Children book places as reading festival kicks off
And what better way to feed the eager mind than to delve into the world of wizards, murder mysteries and tragic tales of boys in striped pyjamas.
This is the message from Children’s Books Ireland, which yesterday launched the annual month-long reading festival.
It kicked off in style with hordes of children descending on Dublin’s Pearse Street Library to meet famous authors from here and Britain to share the wonder of the printed word.
Meanwhile, artist Don Conroy introduced Cork city’s first reading mascot.
These were the first of an estimated 1,500 events scheduled to take place before October 26, which will involve more than 60,000 children.
However, while yesterday’s focus was on the main cities, CBI’s programme officer Tom Donegan said for the rest of the month the aim would be to reach into every corner of the country.
“This is going to be a bigger festival because it is the first time we are going to be in every public library on the whole island.
“What we want is to get into all the regions so every child can be a part of this,” he said.
Mr Donegan said CBI is a small organisation but it has managed to organise the festival for the past 10 years with the support of publishers and library networks.
This year it attracted authors such as William Nicholson, Dan Freedman, Mark Oliver, Judy May, Karl O’Neill and Joe O’Brien to support the events.
This will include bringing visiting authors to libraries to discuss what makes their books special and where the inspiration for a host of popular characters came from.
“We are bringing the authors around the country to allow the children to meet them, we have found it great for them to be able to meet the people who created their favourite characters. They really seem to get a buzz out of that.
“It helps children to get involved when they see what inspires the authors. That is why we are bringing authors all over Ireland because usually it would only be at big events in Dublin where children would get that chance,” he said.
The book festival will run until October 26 with more information available from public libraries and online at www.childrens booksireland.com.
A nine-year-old boy’s father works for the Nazis at a concentration camp for Jewish people. As he struggles to come to terms with what is happening Bruno decides to see what it is like for the people imprisoned in the camp, so he wears the uniform striped pyjamas and crawls under the wire fence.
A murder mystery which begins when a 15-year-old autistic boy, Christopher Boone, discovers his neighbour’s dog has been killed with a garden fork.
In searching for the dog’s killer Christopher discovers a world of hidden secrets about his own past.
The first book in the billion euro Harry Potter phenomenon.
Harry discovers his magic powers and is sent to Hogwarts to study wizardry only to set course for his first battle with Voldemort. The book is the second highest non-political, non-religious selling book of all time.
The books that tells you everything you want to know about the popular Disney television series High School Musical.
The series has topped the New York Times best-selling list and has already spawned DVDs, soundtracks, a TV series and musical. One of a series of novels about the school-yard antics at East High.
A boy is sent to the countryside to escape the bombing in London. The grumpy old man he is sent to live with slowly warms to him and helps him deal with painful memories.
A trilogy of novels about a girl who refuses to accept authority and is determined to change her destiny. The film will be in the cinema later this year.
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