National Libraries Day

Today, Saturday February 8th 2014, is National Libraries Day. The Children's Laureate, Malorie Blackman, often cited and celebrated in the GAB blog, has written rousingly today in The Guardian about her own use of libraries when a child as a home from home, on the importance of libraries for everyone as story-telling hubs, resource, book repository and so much more. She writes: "As far as I am concerned every day should be National Libraries Day." Here at GAB we second that. Our Magic Breakfast Book Clubs hook up with the local library so that the love of books and reading born in the book clubs spills over into the world outside. Every member of our Book Clubs gets their own special library card.  Give a Book.

First Story Festival

First Story held their annual Festival today: around 700 kids from all over the country turned up in Oxford to spend the day talking to writers and writing. Their enthusiasm was infectious. At the end a handful of them, beautifully orchestrated by poet Kate Fox, stood up before the crowd and read from the work they'd done during the day: the talent was prodigious. They were warmly supported by amongst others, the Childrens' Laureate Malorie Blackman, Deborah Moggach, Oxford City poet Kate Clanchy, Mark Haddon, Stephen May and Salena Godden to name but some of the wonderful writers who join in to help First Story.
One of their alumni, award-winning poet Azfa Awad, wrote this for Give a Book:
"I really enjoyed the 'Staying Alive Trilogy' and was inspired by many of the poems. The fact that someone was generous enough to donate the anthologies is incredible and the fun and inspiration we had from the anthology was priceless."
So now please go back to Give a Book to help us keep this going.

The new Children's Laureate

We're all delighted at the announcement of Malorie Blackman as the new Children's Laureate. A wonderful writer and a wonderful reader whose mission is to "get more children reading and make reading irresistible in all its forms." There's an interview with her in The Guardian Review and her latest novel Noble Conflict is out now. There's a Blagger's Guide to the Children's Laureate in the Independent.  Now please do return to Give a Book.