Organised by Year 8 and 7 Librarians, Mowden's 'World Book Day 2024' celebrated illustrated stories. Through a variety of House Competition activities, the children explored their House books, and the relationship between illustrations and words in the stories within. Please enjoy the 'Commemorative Plate' display in the Dining Room corridor, the next time you find yourself in the Front Hall. 

'The Puffin Storymakers Show' for 'World Book Day', enhanced our appreciation of writing as a detective, through Robin Stevens' presentation. Her books are long-term favourites of the Mowden Library. Happily too, Ed Vere's presentation of his book 'The Artist', provided a perfect platform for demonstrating the links between art and words.  

Two illustrative meals, 'Paint Your Palate', and 'The Great Gaulish Feast', provided the children with multi-sensory experiences that make good stories, memorable stories. Mr Pearson and his staff took inspiration from a range of ideas, including Dennis's catapult; Pooh's love of hunny; and Obelix's belief that boar is definitely best! The resulting menu vocabulary combined with the ingredients' colours and flavours to create, not a gentle summer afternoon's dozy hum, but a fully fuelled buzz of talk in the dining room. 

Further flavour was added by our Year 7 Librarians' use of costume and role play, to ensure their peers from the Nursery to Year 8, interacted with famous children's characters. The day marks the first time I have witnessed the presence of a water pistol in action in the Mowden dining room, and Mr Shaw-Kew chasing a child, literally, out of the front door.

A visit from Mrs Blissett at lunchtime, reminded us of the other valuable reason for celebrating 'World Book Day' each year: to collect book donations. She updated the children on how their donations are used by 'Development Direct', and a display of this information will provide an ongoing reminder. She was also able to give us the name of another local school to donate to. Some research on the value of book ownership and school Libraries will also be displayed. 

Our celebratory approach allows us to share our love of books as a community, and to highlight the needs of others who do not share the same advantages, both close to home, and further away in Kenya. 

Building on the momentum of 'World Book Day', our next challenge links seamlessly with Science Week's theme of 'Time'. We are lucky to have a range of 'time' themed books in the Library, and some of these will be on display in the Front Hall until the end of term. We will be entering the ISEB 'Time to Write' short story competition. Further details will follow.