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Age guideline 7-11
About the event
What is your school library like? What are some of your favourite books? Who recommended them to you? Who do you think would like to read them too?
Earlier in the year Waterstones Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell made headline news when she wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on the government to ring-fence annual funding of £100m for primary school library spaces.
Join Cressida as she talks about her Life-changing Libraries project and the power of library spaces in primary schools to genuinely change lives with teachers and children at Griffin Primary School in London who are one of six schools taking part in the project, receiving a bespoke library space and support to develop a reading for pleasure culture.
Cressida will share some of her favourite books that she was encouraged to love as a child, and that have gone on to influence her How to Train Your Dragon and Wizards of Once series. And some of the children from Griffin Primary School will tell you about their favourite books and what a difference their new library is making to their school!
Buy one of Cressida’s Books here: The Wizards of Once
The Wizards of Once: Twice Magic
The Wizards of Once: Knock Three Times
The Wizards of Once: Never and Forever
How to access the event
From 1 January 2022, this event will move to our collection of Past Event Videos where you can access all past festival events for a small one-off fee of £5. Go to the top of the page to view Past Event Videos. Please click here to sign up or log in if you are already a member.
Teacher Resources
This event talks about the importance of libraries and reading for pleasure. The children from Griffin Primary School and Cressida Cowell recommend some of their favourite books. Use this event to spark some Book Talk - have you read any of the recommendations? Did you enjoy them? What books would you recommend reading? Based on the books the children and Cressida chose in the event - what other books do you think they would enjoy?
The children talk about funny books, books that make them feel cosy, ones with adventure or great rhymes or comic illustrations. What books can you think of that might fit into those categories?
About the Author
Cressida Cowell is the number one bestselling author-illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon and The Wizards of Once book series, and the author of the Emily Brown picture books, illustrated by Neal Layton. She has sold over 11 million books worldwide in 38 languages. How to Train Your Dragon is also an award-winning billion-dollar DreamWorks film series, and a TV series shown on Netflix and CBBC; The Wizards of Once has also been optioned for film by DreamWorks.
Cressida is an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust, a trustee for World Book Day and a founder patron of the Children’s Media Foundation. She has won numerous prizes for her books, including the Blue Peter Book Award and the Ruth Rendell Award for Championing Literacy. She is a honorary fellow of Keble College Oxford, and has a honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton. She grew up in London and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland and she now lives in Hammersmith with her husband, three children and a dog called Pigeon.
Twitter: @CressidaCowell
Instagram: @cressidacowellauthor
Facebook: cressidacowellbooks
Website: https://www.cressidacowell.co.uk
About the festival partner
This event has been programmed by Bath Children’s Literature Festival
Bath Festivals is a charity that brings you the Bath Children’s Literature Festival, Europe’s largest dedicated children’s literature festival with a vibrant array of talks and activities for children. They are also responsible for The Bath Festival in the summer which bring the city alive with a celebration of music and books in the beautiful venues and spaces of the world heritage city. By creating innovative and diverse programmes, their festivals inspire and provide unique experiences for residents and visitors to Bath and surrounding areas. Their year-round creative learning programme of hands-on music and literature projects gives children and young people opportunities to gain real-world experience, building their inner confidence and improving communication skills through the arts.