I have always loved the idea of people coming together across the world to celebrate the joy of reading, from imagination and escapism to new knowledge and developing skills. I used to work in a secondary school library and relished planning activities for children (and sometimes adults too!) who would dress up as their favourite book characters. Although I don’t get to plan the dressing up part as much in my role now, I love that I can still get to be creative and share my passion for World Book Day. This year is even more exciting as it is a key moment in the National Year of Reading.
Earlier this year, I attended a webinar all about World Book Day and libraries. This was where I heard about the exciting opportunity for a limited number of public libraries to become book distributors. I leapt at the chance and within 24 hours, Hinckley Library had been accepted. The library would receive 1,200 of the World Book Day books meaning that children could pop into the library and exchange their token for a book.
It was such great news that led to a few excitable weeks of planning and logistics. With help from Hinckley Library’s Supervisor, we soon had a plan in place. Each year, one school visits the library during the week in which World Book Day falls. We already had a school booked in, so it was exciting to share with them that the pupils visiting would be able to get their books on the day of their visit. It’s going to be great to see them exploring Hinckley Library this week and taking home one of the special World Book Day books we’ve received as a distributor.
All children and young people from across the area can visit Hinckley Library up until 15 March to exchange their book tokens for books.
For more information on joining or visiting your library, or to find out more about what’s coming up and how you can get involved in the National Year of Reading, visit our libraries page.