13 may be unlucky for some but not for World Book Day as it celebrates its 13th year on Thursday, the 4th of March 2010. World Book Day is now firmly established as the biggest annual event promoting the enjoyment of books and reading in Ireland and the UK.
World Book Day grows every year, as more and more partners come on board to join us in our activity. Our core activity will continue - covering schools and their attending children with Schools Packs, display material and World Book Day €1.50 Book Tokens. Remember your €1.50 tokens are a gift from your local bookseller.
Get all the latest news and updates by becoming a fan of 'World Book Day Ireland' on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter at @WBDIreland
This year are working with a new partner BookCrossing. A community of over 800,000 people, in over 130 countries who share their passion for books with the world. BookCrossing allows books to take on a life of their own. Visit the BookCrossing page for more information.
Yet another new initiative this year is ‘Read to a Million Kids', sponsored by Renaissance Learning. The 11 €1.50 book stories will be read by the authors or performers and filmed for online broadcast during World Book Day. Available exclusively to schools and libraries in the first instance, and supplemented with a fun quiz about the reading, please visit www.readtoamillionkids.co.uk to find out more and to register to participate.
St Michael's Bring a Book, Buy a Book Campaign March 4th -12th 2010
The St. Michael’s House Bring a Book, Buy a Book Campaign 2010 is in association with Children’s Books Ireland, World Book Day and the Dublin Book Festival. St Michael’s House has over has over 160 community - based centres throughout Dublin and County providing support and services to over 1,450 children and adults with an intellectual disability and their families.
The Bring a Book, Buy a Book campaign was first piloted in 2008 with 15 different locations taking part. Last year this rose to 117 locations with 45,000 people exchanging books! St Michael’s House aimsto increase this figure dramatically for 2010 by encouraging 500 organisations to take part.
All funds raised will do directly to St. Michael’s House to help provide services to children and adults with an intellectual disability. The campaign encourages reading for all, and the charity is hoping that 100,000 people will exchange books during the week.
If you would like to get involved please Text BOOK to 51500 followed by your name & address to register and receive a starter pack for‘Bring a Book, Buy a Book’ 2010 visitwww.smh.ie or call Dublin 01 2990 500.
You can also make a Virtual Book donation, please textSMHto57502.
Text cost €2 plus standard rate SMS.
All proceeds go to St.Michael’s House.
Charity Reg::CHY 5692. SP: MSERVE 01-499 5939.
Aideen Brady, World Book Day Co-ordinator in Ireland comments:“In the current climate, the ‘Bring a Book, Buy a Book’ campaign is a very creative way of promoting reading and sharing book recommendations whilst raising funds to support an excellent organisation. World Book Day Ireland is delighted to be involved in helping to raise awareness of St. Michael’s House. It is a wonderful facility which changes so many lives for the better.Reading is a gift which can allow children of all ages and backgrounds to develop their full potential. Over the past 13 years, World Book Day Ireland has provided a generation of Irish children with the opportunity to own a book of their own. This is an annual gift to them from Irish booksellers.”
The Third Evans Short Story Competition winners have been announced. The competition was very keen as more than 3,000 competition entries were received from over 2,000 schools in Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Eleanor Moloney, Carnaross, Co. Meath and Kate Craven, Craughwell, Co. Galway, both aged nine are the Irish winners of the 2010 World Book Day Short Story Competition. Congratulations girls.
Kate is the first Irish entrant to win the illustration prize in the three years that the competition has been running. Her drawing ‘Garbage Monster’ was the judges’ favourite and will be the cover illustration for the primary school anthology of stories to be published on World Book Day. The anthology will contain 16 stories written by primary school children in Ireland and the UK, including Eleanor Moloney’s short story, entitled ‘Vikings Come to Dublin’.
A fantastic new flipper book from The O’Brien Press for World Book Day!
Following on from the huge success of last years World Book Day, we have once again produced an Irish language book for young readers to enjoy.
The O’Brien Press World Book Day Flipper Book An Buachaill Bó by Gillian Perdue/The Witch Apprentice by Marian Broderick is the only bilingual World Book Day book and a great introduction to reading as gaeilge.
In keeping with the ‘Read To a Million Kids’ element of World Book Day you can log on to view Gillian Perdue reading from An buachaill Bó at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqoQ27vcj4s
Is breá le Conor a chulaith buachalla bó. 'Yee Haw!' a deir sé. 'Lámha suas!' Is í culaith Conor an rud is fearr ar domhan. Ach an mbeidh sé ábalta í a chaitheamh ar scoil?
When Conor's parents give him a present of a cowboy suit he wants to wear it all the time. At school Conor is teased for his cowboy outfit, but he doesn't care. Then the other children in his class think it's great fun and they want to dress up too. So their teacher decides that all the class may dress up on Fridays. Even Teacher dresses up – as the sheriff!
Conor and his cowboy suit started it all!
The Witch Apprentice:
A great introduction to a fun series of books about a mischievous little girl who discovers she is actually a witch!
What if you were adopted by witches?
There’s something very odd going on in Anna Kelly’s new home – her guardians, Grizz and Wormella Mint, are witches, and they want Anna to help them with their nasty spells!
Poor Anna gets stuck in their horrible house, chopping up toadstools and scrambling frogspawn, with no-one but Charlie the cat for company. She’d much rather be out playing.
When she discovers an evil, old spell book in the cellar – can Anna make the magic work for her?
As always the selection of World Book Day Books are fantastic and there is something for every age range. They include
Picture book
Thomas & Friends: Thomas to the Rescue
Egmont
And five special two-books-in-one - double the fun!
Age 5+ flip book
Kitten Chaos, Anna Wilson
Macmillan Children's Books
With
Magic Ballerina: The Magic Dance, Darcey Bussell
HarperCollins Children's Books
Age 5+ flip book
The Charlie Small Journals: Valley of Terrors
David Fickling Books
With
Dinosaur Cove: Battle of the Giants, Rex Stone
Oxford University Press
Age 7+ flip book
Grubtown Tales: The Great Pasta Disaster, Philip Ardagh, illus. Jim Paillot
Faber & Faber
With
Pongwiffy and the Important Announcement, Kaye Umansky, illus. Nick Price
Bloomsbury
Age 9+ flip book
Jamie Johnson: Born to Play, Dan Freedman
Scholastic
With
Young Samurai: The Way of Fire, Chris Bradford
Puffin Books
Age 11+ flip book
Walking the Walls, Chris Higgins
Hodder Children's Books
With
Medusa Project: The Thief, Sophie McKenzie
Simon & Schuster Children's Books
Over the last few years Ireland’s leading children’s book publisher O’Brien Press have produced a title for the Irish market, watch this space for more details.
As always in Ireland every primary and secondary school child will receive their special World Book Day Token worth €1.50, while preschools must register to receive them. Irish booksellers fund the cost of the tokens and this year booksellers throughout Ireland, together with National Book Tokens will be giving more than 1 million free book tokens to pupils in primary schools all over the country. Over the past 12 years more than 15 million book tokens have been given to Irish children at a cost to Irish booksellers of an estimated €20 million.
The Booksellers Association FREE book token campaign aims to promote equal access to reading, by giving every child the opportunity to have a book of their own, as well as encouraging children to explore the pleasures of books and reading.
John Butler, World Book Day spokesperson commented, “Equipping children with a love of reading is one of the most important things that we can do for the next generation. It is a fundamental tool which gives children the means to develop, learn, think, dream form opinions, invent and eventually earn a living. Every child, regardless of background or disadvantage, deserves to be given that opportunity. One in four Irish adults encounters literacy difficulties in their daily lives and many children do not have access to books at home. If we can help to promote reading equality at an early age then the benefits to society and indeed to the economy as well would be enormous.”
World Book Day (WBD) has become Ireland’s biggest annual celebration of reading and is an Irish run initiative by The Booksellers Association. It is also a worldwide celebration of reading, literacy and a love of books for young people in over 100 countries around the globe.
St Michael's Bring a Book, Buy a Book Campaign March 4th -12th 2010
Evans Short Story Competition 2010
