Our CCB schools team has had a fantastic two weeks visiting schools across the county celebrating World Book Day. Despite the arrival of the snow, book-fairs that had to be cancelled were ingeniously rescheduled and the celebrations continued throughout the following week!

We visited large schools and small schools and schools in between: from primary schools with 35 children to secondary schools with over 1,000. We bring books to children and young adults who would otherwise have no access to books or bookshops, for example, pupils at the special school linked to Torbridge High in Plymouth.

Our visit Okehampton Primary School on the Friday was called off due to snow, but thanks to fantastic communication from school to parents, we arrived on Monday to find all 750 children in their WBD costumes ready for our book events! 

In all the 11 primary schools visited we had half hour sessions with each class or year group where we introduced the children to new books and new authors from our Top 20 list of recommended books, reading extracts to the children. By the end of the fortnight we had talked about books to nearly 3000 children!

Highlights included a Year 6 class who arrived rather fidgety and looking nonplussed by the prospect of book chat, but after a few paragraphs of The Explorer (Katherine Rundell) you could have heard a pin drop! They all left the session chatting eagerly about the books they wanted to read. In one school the Year 5s snapped up all copies of The Explorer before Year 6 arrived….luckily a new order had just arrived at CCB so one of our team rushed to the school with additional supplies! Teachers, too, were genuinely excited by our book selection and knowledgeable staff and shared their enthusiasm with their pupils.

Books went flying off the shelves, from Skeleton School and Perfectly Norman for the youngest children, and the Puppy Academy series and Blunderbeard for beginner readers. Pugs of the Frozen North and Knitbone Pepper were incredibly popular with Years 3 & 4, and Gorilla Dawn and The Explorer were both loved by the older children.

It was a real treat to include local authors Amy Sparkes (Pirate Blunderbeard), Claire Barker (the Knitbone Pepper series), Tom McLaughlin (the Accidental series), Emma Cox (Malkin Moonlight) and Philip Reeve (Railhead) in our list of popular titles. We were delighted to expand our visiting schedule to include three secondary schools this year, taking 20 additional titles and sharing book inspiration with older readers.

Call into the shop to exchange your World Book Day voucher for a brilliant World Book Day book!

We love enabling these rewarding experiences which nurture a lifelong love of books and reading. Visit our Schools page to find out more about our work with schools; all books are carefully discounted at our school events to enable access by all.

If you’d like a copy of any of the books mentioned in this post or want to ask about more about our Top 20 and children’s book recommendations, get in touch and we’d love to help!