Celebrating children's literary classics on World Book Day

A crowd of girls and a chorus of giggles welcomed World Book Day into the Junior School library. Pinned to the library door was an Emoji Book Title Quiz – think 🧍🏻‍♀️🧍🏼🧍🏽‍♀️🐻🔍 and 🐌🐳; it got trickier with 💚 ️🥚🥚🍖! This quiz set the tone for the day: as girls greeted their teachers, they made a beeline for the book images stuck to their staff lanyards, eager to ask which book each teacher was displaying, and why. By 8.40am, school was buzzing – about books! 

As the girls dispersed to their classrooms, parents took over the library for our half-termly Parent Book Club. Unusually, perhaps, this book club meets to discuss children’s books published in the 8-12 years category. Mrs MacDougall, Junior School Librarian, explains why: “Children’s books are fab! Pacy stories, authentic characters, meaty topics, beautiful writing – what's not to love about kids’ lit! And of course, the girls can read them too – our parents often find their daughters have picked up the current book and read it first!” Today’s book was Running on the Roof of the World by Jess Butterworth. Set in Tibet, this novel is part of a global collection of library books selected for our Spring Term Library Reading Challenge – Read Around the World in a Book. There was a wide range of discussion points over coffee: how to talk about world conflict with children; how to instil resilience in children; and to what extent we demonstrate and / or promote family values at home, to name a few. 

Our World Book Day treat, sponsored by the Friends of Redmaids’ High Junior School, was a performance of The Secret Garden by visiting theatre company M & M Theatrical Productions. The show was perfectly pitched at the 7-11 aged audience and really brought to life the story and characters in Frances Hodgeson Burnett’s classic novel. “It was fun watching the wheelchair whizz across the stage”, said Arabella, Year 5. “I liked it when Colin stood up for the first time, he had very wobbly legs”, added Arya, Year 3. And what moments did they like best? “Everything!” they replied. 

At lunchtime, a Book Club discussing The Secret Garden was in full flow – including squash and biscuits, of course! Headteacher Mrs Brown explained the importance of reading classics with children: “A book becomes a classic when it’s stood the test of time, when it’s still popular and relevant as the years go by. The theme of nature promoting good mental health and wellbeing is as pertinent today as it was when the book was published in 1911.” As Book Club drew to a close, girls were inspired to seek out A Little Princess from the library shelves, another book by the same author. 

Throughout the week, the ever-busy Friends of the Junior School have been running a pre-loved book sale. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Children’s Book Project, a charity close to our hearts, taking books directly to children who may not otherwise own a book of their own. Additionally, we’ve welcomed a book sale from our partnership with independent book shop, Max Minerva’s - they inspired us with new titles to complement our Read Around the World collection. 

Watch this space for future library events! Coming soon is the opportunity to create a character to be included in the next Ed and Bunny picture book by Matt Carr. Next term we are delighted to be hosting an author visit from Ash Bond, a Bristol writer, who will be promoting her debut novel, Peregrine Quinn and the Cosmic Realm.