World Book Day 2019
Wimbledon BookFest’s World Book Day Celebration welcomed 2500 children to New Wimbledon Theatre.
On Wednesday the 6th of March, Wimbledon BookFest opened the doors of New Wimbledon Theatre bright and early to kick of a day of events with presenter and children’s author, Dermot O’Leary and illustrator Nick East. Dermot and Nick were joined by children’s presenter Katie Thistleton to discuss the new book in the Toto the Ninja Cat series Toto the Ninja Cat and the Incredible Cheese Heist. Dermot gained the loudest ‘aw’ of the day as he showed 900 children the inspiration behind his character ‘Toto’: his pet cat also named Toto. Dermot then read extracts from the new book while Nick live illustrated the action.
Next up was Tom Fletcher, who enthralled the audience with his book The Creakers. This was an extra special event as Tom also sang a couple of songs from his musical version of the book; he even got the audience to scream along during the chorus. We were delighted to gift 90 copies of The Creakers to pupils of Benedict Primary School and Perseid School.
Closing the day was World Book Day Author Frank Cottrell-Boyce who captivated the audience with readings from his book Millions, a hit even 11 years following its first publication. It was amazing to see a room full of 10 year olds fascinated by medieval stories from Chaucer of knights, murder and the corruption of money. The lucky attendees of this event each took two books home!
Wimbledon BookFest also launched their Young Writers’ Competition, which this year runs on the theme of ‘The Island’ to co-inside with the 300th anniversary of the publication of Robinson Crusoe. Each year the winners and commended entries are published in BookFest’s anthology. This year prizes will be awarded at events with Cressida Cowell and Malorie Blackman at New Wimbledon Theatre in September.