The Crediton Community Bookshop team are delighted to be joint winners of The Prince of Wales’ Award 2017, a scheme run by the Devon County Agricultural Association. The standard was very high among the shortlisted applicants and this year it was decided that there would be two winners. The Award is intended to embrace a wide range of schemes where there has been a genuine attempt to move forward in a resourceful and inventive way to the benefit of a rural community. The team of judges, Lady Arran, the Hon Sarah Lopes, David Parish and Trevor Larcombe, visited the shop in April and talked to manager, Dee Lalljee, and Cathie Holden who leads the schools outreach programme.

Dee and Cathie explained the ways in which CCB works with children, schools and teachers to foster a love of reading, taking local authors into schools and running individual sessions for classes where children are introduced to new writers and books. The judges were interested to learn that CCB goes to very small schools across the county as well as working with large secondary schools, in both the state and independent sectors.

As well as promoting social sustainability through reading, CCB is hosting a professional development course for local teachers, where they will get together with tutors and trainee teachers from Exeter University to discuss six children’s books shortlisted for the UK Literacy Association award. CCB staff shared their passion for inspiring children (and adults too) to read for pleasure and to get the reading habit at a young age!

Receiving the Award

On 19th May, CCB received the Prince of Wales’ Award at the Devon County Show. 

Meeting Prince Charles

On Thursday 20th July some of the Crediton Bookshop team visited the Barnstaple Pannier Market to be presented to the HRH as winners of the Prince of Wales’ Award 2017.

A Gift for the Grandchildren

The team gave Prince Charles a copy of Amy Sparkes’ The Goodnight Star for his grandchildren, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

CCB are loving working with the schools in our local area and look forward to developing
these relationships, sharing a love of reading with more and more children. To find out more about our work within schools, please visit our Schools page. To order a copy of The Goodnight Star, please call us on 01363 774740 or drop into the shop – we’d love to meet you.