud of them and we did get stopped and asked a few times by “the general public” as to what we were up to.
Back on the train to a small, cute village and then we played hunt the library. M’s reading has really come on in the last few months and reading road signs is a favourite hobby of hers – one well indulged by all the time we’ve spent on buses this last week.
Our 14th library is open two and a half days a week. It’s not under threat, but the husband of the librarian I spoke to works for the library system in the neighbouring county where libraries are at risk of closure so I got to hear about the personal impact of the uncertainty and how stressful that is for those involved.
We spent a good hour and a half in this library reading stories including more Captain Flinn but one of my favourite books was Ivy Loves to Give by Freya Blackwood. The illustrations were so beautiful and the story came straight out of our own home – M and and J are always wrapping up little gifts (usually in toilet paper), which 9 times out of 10, are, um, let’s agree they are will intentioned but not the usual sort of thing you’d give as a gift (a drawing pin, a cork, a twig).
Eventually it was time for us to leave. I asked the girls what they thought of our Librarithon…
3 Comments on The final Librarithon round-up, last added: 2/28/2011
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4 Comments on Librarithon Update #3, last added: 2/25/2011
Oh Phil – do you know Castle of Books – a picture book about a boy who builds castles out of his dad’s books? Someone on twitter alerted me to it yesterday so I’ve just ordered it.
Thanks Claire, yes, fairy lights seem to make everything that bit more sparkly, don’t they?
It was enormous fun Rebecca. My arms/shoulders are aching a little from all the lifting, but it’s been worth it all.