Children from the local community, along with families and university staff, are invited to a free global storytelling event at the University of Portsmouth library on Wednesday 13 March 2024.
The event is being organised by assistant librarian David Bennett. He was inspired by two of his colleagues who'd had great success engaging local school classes with stories from the Outside In World collection.
He said: "Recalling the joy of storytimes in public libraries from my childhood, I proposed holding a children's global storytime event to celebrate Global Week.
"We're hoping that young children and their families will see the library as a place where everyone interested in learning and growth can come along and feel welcome.
"It's also an ideal opportunity to engage students who are working towards their Portsmouth Award in valuable volunteering, which means they're expanding their skills and demonstrating their initiative, versatility and reliability to future employers."
Santosh reading from Seahorses Are Sold Out
Two students, Abigail and Santosh, will be reading books from the library's Near and Far World Books collection, a treasure trove of bilingual and translated children's books sourced from around the globe.
David added: "This book collection has a wide range of stories from many varied cultures, which brings together and surfaces diverse voices and perspectives on life, not to mention storytelling and art styles from around the world. It's situated near the library cafe on the ground floor, so people can easily pop in."
The storytelling event is from 4.00 - 5.00pm on Wednesday 13 March. Please sign up via Eventbrite so the library team has an idea of numbers.
The students will be reading:
- The Grandma Hunt by Nina Matthis
- I'm so clever by Mario Ramos
- Barbar and the Ghost by Laurent de Brunhoff
- Seahorses Are Sold Out by Katja German and Constanze Spengler
- Mama God, Papa God by Richardo Keens-Douglas and Stefan Czernecki
