World Book Day at New Wimbledon Theatre
This March, Wimbledon BookFest had tremendous fun celebrating World Book Day by hosting numerous local primary schools at New Wimbledon Theatre with a range of children’s authors: Sir Lenny Henry, A.F. Steadman and Francesca Simon author of the Horrid Henry books.
Over 23 Merton primary schools (19 State and 4 Independent) attended an event at New Wimbledon Theatre on 27 February to see Sir Lenny Henry on stage, making this the largest children’s author event ever held by Wimbledon BookFest. It set the tone for all the World Book Day events, aiming to provide opportunities for every young child in the local area to be inspired and get excited about reading!
As one young audience member perfectly put it: “I like reading because your imagination runs wild with it, it’s like a holiday in your head!”
The events held were varied and interactive with Merton children given the opportunity to hear Sir Lenny Henry tell some of his most hilarious jokes (and even amuse him with some of their own) or watch Steve May provide a live demonstration of exactly how he illustrated Francesca Simon’s most recent series: Two Terrible Vikings.
Excitingly, all events saw a live World Book Day author’s reading of their most recently published work: The Boy with Wings by Lenny Henry, Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A.F. Steadman and Two Terrible Vikings: Feast with the King by A.F Steadman. Most importantly, Wimbledon BookFest ensured that all children in attendance received their very own copy of the books with some schools even getting a rare chance to meet the authors and have their books signed!
From this inspiring setting, Wimbledon BookFest was also able to launch this year’s Young Writer’s Competition. Using the theme of HOME we ask children of all ages to now put their own writer’s hats on and continue to immerse themselves in the world of reading and of writing because as Sir Lenny Henry said, “anything that encourages kids to read for pleasure is a good thing”.
