Tameside libraries prepare for World Book Day events

Tameside libraries will be hosting a number of events celebrating World Book Day on March 7. We headed to Ashton Library to find out more.

March 7 is the day that World Book Day comes back to the UK, with libraries and schools up and down the country celebrating the event by dressing up as a beloved book character, donning pyjamas for the day or buying books with the World Book Day tokens. 

And at Ashton Library, the day is being celebrated with a host of events and a party to top it all off. Louise Clark, the information services librarian at the library, told us more about what Ashton and the other libraries in Tameside have to offer during the day.

"We have a team of librarians here who are arranging a range of items for World Book Day, and we currently have our story makers project where our children work with a book illustrator which will be published later in the year. All the excitement this week is based around World Book Day, which we are celebrating throughout March this year with two storytelling sessions, run by the theatre company 2 Boards & A Passion. That is every Thursday throughout March."

The theatre company, 2 Boards & A Passion, has been a part of Tameside since 2007, and the group have been working regularly with TMBC Culture creating characters and experiences for local family events. 

Louise told us more about what else World Book Day at Ashton Library has in store: "This Thursday it will be followed by a party with crafts, and we hope children will come in fancy dress. We are also running the token scheme where children can exchange them in bookshops for the special £1 books published as part of World Book Day, or they can put them towards other books."

The token scheme is a staple of World Book Day, and has been supported by National Book Tokens for over two decades. The scheme has allowed thousands of children to buy new books, which encourages them to read more and aids their development. The voucher scheme is just one of the ways in which World Book Day supports the education of children. 

Louise praised the national day, saying: "It is really about getting children into the libraries and getting excitement going about reading. It is so important to develop children's language skills – it has been shown to help their development and study skills. It also develops a lifelong love for reading for pleasure which is so important for wellbeing and future learning as well."

To find out more about the activities being held on the day at the libraries, head to https://www.tameside.gov.uk/libraries/whatson