World Book Day 2021 – today was a good day!

World Book Day is always a highlight of the year when you’re a children’s author, and 2021 was no exception for me. In fact, it was better than all previous World Book Days put together for this children’s author! And it’s all thanks to modern technology…

I have been doing free Zoom sessions with schools, charities and other organisations for the past month, and every single one has been great fun. I’ve read either One Night in Beartown or Sarah’s Shadow each time, followed by a Q&A with the kids. Naturally, World Book Day was the day that most schools wanted to book me for, and needlessly to say it ended up being a busy one! I did seven Zooms that day, some to individual classes, some to whole schools. In total, I must have read One Night in Beartown to around a thousand children that day: the stuff dreams are made of!

As if that wasn’t enough, I was also approached a few weeks earlier to take part in Gloworm Festival‘s virtual event, Bookworm Festival, on World Book Day. They were looking for authors to read one of their books to camera, so I arranged for my friend Martin Hobby to film me reading One Night in Beartown ‘Jackanory’ style in my lounge. Long story short, I soon got to see my name in a festival line-up alongside some big-name children’s authors like David McKee of Elmer fame and Kes Gray reading the classic Oi Frog!

So at 11:30 on World Book Day, while I was Zooming with Mossley C of E School in Congleton, reading One Night in Beartown to a school in Beartown, I was reading the same book in a recorded video that was transmitted on Gloworm’s Facebook page. You can watch the video below:

I thoroughly enjoyed every Zoom I did on and around World Book Day and I’d like to thank all the schools that booked me, and that continue to book me. While it may not be as good as being able to physically visit the schools, it is the next best thing, and I hope the kids enjoy it as much as I do. Hopefully next year I will be able to come and see lots of you again but in person! I might have one or two new books to read to you by then as well.

Roll on, World Book Day 2022!