Welcome
Bright evenings brimming with sunshine, set dazzling scenes along streets and green spaces, and the same can be said about theatre performances, family activities and book titles in Leeds Libraries.
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Free Family Events this May Half Term
Tutti Frutti presents... If All The World Were...
Join Leeds children’s theatre company Tutti Frutti Productions, at libraries across Leeds and experience Joseph Coelho’s heart-warming book, If All the World Were. Brought to life through a performed reading of the story and a craft session where children will create something to take home.
If All the World Were is a touching, uplifting and sensitive picture book about a young girl's love for her granddad, which explores the bond between children and grandparents, how love is shared and remembered, and how she remembers her grandad when he is gone, written by award winning Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho.
These events are for primary school aged children and their families, which is part of a series of performed readings at Libraries in Leeds delivered in partnership with Leeds Libraries and Tutti Frutti Productions. Set design by Rebecca Constable and magical music by Leeds Composer Christella Litras
Free event recommended for primary-age children. Follow this link to find your nearest event and free tickets: Tutti Frutti presents... If All The World Were...
 Oily Cart presents... The Lost Feather
The magical, musical, sensory Cart is wheeling its way across the UK, delivering Oily Cart’s unique brand of multi-sensory mayhem, designed for all children, especially for children with disabilities and their families.
In this interactive, accessible storytelling session, everyone is part of the action! All together, you will open up the Cart – bursting with colours textures, music and puppets – to discover the story of ‘The Lost Feather’.
This storytelling session features live music and sensory play. The tone is fast, upbeat and noisy. It lasts about 45 minutes and has no interval. It’s a relaxed environment where children are able to move around and make noise, in fact it’s encouraged!
Free event recommended for primary-age children. Follow this link to find your nearest event and free tickets: Oily Cart presents... The Lost Feather
Lego Spike:
Coding Carnivals
Roll up, roll up! Be the ringmaster of your very own Lego spike carnival.
Be the first to try our brand-new Lego Spike kits and use your building and coding skills to build fantastical, carnival creations. Can you construct a Ferris wheel or create your own pinball wizard game?
Free event recommended for children aged 5+. Follow this link to find your nearest event and free tickets: Lego Spike: Coding Carnivals
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Louis Le Prince Activity Sheet
There's just one week left (deadline May 26th) to complete our Louis Le Prince-themed activity sheet, available in all our libraries. It features exclusive illustrations by children's author Chris Mould as well as an image to colour in, a spot-the-difference puzzle, anagrams to unscramble and a storytelling challenge. Two young authors who complete the challenge will be selected and will receive a brilliant book bundle, so make sure you grab an activity sheet in your local library!
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Celebrating Gyspy Roma Traveller History Month
Queenie is a Traveller girl with a wild imagination. She dreams of exploring the world as a famous dancer and musician, telling tales of traveller folk through her talents. Unfortunately for Queenie, her parents don’t approve. Little does she know, a shape-shifting Pooka is trapped in the trailer – and this mischievous faerie has plans for an adventure.
This mesmerising tale uses dance, music and object theatre to capture the imaginations of big and little kids alike. With heartfelt insight into Gypsy Traveller culture and lifestyles, Queenie and the Pooka is a story of acceptance and following your heart.
The story is inspired by the beautiful picture book Ossiri and the Bala Mengro written by Richard O'Neill, which you'll find in our recommended reads section.
Free family-friendly event recommended for children aged 5+. Please click the following link to book a place: Queenie and the Pooka
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Regular Family Clubs
Be part of a regular club where you can meet new friends, get creative and explore books and stories in a whole new way. See below for more details.
Lego Club
Join us at our monthly Lego Club where we'll be building and constructing creations based on best-loved children's books, featuring a different theme each month. Taking place at various venues and different dates
Recommended for children aged 5+. Follow this link to find your nearest club and free tickets: Lego Club | Leeds Inspired
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Code Club
Start your coding adventure with Leeds Libraries!
You will discover our easy-to-follow projects which will help you to learn a variety of coding languages by making games, robots, animations, and websites in a supportive environment.
Recommended for children aged 9-13. Follow this link to find your nearest club and free tickets: Code Clubs at Leeds Libraries | Leeds Inspired
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Book Club:
Leeds Book Awards
Naughty Norse gods, historical heartbreak and frantic family life... Sound interesting? Then join our brand new Book Club for children featuring at a few libraries across the city. There will be three free sessions in the final half term of the academic year, which will celebrate titles shortlisted for the Leeds Book Awards with shared reading, discussions and activities.
Recommended for children aged 7 to 11. Follow this link to find your nearest club and free tickets: Book Club: Leeds Book Awards | Leeds Inspired
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Mini Playboxes for Under 5's
Leeds Central Library was the next in line to have a Mini Playbox in the children's library. Each box has six drawers full of open ended activities which supports early speech and language development, numeracy skills and encourages creative play.
This was part of a special project to mark the Coronation of The King and The Queen Consort where Central Libraries across the Yorkshire and Humber region now have a Mini Playbox for families to enjoy. This special project was made possible through generous funding from Art Council England and Libraries Connected Yorkshire and Humber.
You can find Mini Playboxes at 9 libraries in Leeds, follow this link to find a list of locations: Mini Playboxes in Leeds Libraries | Leeds Inspired
We hope that the activities found within these Mini Playboxes will inspire you to recreate the activities at home or maybe even create new ones of your own!
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Sessions for Under 5's
Join us at local libraries across Leeds for fun sessions of sharing stories and rhymes in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. A great opportunity to meet with others, and start your child’s Ready, Steady, Readers challenge as part of your visit.
Follow this link for Story & Rhyme sessions, perfect for pre-school children and their grown-ups: Story & Rhyme | Leeds Inspired
Follow this link for Bounce & Rhyme sessions, aimed at pre-crawling babies and their grown-ups: Bounce & Rhyme | Leeds Inspired
Ready Steady Readers challenge is available in any library in Leeds for children under 5. There are six gold stars to collect inside a friendly and accessible reading booklet, along with lots of helpful tips about enjoying books and reading as a family. Stars are collected by coming to the library, whether you stay to explore books, attend a Story & Rhyme or just pop in to borrow a book. Once they have all six stars they will receive a certificate celebrating their achievement. Families are welcome to complete the challenge multiple times.
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Recommended Reads
Here are some outstanding titles inspired by Empathy Day and Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month. Click on the book covers to reserve a copy and collect from your local library.
A Traveller girl creates her own musical instrument from a willow branch and lots of recycled objects. She plays it enthusiastically, but it sounds terrible! Ignoring warnings not to awaken the ogre in the hills, Ossiri goes there to practise playing her instrument. Will she wake the ogre, and will it appreciate her playing? Told by a Romani storyteller and a picture book author, this original tale offers a fascinating insight into Travelling lifestyles and cultures.
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Twelve-year-old Lizzie Chu lives in Glasgow with her grandad Wai Gong, and he's been acting a little strange lately. He is becoming forgetful, and spends a lot of time talking to his statue of Guan Yin - the Chinese goddess of compassion, kindness and mercy. Lizzie is worried about Wai Gong, but doesn't really know what to do to help him. She's already got a lot on her plate with caring for him, doing the shopping and everything else on top of schoolwork and the usual trials of being twelve! A heart-warming novel from the Blue Peter Book Award shortlisted author of Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths.
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When Grace moves to Hong Kong with her mum and new stepdad, her biggest concern is making friends at her fancy new boarding school. But when a mysterious old woman gifts her a dragon egg during a field trip, Grace discovers that the wonderful stories of dragons she heard when she was a young girl might actually be real - especially when the egg hatches overnight. The dragon has immense powers that Grace has yet to understand. And that puts them both in danger from mysterious forces intent on abusing the dragon's power. And now it's up to Grace and her school friends to uncover the sinister plot threatening the entire city!
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Fifteen-year-old Morgan has a secret: She can't wait to escape the perfect little island where she lives. She's desperate to finish high school and escape her sad divorced mother, her volatile little brother, and worst of all, her great group of friends...who don't understand Morgan at all. Then one night, Morgan is saved from drowning by a mysterious girl named Keltie. As the girls start to fall in love, will what they're hiding come to the surface? From the author of The Witch Boy trilogy comes a graphic novel about family, romance, and first love.
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Leeds Libraries are a free; free to join, free to borrow books and no charges for the late return of books. If you're not already, you can join the library in seconds by following this link: Sign Up Online
What's on for Schools
Leeds Book Awards Shortlist Announced
 On May 18th, teachers from across the city gathered at Leeds Central library to hear the shortlisted books for this year's revamped and relaunched Leeds Book Awards.
There are 18 books shortlisted which range in age from early years to late teen and have been carefully chosen the Librarians. The launch party marked the start of the Book Awards and now children will read and vote for their favourite book in their age category over the next six months.
The project culminates with a prestigious awards ceremony at Elland Road where the winning author from each shortlist category will be announced and receive an award designed by children taking part. The awards will be a fantastic night where children, authors, illustrators, teachers, and librarians come together to celebrate reading for pleasure.
Looking for somewhere to take your unwanted children’s books?
The Children’s Book Project takes in gently used donated books and gifts them to targeted communities nationwide.
1 in 4 disadvantaged children owns fewer than 10 books in the UK, whilst 1 in 8 has none at all. This has an impact not only on these children’s academic outcomes but also on their wellbeing, emotional development and sense of themselves as a reader.
Give your book a new home by donating to our drop point in Leeds at Seagulls Reuse, 3-4 Aire Place Mills, 103 Kirkstall Road, LS3 1JL (Mon - Sat 9am - 4pm, Sun 10am - 4pm).
Click this link for more information on The Children’s Book Project: https://childrensbookproject.co.uk
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