Children's Laureate visits Penzance library
9:52am Monday 8th October 2012 in News
Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson made a special visit to Penzance library last week as part of a national tour.
Penzance library was picked from 100s of applications to be one of only 24 libraries on the English and Welsh leg of the Children's Laureate Libraries Tour this autumn.
As part of her Children's Laureateship, Julia Donaldson - bestselling author of over 150 books including The Gruffalo, What the Ladybird Heard and Zog - is embarking on a tour of libraries that will take in England, Wales and Scotland, from John O'Groats to Lands End, over six weeks, commencing on 10 September in Thurso in the Hebrides and finishing on 18 October in Carlisle.
The tour will celebrate libraries as a precious community resource at a time when a great many are threatened with closure. Schoolchildren from Heamoor school's green class attended the invite-only event, which saw Julia bringing some of her hugely popular stories to life through special dramatisations.
They also showed off their own acting and singing skills during a short performance inspired by children's literature which they presented to Julia. Julia Donaldson said "Libraries are very close to my heart, and so is performance.
This tour is my way of bringing the two together, by visiting fantastic libraries all over the country, enjoying children acting and singing, and sharing my own stories with them. I want it to be a huge celebration of libraries and of the benefits they offer to communities and especially to children."
Abbi McInnes, Young People's Services Team Leader at Cornwall Council, said "We were thrilled that Penzance Library was picked as one of the few libraries to benefit from this National Tour. Julia Donaldson's books are among the most popular books in the library and it was wonderful for the children to meet their author in person."
The event was fantastic, the children were captivated throughout. They sung an action song which they had written themselves, inspired by one of Julia’s books – Jack and the Flum Flum Tree. “ said Abbi.
“Julia then helped the children to act out some of her picture books and entertained them with songs accompanied on the guitar by her husband Malcolm. Lynne Topsey-Eaton, Green Class teacher and Literacy leader at Heamoor CP School said "Green Class worked so hard in preparation for this wonderful, once in a lifetime opportunity to meet and perform for Julia Donaldson and her husband.
"It had had an infectious effect on our pupils and parents who were all so excited about this event. We have been reading lots of Julia Donaldson's fabulous books which the children have thoroughly enjoyed responding to in many areas across the curriculum including drama, art, ICT, maths and of course, writing and music."
