The programme for Scotland’s sixth national celebration of books and reading was launched yesterday. Working with a wide range of partners, Scottish Book Trust – the national charity changing lives through reading and writing – will deliver a huge range of events and activities across the country during Book Week Scotland 2017, which runs from 27 November to 3 December, all linked to this year’s theme of Nourish. Continue reading Book Week Scotland programme launched
Craigroyston Community High is one of ten Scottish schools to receive an author residency from Scottish Book Trust. Poet and writer Claire Askew will work with the local school to inspire a lifelong love of reading and writing. Continue reading Read all about it: Claire’s coming to Craigie!
• Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library aims to inspire a love of reading in pre-School children
• More than 150k free books delivered to children in Scotland since 2011
• Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library attending the Scottish Learning Festival on 20/21 September
Edinburgh’s Kirsteen Watson is playing a key role in helping Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library inspire a love of reading in pre-school children across the UK. Kirsteen is one of two Regional Directors in the UK and is responsible for managing the literacy programme in communities across Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland. Continue reading Hello Dolly! Imagination Library’s Kirsteen shares the joy of reading with pre-school children
Scottish Book Trust opens voting for the 2018 Scottish Teenage Book Prize as shortlist is announced.
Scottish teenagers posed with a ballot box at the Scottish Parliament yesterday to launch the poll to find Scotland’s favourite teen book of the year. Continue reading 2018 Scottish Teenage Book Prize shortlist revealed
Earlier this year the First Minister announced that the scheme was being rolled out to all primary school children, following a trial year among P4-P7. More than three quarters of all local authority primary schools in Scotland signed up to the First Minister’s Challenge in the first year of it being introduced when it was offered to older primary school children.
Research shows reading for pleasure drops off as young people reach secondary school and the expansion of the scheme is designed to ensure young adults continue to enjoy reading long after they have left primary school.
Speaking during a visit to one of the pilot schools, St Andrew’s and St Bride’s High School yesterday, the First Minister said: “I am incredibly proud of the success the First Minister’s Reading Challenge has had in nurturing a love of reading for pleasure amongScotland’s young people which is why this expansion to secondary schools is so exciting.
“I am determined to ensure we continue to promote reading as one of life’s greatest pleasures – and that young people reap the benefits of the resulting educational attainment that can be achieved.”
Michael Wilkie, Literacy Coordinator from St Andrew’s and St Bride’s High School, said: ‘We are absolutely thrilled to be part of the First Minister’s Reading Challenge. Reading has been such an important aspect of our plans for raising attainment in the last few years, and this exciting initiative will be the drive to expand reading for pleasure across the entire school community.
“Plans are already in progress to engage parents to help their children be the best readers they can be, to support staff across the curriculum to confidently teach and assess reading, and to give pupils as many opportunities as possible to pick up a book and get reading. With an active and enthusiastic literacy committee and pupils who thrive on reading, we are certainly up for the challenge.’
Marc Lambert, CEO at Scottish Book Trust, which runs the programme, added:”This expansion of the First Minister’s Reading Challenge builds on the huge success of its first year and opens up the joy of reading for pleasure to all primary children. The secondary school pilot will focus on a key age group, among whom reading for pleasure can tail off due to the pressures on time that come with high school.
“The Reading Challenge will focus attention on this, giving pupils more opportunities to share and celebrate what they love reading, delve deeper into writing and discover different ways to enjoy books.”
A literacy programme at Craigroyston Primary School is in the running for a national award. The pioneering programme jointly ran by Scottish Book Trust and Scottish Gas has been announced as a finalist at the Charity Times Awards. Continue reading Craigroyston Primary project is Charity Times Award finalist
Edinburgh International Book Festival kicks off today, and organisers are asking for people to share their special memories of Edinburgh’s Festivals to help create a piece of collective writing celebrating the 70th anniversary of Edinburgh becoming a Festival City. Continue reading Share your Festival memories
Visitors to Edinburgh’s Central Library will be able to sample a special selection of Nordic noir, as well as sci-fi, history and poetry, thanks to a delivery by the Finnish Institute in London. Continue reading Library receives special consignment of Scandinavian stories
Partnership provides new opportunities for students, faculty and the wider campus community to maximise the value of their unwanted books
Better World Books, the award-winning, socially minded global bookseller, is delighted to announce a new partnership with the EAUC, the environmental and sustainability champion within Further and Higher Education in the UK, to drive sustainability and book reuse at university and college campuses across the UK.
The EAUC and Better World Books will work together to locate book banks which will provide students, staff and the wider community with a convenient and easy way to donate books that they no longer want. Books that are collected will be processed at the Better World Books distribution centre in Dunfermline and listed for sale on www.betterworldbooks.co.uk and other online marketplaces. A percentage of every book sold will support the EAUC’s mission. Any books that cannot be sold will be donated or recycled–no books ever become landfill. The book banks are supplied free of charge by Better World Books.
Better World Books successfully operates its book bank programme at various locations across the UK, including Fife. In Fife alone, almost one million books have been collected since 2013.
The EAUC leads and empowers the post-16 education sector to put sustainability at the heart of the way the world operates. The EAUC believes that both the issues of social, environmental and economic sustainability are interlinked as well as the solutions.
Iain Patton, EAUC CEO, said, “EAUC’s new partnership with Better World Books aims to help our members bridge the ‘learning gap’ and stop books being lost to landfill.”
Better World Books, as a founding member of the B Corp movement and the winner of the VIBES Circular Economy Award in 2015, shares similar goals of reuse and sustainability.
Martin Mullin, Head of Sales UK for Better World Books added, “This exciting partnership between the EAUC and Better World Books is a brilliant concept with sustainability at the very centre. Together we will work to place book banks across Universities and Colleges and collect books that would otherwise be going to landfills. The book banks are a very convenient way for everyone involved in campus life to participate. We’re really pleased to be working with an organisation that shares our environmental goals and values.”
BOOKBUG WEEK 15 – 21 MAY: Bookbug’s Big Giggle
Bookbug Week, an annual celebration of Scotland’s national book gifting programme, will take place between 15 and 21 May, with hundreds of free events for children and babies held across the country.
This year’s theme is Bookbug’s Big Giggle – a fun and playful theme that encourages parents and carers to share playful songs and stories with their children in order to highlight that laughter is essential for well-being and for building bonds between carers and children.
Now in its seventh year, Bookbug Week 2017 will see free Big Giggle themed events taking place in every local authority in Scotland, with special appearances from some of the UK’s best-loved children’s authors and illustrators. Schools and nurseries across the country can also tune in to watch a fun-filled Authors Live event with Alex T Smith, streamed live at 11am on Wednesday 17 May.
Some fantastic Bookbug prizes will also be up for grabs in on-line competitions throughout the week. Families can find details of all Bookbug Week events taking place in their area by dropping in to their local library or by visiting the website at http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/bookbugweek
Marc Lambert, CEO of Scottish Book Trust, said: “Bookbug Week invites every family with young children to take part in the hundreds of free and fun-filled events across Scotland, to celebrate the joy that comes from sharing books and rhymes together. This year’s theme highlights how sharing these fun songs and stories can help with children’s confidence, development, connectivity and over-all well-being.
“Bookbug Week is also the perfect chance to find out more about the Bookbug programme. If you have never been to a Bookbug session this is a great opportunity to experience the fun.”
Bookbug sessions are free story, song and rhyme sessions run by libraries and other community venues across Scotland, with national audiences of over half a million in 2016-17. To celebrate Bookbug Week, Paisley Central Library is holding their very first Bookbug Gigglethon, a Bookbug Session relay starting at 9.30am and finishing at 4.30pm. Families can come along at any time during the day to experience some fun songs, rhymes and stories.
Flagship events to mark Bookbug Week will take place at Callendar House in Falkirk on Wednesday (17 May) between 10am and 2pm, and at the newly opened Carnegie Library in Dunfermline on Friday (19 May) between 10am and 2pm. These are free events, packed with activities and open to all parents, guardians and their babies and children. Illustrator Kasia Matyjaszek will be leading an arts workshop at both events.
Funded by the Scottish Government, Bookbug is Scottish Book Trust’s Early Years Programme. The Bookbug programme encourages mums, dads and carers to sing and share stories with their children from birth. It provides every child in Scotland with four free bags of books, gifting 720,000 books every year. Over 240,000 children in Scotland benefitted last year, with even more set to receive free books in 2017.
Bookbug also runs regular free story, song and rhyme events in libraries, shopping centres and other community venues which attracted audiences of over half a million parents and children in 2016-17.
