World Book Day - Thursday 7 March

World Book Day is Thursday 7 March and OLA will be celebrating!

We are delighted to host the book launch of Kate Rundell's second children's novel Rooftoppers. Years 6 & 7 and children from local junior schools will be meeting the author and hearing about the book.

Planning and preparations are also in hand for the Decorate-a-door-as-a-Book Competition which is for forms and clubs. Over the years this activity has produced some wonderfully inventive ideas, so watch this space for photos.

Guinness World Record attempt at OLA Library

On Wednesday 6 February thousands of students in over 100 schools across the UK will be attempting to set a new Guinness World Record in collaboration with author Matt Haig. Students will take part in “Parallel Universes”, a story-writing workshop that will attempt to break the world record for the most people writing a story. The current record is 953 participants at 5 venues. The beginning of the story has been written by the award-winning children’s author, and on the day each venue will then continue this story, with each participant adding a maximum of two sentences.
At OLA the Mayor of Abingdon will be in the Library to witness the launch of OLA's version of "My Family and Other Aliens". Pupils from OLA Junior School will begin the session, which will continue all afternoon, in the presence of independent witnesses.
This is one of the many celebrations taking place this week in school, college, university, workplace and public libraries across the UK to celebrate National Libraries Day on 9 February.

Report: Eighty pupils from OLA's Years 4 to 6th Form contributed to the story writing record attempt. We won’t know until late May if the record of 953 has been beaten, as each of the venues has to send off their story, photographic and video evidence plus witness statements. Over 120 schools took part with at least 25 participants at each school.