THERE will be a host of literary events held across the district next Thursday to mark World Book Day.

The national celebration, on Thursday, March 2, will be marked by many schools, as well as Bradford’s libraries.

Last year thousands of children took part in the Roald Dahl themed event and this year it will mark its 20th anniversary.

There will be activities in most of Bradford’s libraries including author visits, arts sessions and storytelling events.

As in previous years, children will be invited to dress as their favourite literary characters.

World Book Day is run as a charity, with sponsorship from publishers.

In Bradford, author events are being held at City Library, Shipley Library and Eccleshill Library for invited schools. 

"Word Wizard" Andrew Newbound will be at City Library from 10am to 11am with children from Farfield Primary and Woodside Academy, and then at Shipley Library from 1.15pm to 2.15pm with pupils from Thorpe Primary and Farfield Primary.

He will be performing his energetic Brilltastical Dahl did-you-know-athon where children will be tested on their knowledge of Roald Dahl and all his books.

Margaret Mulligan, author of Katy Parker and the House That Cried, will visit Eccleshill Library.

The story is about Katy, a young girl assigned a school history project on WW2, only to find that her research takes a strange turn, when she and her brother find themselves waking up in 1940s England.

The author will be reading extracts from the book and discussing events with pupils.

She will be at the library for two sessions from 9.30am to 10.30am and 10.45am to 11.45am, and children from Year 5 and Year 6 of St Francis Catholic Primary will be taking part.

Teenagers from Carlton Bolling College will be joining the celebrations with a special performance of their World Book Day piece, which they have developed using inspiration from Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes.

They will be performing their short drama performance at City Library on Saturday March 4 from 11am to 11.20am and again at Eccleshill Library from 2pm to 2.20pm.

The performance includes music, drama and is suitable for families of all ages.

Other school visits to libraries include Keelham Primary visiting Thornton Library, Low Ash Primary visiting Wrose Library, St Francis Catholic Primary visiting Eccleshill Library and Trinity All Saints visiting Bingley Library.

A library spokesman said: “We are very excited that we can offer such a wide range of activities to encourage children to celebrate World Book Day and to discover their local library and reading.”

There will also be copies of the World Book Day books to give away to visiting pupils as well as children who come along to pre-school and after school events.

Other events will be themed around books such as Princess Mirror Belle and Pirates Love Underpants.

The World Book Day charity is distributing more than 15 million £1 World Book Day book tokens to children across the country, allowing them to buy a series of books from participating book shops.

A full listing of all Bradford Libraries World Book Day events can be found at bradford.gov.uk/libraries.

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