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Above: With pupils and teacher Helen Dawson at Bute Cottage Nursery

Celebrating “the magic of reading” on World Book Day 2008
posted on 11/03/2008

Hundreds of countries across the globe joined in the annual celebration of World Book Day on the 6th March this year. The aim of the day is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading.

2008 is that national year of reading in Wales – as part of this the Welsh Books Council was given a grant of £350,000 from the Labour-led Assembly Government, to lead and co-ordinate a national campaign to promote reading to young people in Wales in 2008.

I celebrated the day by visiting Bute Cottage Nursery School who recently were given an outstanding inspection report – I was particularly impressed by the excellent Grade One report on literacy and language skills.

Reading is a vital skill which we all need to get ahead in life - it is essential that children are encouraged to read, and are introduced to the pleasure of reading, as early in life as possible.

Reading is one of my favourite hobbies, and when I get chance there is nothing more I like to do than put my feet up and escape in a good Stephen King or Tess Gerritson novel!

2008 is the national year of reading and as part of this I am supporting world book day and Book Aid International – a fantastic organisation which makes over half a million books available each year to readers in 17 African countries, Sri Lanka, and Palestine.

“ think it was Walt Disney who said that ‘’there is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island” and I couldn’t agree more. It was lovely to join the children at Bute Cottage Nursery, most of whom were dressed up as their favourite book characters – from Snow White to Bob the Builder.

World book Day is fantastic –everybody should get involved, it’s a great way to get people together to celebrate the power of the written word.

As part of the celebrations, National Book Tokens Ltd and participating booksellers also encouraged reading by providing school children with a World Book Day £1 Book Token. The Book Token can be exchanged for one of the nine specially published World Book Day £1 Books – see www.worldbookday.com for further details.