Children's Festival Draws Huge Crowds

Clare People, Tuesday, 28th November 2006

by Tom McCullough

Almost four thousand children attended events around the county during last month's Children's Book Festival 2006, according to Clare County Library. Fifteen branch libraries hosted 73 events during the month-long festival which featured author visits, storytelling, children's puppet theatre, animal road shows as well as history, science and art workshops. Participating authors included Darren Shan, novelist and short-story writer Ré Ó Laighléis, Bisto Book of the Year winner author Aubreg Flegg and Mary Murphy, author of numerous best-selling children's books.

There was no shortage of variety during this year's festival with sessions ranging from song-writing workshops for small groups to events aimed at large audiences of over 250 children, such as author Darren Shan's visit to Ennis and Shannon.

Popular events included the Magic of India puppet shows by Pignut Productions and Arran Towers, Billy Teare's storytelling sessions, magic shows by Paul Beattie, Michael Moylan's presentations on history and science, 'The Animal Roadshow' with Marie Lennon and the ever-popular Rap workshops.

During the workshops, participants were invited to discuss a variety of personal, social and cultural issues and to decide what positive message they wanted to convey in their rap. Meanwhile, the 'Design a Bookmark Competition' run by Clare County Library in association with Children's Books Ireland, was held for the fourth year in a row during Children's Book Festival 2006. Ellen Brogan from Clarecastle National School was the Junior Category winner while Ellen Roche of Kilmurry National School came first in the Senior Category. The runners-up in the Senior Category were Colm McNamara, Corofin; Daire Crowe, Lahinch; Eleanor Collins, Lisdoonvarna; Eve Quinn, Sixmilebridge; Hannah Murray, Miltown Malbay; Niamh Moloney, Crusheen; Nicole O'Riordan, Quin; Nora Casey, Lisdoonvarna and Ronan Gardiner, Lisdoonvarna.

This year's Junior Category runners-up were Eimear Carroll, Ennis; Hannah Casey, Lisdoonvarna; Khiva O'Dwyer, Miltown Malbay; Madeleine Jarocka, Kilrush; Orlaith Lyons, Toonagh; Maire Garry, Ballynacally; Orla Mulchrone, Ennis; Rebecca Davies, Cratloe and Silvia Koistinen, Kilmaley. All entries were judged by Siobhan Mulcahy, Clare County Arts Officer; Carrie Stafford, Executive Librarian, Clare County Library; Patricia Fitzgerald, Assistant Librarian, Children's Services, Clare County Library and Sinead Nestor and Fiona Woods from the Clare County Arts Office.

"The Design a Bookmark Competition continues to gain popularity among school-children each year, indicated by the ever-increasing volume of entries", stated Patricia Fitzgerald, Assistant Librarian, Children's Services, Clare County Library. This year's winning designs will become Clare County Library's official bookmarks for 2006/2007 and will be distributed through all of its branches. The winning designers will also receive a €50 book token and an award certificate compliments of Clare County Library and The Youth Library Group of The Library Association of Ireland. They will be presented with their prizes in their schools on Friday next, December 1. All runners up, meanwhile, will receive a €20 book token from Clare County Library. Ms. Fitzgerald thanked the numerous local sponsors of events and the participating schools for their support as well as the teachers who arranged for classes to attend events during school hours.

Clare County Library regularly hosts initiatives aimed at encourging more children to read. Earlier this year, the Library launched the Children's Summer Reading Scheme with the aim of promoting reading during the summer months. Chidren aged between 7 and 12 were invited to read books by at least ten recommended authors. Other library initiatives for children are World Book Day, Children's Book Clubs and the library also runs a very popular Schools Service.

Meanwhile, the Clare Library Service continues to regularly renew and update its stock of children's books in all of its fifteen public libraries. Each library has a reliable and modern collection of fiction, non-fiction and reference books for children for whom membership is free.

Children's fiction is divided into picture books, junior fiction for 6-9 year olds and senior fiction for 9-12 year olds. Reference, non-fiction and Irish Language books constitute the remainder of the children's stock in all branches. Members may borrow a total of four books from any library branch in the county.

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