Our library, in Grosvenor Road, will receive £500 towards events from the organisers of World Book Day, as well as receiving free books to give out to children in exchange for book tokens distributed through local schools.
World Book Day is a charity sponsored by National Book Tokens and aims to bring the fun of reading to more children and young people. The day itself is on Thursday 6 March, though events and book token distribution began from Thursday 13 February.
Two local school classes, from Ripley Infants and Ripley St. John’s, will be visiting the library on the day for special storytelling sessions with a children’s entertainment company called Super Sparkle. And staff will be dressing up to celebrate. The children will be able to exchange tokens for books and every child will go back with a World Book Day bookmark and stickers.
Library staff will also welcome a local Beavers group in the evening, who will be receiving their Book Lovers Badge. The group will colour in bookmarks and have a short talk about how the library works before being able to exchange their tokens for books.
The hub will be open until the end of the month, so local children still have plenty of time visit the library and exchange their tokens for books.
Councillor Barry Lewis, Derbyshire County Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Leadership, Culture, Tourism and Climate Change, said:
“World Book Day is brilliant at introducing children to the joys of reading for pleasure. Reading can be great fun.”
The National Literacy Trust found that only one in three children enjoys reading in their free time, and nearly one million children in the UK don’t have a book of their own.
Councillor Lewis added:
“By giving children the opportunity to choose a book of their own to read while they’re young, the scheme is boosting their life chances. It’s a well-established fact that improved reading skills are key to succeeding in education and will stand them in good stead all their lives.
“We hope that the project will also encourage children to become library members and have a wealth of books at their disposal, to borrow for free.”
Ripley library will also be holding a follow-up event and linking that in with the annual Summer Reading Challenge.
World Book Day is supported by The Foyle Foundation and The Julia Rausing Trust.
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