Birmingham Stories hosted a series of events across Birmingham libraries throughout the week of World Book Day, with over 700 children and families taking part and receiving a free World Book Day book. The events encouraged children to engage with their local library service, register for the library and understand the importance of reading for pleasure.
Five school events were hosted throughout the week with pupils ranging from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 3 invited to their local community library to hear from a local author, poet or storyteller. Authors involved included:
- Juliet Clare Bell
- Julian Armitstead
- Kate Wakeling
- Hafsha and Salim Shaikh
On World Book Day itself, Kereen Getten, Birmingham based author of When Life Gives You Mangoes, hosted a virtual author event live from St Chad’s Catholic Primary School attended by 500 children in schools across the city.
Birmingham Stories partner Wesleyan were on hand to support on the day, sitting with various classes in the school and supporting them to participate and submit questions to Kereen, as well as handing out free books to all students in the school. This comes as part of a sustained partnership between Wesleyan and the National Literacy Trust – which included the financial services mutual funding the teacher wellbeing platform last year.
To round off the week’s activity, families were invited to an interactive storytelling session with local children's author Juliet Clare Bell, hosted at the Library of Birmingham. Everyone in attendance received a free copy of one of this years' World Book Day titles.
“World Book Day is hugely important to remind children of the joy and benefits of reading for pleasure. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being out in the community, chatting to young people and championing the crucial work of local libraries.” “With this programme of events, we have had our most successful World Book Day since Birmingham Stories launched, reaching over 700 people and donating over 3000 books. I would like to thank our amazing Literacy Champions for supporting at the events, and our incredible partners for helping us to reach those who need our support the most.”
Kyle Turakhia, Birmingham Stories Hub Manager
“We are proud of the Wesleyan Foundation’s partnership with The National Literacy Trust. As a financial service mutual for teachers, it is important to us that we support issues that matter most to our customers and inspiring children to read for pleasure and get excited about books is something we absolutely support.”
Nathan Wallis, Chief of Staff at Wesleyan
