Their eyes glitter as Farhana perches on a squashy toadstool and begins to turn the pages, beautifully illustrated by Nabila Adani.
If it’s exciting enough to have a real author present at their school, Longwood Primary near Tamworth, Birmingham, the anticipation is heightened by the fact these young children are sitting for the first time in their new school library, funded through the generosity of Daily Express readers.
When we ran our Christmas 2022 charity campaign in conjunction with charity Give A Book, and supported by the likes of Lee Child, Ian Rankin and Sir Tom Stoppard, we were overwhelmed by your kindness, and by the touching letters that accompanied donations. In all, more than £12,000 was raised.
“Often the money came in £5 and £10 notes, and with such generous kind notes and no return address; expecting nothing back,” explains Victoria Gray, executive director of the charity. One 80-year-old reader wrote to say: “I could not imagine a life without books – turning the pages in anticipation and excitement.”
A widow enclosed a cheque for £25 with the words: “I wish it could be more, but I’m afraid my pension is being stretched to its utmost these days. I have always been an avid reader and tried to encourage my grandchildren to read. There was always a box of books available…”
A third, described how she has “travelled the world, seen many wonders, had so many different adventures, even back in time, and forward in space – all this from the comfort of my chair with a book in my hands. Imagination is pure magic, no person should be denied the chance to experience all this.”
Collectively, you have brought the transformative power of the written word to a new audience of young children in a school where books genuinely have the power to create new horizons.
Longwood – which is an area of high deprivation and where 45 per cent of children receive free school lunches – was chosen as the recipient of this new, custom-built Key Stage One library.
And it was sorely needed. Just six weeks ago, a bin-style bookcase on the floor was crammed between lockers. The school wanted to do more, but lacked the funds.
Today, thanks to the kindness of readers and the expertise of Peters – the library furniture company who installed the inviting facility to the children’s own woodland designs – it has been transformed into an appealing and airy reading space.
The library was officially opened shortly before Christmas by the local mayor, Olivia-Joy Shepherd, 33, who was herself a pupil at the school in the late 1990s; as was her mother in the 1970s.
“I’m so pleased about this library,” says the local youth leader, who has been mayor since May. “When I was at school, this
was just a cloakroom where you hung your coats.”
As she snipped the bright green ribbon – her first ribbon-snipping moment as mayor – the children waited patiently to explore the toadstool seating, moss-green bolsters, a soft ‘log’ sofa, and the 1,200 books enticingly perched on the tree-shaped shelves.
“We are so grateful to readers of the Express for their incredible generosity,” says headteacher, Pauline James, in tears. “I can’t express what this library means to us. To all of you, thank you. The children have been so excited for weeks.”
“It really has meant the world to them. Many of our children don’t get to read at home because this is a deprived area where there are many single parents and few holidays, and where libraries are closing down.”
“If we didn’t value reading as we do then their world would be even smaller. Instead, our love of books is rubbing off on them.”
The grand opening of the library also involved the children’s thank you to our readers, for your kindness.
