The First Week of World Book Day Celebrations
A diary
Hello everyone, if you’re a librarian or a teacher, you must be exhausted after lovely World Book Day celebrations. Did you dress up? What did you dress up as?
I normally start my World Book Day related school visits the week after half-term. But this year, it began on Monday 3rd March, and I was booked up for the entire week.
Day 1 - 3rd March
I was at West Drayton Academy where I met with all classes from Nursery till Y6. It was also a special visit because all classes in this school take their names from authors. And it’s a huge privilege to have one of the Y2 classes named after me - I had a special visit to the class which has a display with my name on it.
And the other special thing about this visit was - when the school first named their Y2 class, four years ago, I did a zoom visit to their class and now those kids were in Y6 and remembered me and had lovely things to say about my books.
Day 2 - 4th March
I was at Twickenham Prep and had a wonderful time sharing stories with Reception, Y1, and doing a Nikhil & Jay (illustrated by Soofiya) workshop with Y2 children. With Reception, we did an interactive storytelling with It’s Time to Hush and Say Goodnight and as always, the animals in the dreamy book that Sandhya Prabhat has added - all the little Easter eggs to find, was such a hit. With Y1, I introduced them to the festival of Holi with my latest picture book Happy Holi, illustrated by Amberin Huq and we talked about the Hindu stories behind the festival. As always children this age love a deliciously scary story. And then we did a Nikhil & Jay workshop about building bug hotels and creating a wild garden and the children had wonderful designs to share.
Day 3 - 5th March
I was at Wexham Court Primary in Slough (organised by Authors Aloud) and it was a delight to share my stories. With Reception and Y1, it was a classic favourite - Pattan’s Pumpkin and with the Y2 and Y3 children, we did the Nikhil & Jay Wild Garden and Bug Hotel workshop again and it was a super-hit. The teachers were so happy with how the children responded and created their designs. And during signing, the most favourite book I signed was Ballet Besties!
Day 4 - 6th March
It is World Book Day and it started very early because I took an early train to Sussex to be at Lingfield Prep who were celebrating World Book Day by dressing up. From office managers to teachers, everyone was dressed up. I usually prefer not to go into a school when they are dressed up because (a) I feel so inadequate with my costume skills (b) I feel like the children are excited and should have fun and not have to be sat in a workshop. But Lingfield Prep was a treat. The children joined in with all the activities with enthusiasm and did amazing work. With Y1 and Y2 we explored Manju’s Magic Wishes with all the chanting and counting of wishes. It was handy to have a number of magic wands in the room too. Y5 and Y6 did a wonderful non-fiction workshop around We All Celebrate! Then after a lovely lunch, Y3 and Y4 tackled the climate crisis with an activity from Sona Sharma - Looking After Planet Earth by learning to draw kolams. And finally the nursery and reception discovered all about thunderstorms, slow loris, pangolins and hornbills with You’re Safe With Me.
What an amazing library they had too! And the librarian is an aspiring illustrator too!
Day 5 - 7th March
There we are on the final day of Week 1 - I headed west to Taylors Merchant Prep (organised by Authors Aloud) and it was one of the highlights of the week. I started off the day with a Nikhil & Jay workshop and some of the children had read the books and watched the TV show. Also their librarian told me that the Nikhil & Jay books are very popular in their library. Then I headed to Nursery and Reception - Nursery was treated to a lovely session of You’re Safe with Me, with all the singing and growling that comes with it and then in Reception we learnt all about giant pumpkins and one in particular - Pattan’s Pumpkin. I always talk about the facts / real life giant pumpkins at the end that always delights the kids and surprises the teachers. Just as I was leaving, the reception children were getting ready to draw their own pumpkins!
So that’s it - Week 1 done. Next week I have two online events and two in-person author visits. And book deadlines and so much more to do… but for now, I’m going to put my feet up and rest until tomorrow morning!
What am I doing on a Sunday morning you wonder? Keep wondering! That’s a story for another day.