Thursday 3 July 2014

Nottinghamshire libraries: summer activities


Mythical Mazes 
in Nottinghamshire Libraries

This year’s Summer Reading Challenge has “mythical mazes” for it’s theme...an invitation to go wandering down the corridors of our imaginations and to get lost in the knotted remains of furniture or in the dust under the bed...or perhaps to stray into the gardens where stone lions where coral hats, plastic bag dragons go flapping past and boggarts leer at us from the shadows....

look out to the green world
beyond the maze
The Summer Reading Challenge is an annual initiative inspiring young people to read 6 books during their summer holidays. At the end, they receive a medal and certificate. It is run through libraries in conjunction with the Reading Agency. 

Add a creepy house
from a 2013 workshop
Last year's theme was Creepy House with readers earning some spooky smelly stickers during the weeks of the Challenge, (the strange scent of the garlic sticker lingers with me to this day). I was leading workshops in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City libraries creating the creepy houses we would like to visit. Who knows what will appear in this summer's sessions?

This year, i am doing workshops in some of the Nottinghamshire LIbraries (Derbyshire sessions will follow in another blog). In the Nottinghamshire sessions, I’ll tell a maze-tale or two, or we'll set off into labyrinths of adventure. Then we will make our own pop-up mazes, adding our own stories and maybe making mythical monster to hide in your maze or, or  magical doorway to trick you in (or let you out), or maybe some fabulous treasure (or just ice-cream) that is hidden deep in the cold heart of it all....  

a door waiting for a key,
who knows what waits behind it? 
Nottinghamshire Dates
Link for Notts libraries in general.

Thursday 31st July: Newark Library, www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/librariesevents
Thursday 14th August: Stapleford Library, www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/librariesevents

At each library there will be 2 workshops: 10.30 - 12.30 and 1.30 - 3.30 (the afternoon will be the same session as the morning)

all sessions: 
  • are free
  • do not need booking - visitors are welcome to just drop in - but leave at least 45 minutes to have time to make something
  • are aimed at children of 5 - 11 years of age - check library details for who can be left and what ages need an attendant adult
  • materials are provided
  • tall hairy, toady storyteller comes with the whole package
a cheerful boggart ready to join in

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