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Library e-bulletin December 2023 |
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Read Manchester Winter Newsletter
Welcome to the winter edition of Read Manchester’s newsletter...we certainly have been busy, read on for all the latest updates as we approach the end of another bumper packed year!
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Take 10 To Read Campaign:
People across the city were invited to join in a Take 10 to read moment at 10 am on 10th October, in support of World Mental Health Day. The campaign gave the opportunity to promote the message of taking just 10 minutes out of the hustle and bustle of each day to boost wellbeing and escape stresses in the joys of a book. This October saw us partnering with The Christie hospital, gifting 1,300 books to all sites for staff, patients and visitors to enjoy their Take 10 moments. We also took author of Happy Head, Josh Silver into Parrs Wood and Abraham Moss high schools, and over 200 primary school children helped poet Dommy B ‘make some noise’ in a revelry celebration of Take 10.
Read more about the day’s events here.
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One Million Minutes Challenge
What a city of readers...not only did we hit the One Million Minutes target, we doubled it! Between October 30 and November 10, Read Manchester and Read for Good joined forces, setting Manchester the challenge of collectively reading for One Million Minutes. Schools, Sure Start Children Centres, libraries, storytime parents and many more, helped smash the goal, logging their reading minutes to achieve a whopping total of 2,002,510 minutes. Boxes of books were ‘unlocked’ for community organisations, nominated by the top 10 reading schools or organisations, as well as a day of storytelling for Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital with Read for Good’s storyteller.
Find out more about the challenge here at Manc Libraries blog.
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Festive Gifting Campaign
Access to books, particularly in the early years, boosts literacy levels, creating more opportunities for children as they grow. However, the ongoing cost of living crisis has made it incredibly challenging for many parents and carers to afford new books. Manchester Central Library Development Trust have launched an appeal to support Read Manchester and Manchester Libraries’ festive book gifting campaign.
Donate here to help get books to the children and families in Manchester who need them most.
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Kicked Out launch at Old Trafford
As part of her Kicked Out book launch tour, award winning author A.M. Dassu led a special event celebrating reading and writing at Old Trafford. Pupils from Manchester United Foundation partner primary schools were excited to visit the stadium and receive a signed copy of Kicked Out, which challenges harmful stereo types through the lens of football. The event was a fantastic opportunity for Read Manchester and the Manchester United Foundation to promote reading, empathy and combat racism.
Read the full story here.
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Black British Book Festival
Read Manchester were thrilled to be part of the Black British Festival tour visiting Central Library in September. Celebrating home grown black literature, the festival featured author talks, workshops and storytelling for children. As part of Read Manchester’s ongoing See Myself in Books programme, we asked people to think about representation, inclusivity and diversity in books, by telling us why it is important that children see themselves mirrored in the books they read. Responses to the competition were compiled into a word cloud by Literacy Champion, Jermaine; and the winners each received a bundle of books by Black British authors.
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Dr Ranj visits Powerhouse Library
Nearly 7000 copies of Dr Ranj’s inspirational and empowering book A Superpower Like Mine, were given out over the summer to all Manchester's four-year-olds starting reception class. The Early Years Transition Read is part of the council’s Make Manchester Fairer (MMF) action plan to tackle inequalities and improve outcomes for the city. The book aids parents, carers to instil good reading habits, helping to get their child school ready. Reception class pupils from Claremont primary school were treated to a special reading of the book by Dr Ranj himself at an event at Powerhouse Library, jointly organised by One Education, Read Manchester and MMF.
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Read about how our book-gifting is helping Emmeline's Pantry
Read Manchester has been working with a growing number of local charities over the past few years, gifting books and literacy-related resources to those families most in need. One of our partners is Emmeline’s Pantry which is led by a dedicated group of women and supporters who started out in a hallway, providing clothes to women and 12 years later runs as a women-only foodbank offering a range of services.
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Literacy Champion Update
We have 88 Literacy champions in Manchester who have been busy helping us distribute 1000s of books for our Christmas book gifting, as well as continuing to run their own projects to encourage their community to read for pleasure, including setting up a community bookshelf in Wythenshawe Hospitals Childrens A&E department, hosting Christmas story times and continuing our monthly online poetry competition. Join in with December’s prompt here.
If you would like to become a Read Manchester Literacy champion and take part in this flexible and creative volunteering opportunity, please follow this link to arrange a chat with Helen Beesley the Literacy Champion Project Officer.
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Partner Highlight - The Portico Sadie Massey Awards
Established in 2015, the Portico Sadie Massey Awards (PSMAwards) aims to encourage a life-long love of reading and writing. The awards are run by The Portico Library as part of their offer for children and young people aged 7 - 18. They work with Manchester’s most respected ambassadors of children’s and young adult’s writing, with a particular emphasis on northern writers exploring stories based in the North of England. There are three different competitions currently open:
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Book review competition of any book - fact, fiction, poetry or graphic novel
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Short story competition with a focus on the north of England
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Art of the Book Award - open to Pupil Referral Units and SEN schools
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Spotlight on Services
Whether you're a life-long library member or newly signed up, make sure you're using all the free library services available to you. Did you know there's an...
Online catalogue and an app so you can search for and reserve or renew books from anywhere.
Our Online reference library gives you access to free language courses, digital newspapers and magazines, music streaming and business resources.
Free ebooks and audiobooks mean you can download the latest bestsellers to read or listen on any device, there are no overdue charges, they return themselves and they're free to download.
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Support us
Thanks to donations ands grants many of our events and exhibitions in Manchester Libraries are free. You can make a donation in any library or visit Manchester Central Library Development Trust to make a donation or join the Library Lovers scheme.
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