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We’d like to say a huge thank you to all of the authors and organisations who helped make the programme possible, including The Ark, Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin Circus Project, ReCreate, The Rediscovery Centre, Dublin Zoo, Createschool, Dogs Trust, Junior Einsteins Science Club, Sarah Tully, Sarah Bowie, Sadhbh Devlin and Sadhbh Rosenstock.

Get Reading! Now that school is over you can still spark your imagination, join in activities and take part in our exciting Summer Stars challenge. This year you can do a marathon read, a sprint read or a read from your couch; if you would like to register for the Summer Stars reading challenge, contact your local library.

One thing that has become really clear from talking to children is the huge role that reading plays in fostering their interest in history. Often reading historical fiction is a kind of gateway into exploring a particular historical period or topic. In response to this, I co-designed with a group of very dedicated young readers of history, a monthly history book group for children.

October was a busy month at Ballymun Library for children’s activities with many events organised in conjunction with Children’s Book Festival 2019 and Stemsational Saturdays’ activities for 8 to 12 year olds to name but a few.This time of year wouldn’t be complete without the Library’s dedicated Hallowe’en storytelling sessions for 0 to 4 year olds. These took place on the 29th of October at 10am and 11am, respectively. Most of the attendees dressed up for the occasion and had a spooktacular time.Millie Donnelly dressed as a witch at the Baby/Wobbler Hallowe’en Book Club. At the baby session, the book ‘Spot’s Spooky Fun’ by Eric Hill was read by Maria Sheahan (Librarian). Eric Hill has written many stories for babies including ‘Spot Says Goodnight’ and ‘Spot Goes to School’. This is a lovely story for babies and wobblers where Spot has the difficult task of deciding which costume he should wear for Hallowe’en. The group was captivated proving this story is a perfect Hallowe’en read for young babies. The Toddlers heard the story ‘Usborne Noisy Spooky Book’. As you can see from the photos, this book is always a big hit with small children! Isabella Forsyth is the dashing pumpkin and Amelia Sweeney is batgirl. They love hearing the creepy sound effects that go with the story and it’s a fun choice for grown-ups to read! Hallowe’en rhymes were also taught to the children after each storytelling session. Finally, toys and sweet treats were provided to complete the sessions.Ballymun Library’s Book Clubs for Younger Children will continue on a weekly basis on Tuesdays during November and early December.  The Baby/Wobbler Book Club (0 to 2 Year Olds) runs from 10.00am to 10.45am and the Toddler Book Club (2 Year Olds to pre-school age) runs from 11.00am to 11.45am.  No advance booking is necessary.Join us each week in making family reading a magical and fun experience! 

The “Join Up, Join In” initiative aims to encourage schoolchildren in 4th class to join their local Library. The competition was launched by the Lord Mayor in Ballymun Library on October 10th.The winning design will be used for all children’s library cards in the future. Speaking at the launch the Lord Mayor said: “I want to see every child in the city get a library card and use their local libraries.  The libraries provide such an amazing range of free services from books to creative activities and introduce children to reading at an early age.  To kick-start this initiative I’m inviting 4th class students across Dublin city to enter the competition to design the new children’s library card.  Be as creative as you can and you may see every child in Dublin holding a library card with your design!”Children can enter the competition by handing their designs in to their local library or enter through their schools. A design template in Irish and English is available from all branches of Dublin City Council Libraries and participating Schools.The competition will run until 22nd November 2019.  A welcoming pack, including the new card, will be delivered to all 4th classes in the New Year.Mairead Owens, Dublin City Librarian, said, “I am very proud to support the Lord Mayor’s initiative. In libraries, we celebrate childhood, and children, through the joy of reading. Our branch libraries provide fun spaces to enjoy, imagine and explore, so I invite all 4th class children in the Dublin City area to ‘Join Up and Join In’.  We look forward to welcoming you and your friends and family to your local library.”The Lord Mayor with 4th class pupils from the North Dublin National School Project, Ballymun. 

This spring children in Dublin are urged to keep their eyes peeled for mysterious aliens at their local library as Bumpfizzle – the Best on Planet Earth by Patricia Forde, has been chosen for the 2019 Citywide Reading Campaign for Children.Bumpfizzle is an alien, sent to Earth from Planet Plonk on a research mission. Or is he really just a ten-year-old boy who is feeling a bit disgruntled at all the attention his parents are lavishing on The Baby? It is up to readers to make up their own minds. The author, Patricia Forde, has published numerous books for children in English and in Irish, two plays, in addition to several television drama series for children and teenagers. She has worked as a writer on both English and Irish language soap operas. In another life, she was a primary school teacher and the artistic director of Galway Arts Festival.The illustrator Elīna Brasliņa is an illustrator from Riga, Latvia. She has illustrated fifteen titles to date, most of them picturebooks, children’s books and young adult novels. Her work has been nominated for many local awards as well as the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal. She has twice received the Zelta Abele Award for Book Design, as well as the Janis Baltvilks Baltic Sea Region Award (2017).This is the eighth year of the city wide reading initiative. Previous books selected for the Citywide Reading Campaign in previous years include; Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent by Alan Early, The Nightmare Club series featuring Annie Graves, The Powers by Kevin Stevens, Danger is Everywhere by David O’Doherty and Chris Judge, The Book of Learning by E.R. Murray, Knights of the Borrowed Dark by Dave Rudden and last year’s book was Making Millions by Erika McGann. The aim of the campaign is to encourage children to read for pleasure. There will be author visits to many Dublin City Council branch libraries as well as city-centre based events in bookshops, the National Library of Ireland and Dublin City Gallery – Hugh Lane. The campaign ends with fun events based on the book, as part of the St. Patrick’s Festival’s in Merrion Square. Copies of the book are available in all Dublin City Public Libraries as well as in all good bookshops.  Dublin City Council Library stock can be borrowed from libraries nationwide.Key Events;•    Author visits to Dublin City Public Library branches between January and March. Class visits booked locally at branch libraries.•    Cabra Library, Navan Road, Dublin 7, Tuesday 29th January at 3.30pm (Booking Essential; [email protected] or ph. 8691414).•    The National Library of Ireland, Kildare St, Dublin 2. Thursday 7th February at 10am (Booking required: Contact Bríd O’Sullivan  [email protected])•    Dublin City Gallery - The Hugh Lane, Charlemont House, Parnell Square North, Dublin 1 Saturday 16th March 11am-12pmAuthor Patricia Forde says: “I am delighted and very excited that Bumpfizzle The Best on Planet Earth is the 2019 Citywide Read.  Bumpfizzle is an alien- which may attract some funny business from other planets - but I think Dublin children are up for that. I sincerely hope so.  We may need heroes before this is over.”(Dublin City Public Library Staff, Patricia Forde and Kids at Launch)(Photo Credit Fennell Photography)You can download a Reading Guide to the book, suitable for teachers and parents at http://www.dublincityofliterature.ie/projects/citywide-read/The campaign is run by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and Dublin City Council Public Libraries, in partnership with Little Island Books, and is funded by Dublin City Council’s Public Library Service and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. 

In April and May of 2017 Dolphin's Barn Library hosted a series of workshops where young historians learned how to combine research, storytelling, drawing and digital animation to tell a tale from Irish history.Expert facilitators included historian Conor Kostick and author and illustrator Alan Nolan. The result is this exciting video set in Dublin 1920.

We had lots of fun in the library tent and mobile library at the Rose Festival in St Anne's Park Raheny on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 July 2017. It was a busy day full of books and reading themed events, arts and crafts and performance.  Ruth Concannon, Reader in Residence at Dublin City Public Libraries read stories to younger children in our library tent and Book Advisors Patricia and Catherine enjoyed chatting to children about what they like to read and offering some book recommendations.  Lots of young readers dropped by to find out about the best summer reads and sign up for our Summer Stars Reading challenge.We were delighted to meet the many people, including Dublin poet Pat Ingoldsby, who popped onto the mobile library for a browse and a chat.  The ‘Go Fly Your Kite’ team hosted a kite making workshop for older children and No Strings Theatre brought stories to life with their puppet show adaptation of ‘The Gruffalo’. Many thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hello or to attend one of our events. See you next year!The historic St Anne’s Park in Raheny lies close to the coast on the north side of Dublin City. Situated in this park is one of the finest rose gardens in Europe. The 6 hectare oval garden has more than 25,000 rose plants, grouped according to type. Across the main avenue of the park lies the garden of miniature roses, completed in 1986.

This May, children from Raheny and Edenmore schools had fun discovering the magic of reading - with a little help from some fairies and elves! Over 200 children visited Raheny Library where they enjoyed a storytelling session with Lisa Yeates, arts and crafts and a tour of Raheny Library's fairy and elf garden.   Raheny Library's new garden seems to have proved an attractive holiday destination for fairies and elves! It looks like the fairies have been relaxing, pottering in the garden, playing on the swings and slide, playing football and of course catching up on their reading!The programme aims to foster a love of reading and to encourage parents and children to read at home together.  Each child received a library card and a special booklet. They were asked to read four books, then come back to the Library to get their special card stamped.  On completion of the reading challenge each child received a certificate, a pencil and some fairy glitter. The children were from junior infants and senior infants classes, and a total of 218 children participated.  The programme was a great success, and as you can see, the children had great fun using their imaginations.

As Christmas approaches, Santa is sending an elf to Cabra Library. Our library elf will hide in the library during the day, and at night return to the north pole to report back to Santa on children's behaviour. Now our library elf is quite mischievous and won't be hiding in the same place each day, just so you know! Sunday is a rest day, don't forget.As a little challenge, and a lot of fun, we would like children to try and find our library elf in their different hiding place on each of the 12 days of Christmas! Starting this Saturday (10th Dec). But to find our elf you will need to use the clue we will post each day. Otherwise you never will and won't be in with a chance to win our daily prize!So children, find our elf and win a prize! On each of the 12 days of Christmas!At 3pm each day we will post on Twitter and Facebook the clue for children as to where our elf may be hiding in the library. The clue will be posted in the library itself at 3.15pm. So parents need to get involved and retrieve the clues on Twitter and Facebook and pass it on to their children asap!.  If a child guesses correctly or finds the elf's hiding place they must contact the librarian to receive a small prize.But a word of warning! Our library elf must not be touched as they will lose that Christmas magic and not be able to return to the north pole!Clues will be posted on the following days:Sat 10th, Mon 12th, Tue13th, Wed 14th, Thu 15th, Fri 16th, Sat 17th, Mon 19th, Tue 20th, Wed 21st, Thu 22nd, Fri 23rd.3pm each day on Twitter and Facebook, 3.15pm in the library.*** Links for parents to check: @dubcilib Twitter | Twitter hashtag #CabraElf | Dublin City Public Libraries on Facebook***Entries will not be accepted via Facebook or Twitter. Children must attend the library to claim a prize.Children, enjoy!Below: Our library Elf surveying the library in advance in order to find the best hiding places!