We marked a very special World Book Day in Manchester with lots of activities for schools in partnership with Manchester Libraries!
On Thursday 3 March we celebrated 25 years of World Book Day in Manchester. Over the last 25 years, World Book Day has created an incredible opportunity to change lives through a love of reading and books.
At Read Manchester, it's one of our favourite days of the year and we celebrated in style this year!
Book gifting
Research has shown us that over 400,000 children and young people across the UK say they don't have a book of their own at home.
That's why, this World Book Day, we teamed up with Manchester Libraries to gift 5500 of the World Book Day titles to children in Manchester.
Children can either receive their books through out school engagement and library story time programmes, or collect their copy at one of the four Exchange Libraries in Manchester.
Events
After two years of virtual events, we were delighted to invite schools to Central Library for two very special World Book Day sessions.
240 children from four schools attended an event with Dapo Adeola and Nathan Bryon, the author and illustrator of Rocket Rules. Each pupil received a signed copy of the book! The session was fun, interactive and inspiring for all the children.
One child said: "I love these books because the characters look like me. I didn't know the authors would look like me too!"
We also held another in-person event with illustrator Lynne Chapman. Lynne hosted a live drawing session where she showed the children how she comes up with story ideas, creates her characters and brings them to life on the page.
125 children from three schools attended the event and were each given a World Book Day book to take home.
"The children were so excited, they were still talking about the workshop when they got back to school. Lynne was amazing and very engaging. The way she captured the children's interest and showed them a whole new dimension to books was invaluable."
A teacher from Sacred Heart School
In addition to our in-person events we also hosted virtual events for thousands of children across Manchester!
2550 children logged in to a meet-the-author session with Kristina Stephenson, author of The Museum of Marvellous Things. The session included storytelling, puppets, songs, music and a very special magic measuring machine inspired by her work.
A further 3540 children joined poet and playwright Joseph Coelho in another virtual session. Joseph performed his poetry for the children and encouraged them to try writing their own poems.
A very special message...
We were thrilled to receive support from Manchester United's Aaron Wan-Bissaka this World Book Day!
Great advice from Man United's Aaron Wan-Bissaka on #WorldBookDay - get down to your local library! Let's hear it for libraries!! 📚👍#ReadMCR @Literacy_Trust @libsconnected @MU_Foundation @awbissaka @ManCityCouncil @mcr_education #2022OurYear pic.twitter.com/2AGu5ueE9R
— Manchester Libraries (@MancLibraries) March 3, 2022
