Ireland Reads: 'You never have to wait for a book to charge up'

Aiming to celebrate reading and all its benefits for wellbeing and enjoyment, the campaign invites everyone to ‘squeeze in a read’ on Ireland Reads Day this Saturday, February 25. 

Anna Mulhall, aged 12 and her brother, Cian aged 10 at Ardkeen Library, Ardkeen Shopping Centre, Dunmore Road, Waterford. Picture: Patrick Browne

The first time 12-year-old Anna Mulhall bought books for herself, it was some Lego Friends books she got at an annual sale in her primary school.

She was about seven, and around that time she also won a prize for a story she’d written about an onion who dearly wished not to make his friends cry. “He went to an avocado fairy and she turned him into an orange so his friends would like him.