There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.
–Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
The weather has been interesting over the last few weeks, which isn't ideal when you have an outside library, or book tree, as we like to call it. At the start of the year, we decided to create 'Book of the Month', so that every month we put a new book (or books) into the book tree, for people to enjoy. Some months, these will follow along with a theme, and some months, they will be a popular, recommended read. When the book tree first went in, we had thought that children would be the biggest users, in fact it is an equal split. So if one section is looking a bit neglected, that helps us to pick a topic to choose from. Usually the book tree is pretty low maintenance, with people taking books and leaving books on a regular basis.
Book of the Month ~ January
Our choices for January: Fearne Cotton's Happy and The Almanac (garden bible).
Book of the Month ~ February
Our Choice for February: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.
World Book Day ~ 1st March
World Book Day is something to be embraced, that time when children focus on their favourite books and characters. Every year World Book Day releases books that can be bought for a £1 - £2.50, with many schools taking up the scheme and providing the tokens so that all children can access a new book. So we decided to get a good selection of those books, with book tokens, so that even more children can take part.
During the Christmas period we were lucky enough to receive £50 worth of book tokens from our wonderful local Rotary Club - Rotary Club of Runcorn. They gave them to us, in the form of £5 book tokens and we have had great fun hiding them amongst the books in tree. This is something we have done before and I think, something that we will continue to do. It's important to encourage reading in all forms, from visiting your local library to the thrill of buying a book from your local book store.
We are currently working on a longer post about the book tree, how it was made and how it was funded, so stay tuned for that. Tomorrow is International Women's Day, so of course we have something planned for that!