That Was The Week That Was ...

... Book Week Scotland: Part One

While it was going on there was hardly time to think! I felt a bit like the woman pictured here on a no-hands-free, bad-hair-day! Book Week Scotland was Scottish Book Trust's first time organising a whole week celebrating and promoting reading in all its forms right across Scotland. 

Here in Orkney the library was well ahead of the game. Before this Reader in Residence was even a twinkle in Scottish Book Trust's eye, the staff at Orkney Library and Archive had organised a whole programme of activities. There were events for all ages, from babies and schoolchildren to adults. The library was buzzing.

Book Bug

Book Bug is Scottish Book Trust's project to encourage reading in children by catching them young. Very young! At Book Bug sessions run in different parts of Orkney by Louise and Patsy, Amber and Jane, you will find babies as young as a few weeks old as well as toddlers and pre-schoolers. They bring their parents along too, mums mostly but some dads. And sometimes grandparents. Through songs and rhymes and actions children learn that reading and books are fun. 

In the special Book Week Scotland Book Bug, the room was crowded and it's clear that the sessions are very popular. When you come to think of it, there aren't that many public spaces that welcome large groups of parents with babies and young children, and even fewer that encourage the whole group to sing and recite rhymes and look at books together. But libraries do! The places traditionally associated with stern librarians shutting people up - how cool is that!  

The children love it. Take Cole Mitchell, here on the left with his mum. I wrote about him in the blog a couple of weeks back. The first time I met him was with his granny. He was racing about the library, thoroughly at home. Cole dressed up for the special Book Bug session in a tartan shirt and dungarees with a picture of a tractor pinned to the front. A farmer, then! His granny and his mum told me he loved tractors and that he was always on the move. But when things go suspiciously quiet, they know they will find Cole with his nose in a book.

Monsters and Primary Ones

Every P1 class in the Kirkwall area came into the library for a story session around the shortlisted books for the Scottish Children's Book Award. The three books on the list for the younger age category were given by Scottish Book Trust to every P1 child in Scotland. So the Orkney children came to the library sessions having read them already and were ready to join in when Louise and Patsy told the stories.

One small boy called Jack was so taken with the fact that the boy in one of the stories was also Jack, that he could barely contain his excitement!

Solomon Crocodile was followed by a song involving crocodiles, monkeys and crazy elephants, along with appropriate actions. 

And when asked their favourite of the three books, opinion was divided, but The Day Louis Was Eaten, with its monsters within monsters within monsters tickled the fancy of most of the children who produced drawings of monsters of their own which are still gracing the library wall a week on.

Vikings in Orkney

Orkney has a long and colourful association with the Vikings, so it was fitting that Victoria Campbell should visit and talk about her book to older school children and some adults. There were tales of daring and adventure and tantalising glimpses of a voyage for hidden gold. The story, accompanied by demonstrations of Viking swords and shields, had the P7 children on the edge of their seats.

Next blog will review the events for the big kids - the adults!

Orkney Library's Two Mouseketeers

Book Bug in Book Week Scotland

A Very Hungry Caterpillar

A Green Crocodile

To celebrate Book Week Scotland in Orkney Library, Louise and Patsy appeared as Mickey and Minnie Mouse to sing songs and encourage reading in the very young. The babies dressed up too - as characters from books. There were Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, a crocodile, various cuddly animals and many more. 

If you're happy and you know it ... 

wave a big fat Mickey Mouse hand!

Minnie & Mini Minnie

Peedie Fairy

Who's been eating MY porridge - er, fairy cakes?  Goldilocks and Two of Her Three Bears

To see more photos of Book Bug in Book Week Scotland, go to the Facebook page of Orkney Library or Alison Miller Orkney Reader in Residence 

The Crocodile, the Orangutan and ...

Patsy and Louise do the Orangutan Shuffle with P1 bairns from Papdale

Meanwhile, upstairs, the Book Bug room is buzzing today as always, parents, babies, toddlers bouncing to the songs and rhymes. 

In the corner Johnny proudly introduces me to his baby sister, Carys. 

While outside the door, the buggies are parked, waiting for their passengers to return. 

Louise Shows the Primary 1 children a display case in the Archives and explains what the straitjacket was used for. The little girl in pink tries to imagine what it might be like to have her arms tied behind her back!

But there's no need for arm-twisting for the children from P1 in Papdale and Glaitness Primary Schools. They are already a captive audience, captivated by the tour of the library and the stories and songs from Louise and Patsy. 

Some of the boys have a good look down into the library from the upstairs corridor.

And when they all leave - happy - to return to their classrooms with their goody bags of three free books from Scottish Book Trust for Book Week Scotland, they form a highly visible crocodile to cross the Kirkwall roads.