Fallen Star Stories

With exactly one week to go until the BEST Book Day of the year, I hope you're all ready and as excited as I am. There's always so much going on; so much to do and so many activities to get the schools involved with. So, I guess it's also time for me to finish up my 'through-the-years' posts of the events, authors, illustrators, storytellers and fantastic school visits that make World Book Day so memorable for me...and for a lot of other people as well. Let the time-travel begin! For the World Book Day Extravaganza 2015 , I had to add a couple of days later in the month in order to accommodate everyone! With lots of familiar faces, we all had a fantastic time! March turned out to be a brilliant month. We welcomed Sadie Cramer back, and this time she brought Juliette Saumande with her! There were readings from their book Chop Chop Mad Cap , talk of where ideas come from, the chractersand their relationships with each other and how pictures are made. Then th...

As we inch even closer to World Book Day 2019 , here are a few more of my memories of the great times and all the carrying on that I organised for the local school classes. World Book Day 2012 was a very busy year as I welcomed an even bigger crowd of students than previous years, and an even bigger crowd of authors and storytellers to provide the fun and excitement. Rab Fulton made yet another appearance with his animated and hilarious Scary Stories for young folk. Featuring tales about his grandmother in Glasgow, I believe... Dubray Books' own Ronan Quinn had the kids wrapped up in a few of his favourite stories  from Roald Dahl. Dirty Beasts or Revolting Rhymes, anyone? What an incredible treat it was to have Nicola Pierce arrive in Galway to tell us all about her fantastic (then new) book, Spirit of the Titanic ! Not only did she read from the book (highly recommended, by the way) but she shared a wealth of information about the Titanics' story and the lives...

World Book Day 2019 is on it's way! In just over a week, it will be time to celebrate the joy and excitement to be found in reading for pleasure and all the authors and illustrators that are working to bring the gift of books into the lives of children (of all ages) everywhere. Over the years the years that I have been involved with World Book Day, I cannot express the amount of happiness this day (well...week really; I always celebrated all week.) that I have felt. Inviting school classes in to meet authors who have generously made the trip to Galway and given children a memory that will stick with them throughout their lives has been a highlight of each year. And the opportunity it gave me to share my love of childrens' books with so many children...sometimes as many as 650 a year!...talking to them about books, reading to them and listening to what they have to say about the best (and worst) books they've read has been, and continues to be amazing. So before I go f...