The book swap: books duly swapped!

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about getting the details of my partner in Zoe's International Book Giving Day Book Swap. Since then I have picked my book, sent it off and heard that it has arrived in Japan! That's it on the left - I chose it because I wanted to get something Scottish, it's a prizewinning book and I've even met the author, Alex McCall (here's where I explain about that.)

What is Attack of the giant robot chickens about? This is what it says on the back of the book:

"Why did the chicken cross the road? To take over the world! Giant robot chickens are terrorising the city of Aberdeen. Their aim: to peck out all signs of human resistance. The streets are empty, the adults have vanished and those left behind must hide from the powerful poultry or get scrambled! Jesse and his friends hatch a plot to stop the fowl fiends and take back their city - but when a gang of kids takes on an army of angry robot chickens, things don't eggs-actly go to plan."

I'm guessing Alex likes puns a lot! I hope the humour is something that will appeal to the 10-year old bi-lingual boy in Japan who now owns the book.

And what have I received in return? Well, Jo (the recipient's Mum) and I have corresponded by email a few times, and I received a lovely letter and card in the post (see left). Then today, my book arrived from the Book Depository. It's My neighbour Totoro, a novelisation by Tsugiko Kubo of one of Hayoa Miyazaki's films. I confess that I have only seen one of those (Kiki's delivery service) so I'm not very familiar with his work. Time to find out! This is an on-going story...

More information:

International Book Giving Day 2015

Zoe's Book Swap

Jo's blog

National Libraries Day in Scotland

It was National Libraries Day on Saturday, with lots of activities going on for children and adults. Here are some examples.

I think Dundee Library looks like a great place to take kids. They have a squid!

Let me introduce our children's library squid. We're looking for a name. Any ideas #namethatsquid #NLDScot #NLD15 pic.twitter.com/wJfIJZZOMC
— Dundee Libraries (@dundeelibraries) February 7, 2015

And they were experimenting with Book Faces - this is a fabulous idea to try with the children in your school / library / home. My favourite:

#bookface #NLD15 #NationalLibrariesDay #NLDscot pic.twitter.com/Hzx1BbSnME
— Dundee Libraries (@dundeelibraries) February 7, 2015

Dunbar Library was having a great event with author Debi Gliori.

Sewing some wee creatures to help me with storytime in Dunbar Library on @NatLibrariesDay #NLD15 #AlfieBooks pic.twitter.com/meWnCeP0lj
— Debi Gliori (@DebiGliori) February 2, 2015

And Penicuik had Nick Sharratt.

On Saturday children's author and illustrator Nick Sharratt will be visiting Penicuik Library 2-3pm #NLD15 pic.twitter.com/qfXCpKVKTF
— Swoop (@swooplocal) February 2, 2015

Moray Library storytimes are popular.

Storytimes are still popular in libraries - check at your local library to discover times. #NLD15 #nldscot pic.twitter.com/I0iO40opi3
— @librariesmoray (@librariesmoray) February 4, 2015

Glasgow Libraries had a party with a clown at Langside to celebrate its 100th birthday.

Cheeko the clown entertaining children and adults at Langside Library's centenary birthday party! pic.twitter.com/5qPIKpgE4U
— Glasgow Libraries (@GlasgowLib) February 7, 2015

Strathclyde showed off its Storysacks. Student teachers borrow these to take into the classroom.

@Storysacks #NLD15 #NLDscot #UniStrathLibIT pic.twitter.com/ZK076j49kX
— Gordana Nesterovic (@SipaNest) February 7, 2015

It all looks great, doesn't it? But - despite the wonderful things going on in libraries, many of them are under threat. Here are some blog posts from children's authors and publishers reminding you why they are worth saving:

An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (by Dawn Finch) Happy National Libraries Day 2015!

Barrington Stoke National Libraries Day: Anthony McGowan and his teen narrator say it better than we ever could.

Jackie Morris Fighting talk.

Nicola Morgan Celebrating National Libraries Day.

And to take it back to a happy note before finishing, Playing by the book (Zoe Toft) describes a great book group she was running for children on Saturday, ACHUKAblog displays some lovely children's library cards designed by Jackie Morris and (not an NLD blog post but too good to miss) MinervaReads celebrates picture books on the theme of libraries.

Love libraries? Use 'em or lose 'em!

National Libraries Day 2015 - a YLG competition

National Libraries Day is coming up on Saturday, 7th February, and events are taking place throughout this week. Here's a message from the Youth Libraries Group about a great competition they are running:

"As this day becomes increasingly important as an advocacy tool for libraries, as well as an opportunity to celebrate all that we do, YLG have joined with the publishers to launch an easy to run competition for all libraries, nationally.

Using Twitter, we are asking all libraries to encourage their customers to take a photo of themselves in their local library on NLD, or during the week running up to NLD. We’d like them to send their photo (they can hold up a book in front of their face if they are shy!) to @Youthlibraries with #NLD15, Age **. 

Our ever generous publisher friends have donated lovely signed copies of some marvellous books, so having the age is very important for us to be able to send the randomly selected Tweeters an appropriate prize. A photo of the books (and a signed Chris Riddell!!!!!!) will be Tweeted by @Youthlibraries to launch the promotion, so be sure to follow us!"

 For those tweeting in Scotland about NLD, don't forget to add #nldscot too.