CHILDREN’S authors Simon Bartram and Gabrielle Kent helped to bring the magical world of reading alive for Sunderland primary school children this week.
Simon, author of ‘Bob Man on the Moon’ and Gabrielle, who wrote ‘Alfie Bloom and the Secret of Hexbridge Castle’ visited libraries in the city yesterday (Thursday 3 March) as part of the City Council’s celebrations for World Book Day.
The annual event is a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and most importantly of reading. It’s the biggest event of its kind, designated by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a ‘worldwide celebration of books and reading’, and is marked in over 100 countries.
Both authors held interactive sessions to invited audiences from local primary schools, with Simon visiting Houghton Library in the morning and City Library in the afternoon and Gabrielle visiting Sandhill Centre Library in the afternoon.
Local primary schools were also invited to creative writing and craft sessions based on Roald Dahl’s The Twit’s, delivered by Library Services’ Community Engagement Team.
Councillor John Kelly, Portfolio Holder for Public Health, Wellness and Culture, said: “World Book Day is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the joy of reading. Books bring so much pleasure to children of all ages and we’re delighted to have once again been part of this celebration of learning and reading.
“A love of reading is something that stays with you throughout your life and we all remember our own favourite books from when we were children so its really important that we make the most of events like this which encourage children to enjoy reading.”