To celebrate 25 years of World Book Day, we distributed 36,000 World Book Day titles via libraries in our 15 Hub areas. This was funded and supported by Connecting Stories.
The book distribution was accompanied by a wide variety of activities and events for schools, children and families in many of our Hub areas.
In Middlesbrough, children from three local schools were invited to Central Library and Acklam Community Hub and Library. The pupils collected their free World Book Day book and were encouraged to sign-up for library cards.
Middlesbrough Reads also partnered up with Middlesbrough Library Services to organise a World Book Day competition and Middlesbrough FC to gift 400 World Book Day books to children attending the Middlesbrough vs Luton match on Saturday!
We kicked off our World Book Day celebrations in Manchester with a brilliant event with Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola, the author and illustrator of Rocket Rules. All 240 children who attended received a signed copy of Rocket Rules!
Birmingham Stories hosted four days of events for schools and families to get involved with, including a visit from children’s author Juliet Clare Bell and a virtual interactive discussion with Kereen Getten, author of When Life Gives You Mangoes.
In Suffolk, Literacy Champions painted rocks with popular book characters and hid them around Haverhill, Lowestoft and Stowmarket. Schools and families also accessed an exclusive virtual event with Suffolk's very own James Campbell, author of the Funny Life books published by Bloomsbury!
Alongside our work with local libraries in Hastings, we also partnered with Hastings Museum & Art Gallery who invited local school children and Hastings United FC Academy stars to take part in the 'Midnight at the Museum' trail and gift them free books to take home.
Nearly 200 children hopped aboard the Bradford Bus for a special ‘authors and inspiration’ session, while in the North East held Look for a Book activity in Eldon Square shopping centre!
Our Stories: Whitby, Scarborough and Filey gifted 100 World Book Day titles to the children's ward at Scarborough Hospital. We received feedback from the hospital: "The children are loving the variety and the fact that they can choose, like a library!"
Connecting Stories, which launched in January 2021, is an Arts Council England-funded project to address the literacy attainment gap in areas in need across the UK.
Read more about what we did at the National Literacy Trust to celebrate World Book Day.