Bookbug Week 2024

Get ready for Bookbug Says Hello! Bookbug Week takes place from 13 to 19 May and this year celebrates all the different languages spoken by families across Scotland.

Here’s our programme of Bookbug Week activities across our libraries. Contact the library for further details.

Balerno Library
Wednesday 15 May, Bookbug session followed by colouring and crafts and teas and coffees

Balgreen Library
Friday 17 May at 10.30am, special Bookbug session with tea and coffee

Central Children’s Library
Tuesday 14 May, Bookbug session with multilingual rhymes
Friday 17 May, Special Bookbug session

Colinton Library
Friday 17 May, Bookbug session followed by colouring and crafts and teas and coffees

Currie Library                          
Thursday 16 May, Bookbug session followed by colouring and crafts and teas and coffees

Drumbrae Library  
Monday 13 May, Bookbug Week session
Wednesday 15 May, Bookbug Week session
Saturday 18 May, Bookbug Week session

Fountainbridge Library
Thursday 16 May, Bookbug Week session with tea and coffee
Saturday 18 May, Bookbug Week session with tea and coffee

Gilmerton Library
Tuesday 14 May at 2.30pm, Bookbug Week session storytelling and Bookbug craft
Friday 17 May at 11am, Bookbug Week session storytelling and Bookbug craft

Granton Library                      
Tuesday 14 May at 11am, Bookbug Week Special – many families, many languages.
Wednesday 15 May at 2pm, Bookbug Week Special – many families, many languages.
In these special multilingual sessions we will share songs and rhymes that our families have shared with us, including some in Polish, Chinese, Turkish and Arabic. Shakers and beaters will also hand!
Free to attend, no need to book. Please arrive in good time however, as numbers may be capped if too busy.

Kirkliston Library
Friday 17 May, Bookbug session with story “All Are Welcome” and trying a Gaelic hello song!

Moredun Library
Tuesday 14 May, special Bookbug session
Wednesday 15 May, special Bookbug session
Thursday 16 May, special Bookbug session

Morningside Library
Tuesday 14 May at 10.30am, special Bookbug session
Thursday 16 May at 10.30am, special Bookbug session
Come and say hello in your language. Browse our dual language picture books.  Book on your place via Eventbrite.

Newington Library
Thursday 16 May at 10.30am, special German Bookbug session

Oxgangs Library
Tuesday 14 May at 10.30am, Bookbug Week session
Thursday 16 May at 2pm, Bookbug Week session
Saturday 18 May at 10.30am, Bookbug Week session

Piershill Library
Wednesday 15 May at 2pm, special Bookbug session with some songs and rhymes in languages other that English. Mural of “Hello” in other languages.

Portobello Library
Wednesday 15 May at 10.30am, Bookbug Week session
Wednesday 15 May at 2pm, outdoor Bookbug session in Rosefield Park
Saturday 18 May at 11am, Bookbug Week session

Ratho Library                          
Thursday 16 May at 11.15am, special Bookbug session with some songs and rhymes in different languages. Families share some of their favourite songs and rhymes, followed by a craft activity.

Sighthill Library                      
Monday 13 May at 3.30pm, special Bookbug session
Friday 17 May at 10.45am, special Bookbug session 
Sessions with some songs and rhymes in different languages. Families sharing any favourite songs and rhymes they have e.g. in different languages and learning them together, followed by a craft activity.

South Queensferry Library
Tuesday 14 May, Bookbug Week session
Thursday 16 May, Bookbug Week session with story “All Are Welcome” and trying a Gaelic hello song!

Stockbridge Library 
Monday 13 May, special Bookbug session
Saturday 18 May, special Bookbug session

Wester Hailes Library     
Tuesday 14 May at 5.30pm, Bookbug’s Bedtime Stories – come in your PJs for some special Bookbug bedtime stories and songs!
Tuesday 14 May, Bookbug’s Big Sleepover – your teddy is invited to join Bookbug for a big sleepover in the Library.
Wednesday 15 May at 11am, Bookbug Week session
Thursday 16 May at 2pm, Bookbug Week session

Bookbug sessions on Tuesday 5 December celebrate women

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence runs every year from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, through to 10 December, Human Rights Day. The campaign raises awareness about gender-based violence, challenging discriminatory attitudes and calls for improved laws and services to end violence against women and girls for good.

As part of the campaign, on the 5 December, Edinburgh Libraries will hold special Bookbug sessions celebrating women across history, literature, science and the arts. These sessions will have a specific focus on celebrating women, using stories and songs to promote women across professions and history and the libraries will have new collections of children’s books that have a strong connection to this theme.

In ten of the participating libraries, we’ll create displays that celebrate women, and each display will be lit up in orange during the 16 Days of Activism.

Join us for one of these special Bookbug sessions on Tuesday 5 December at

Central Children’s Library from 10.30 to 11 am

Gilmerton Library from 2.30 to 3pm

Leith Library from 10.30 to 11am

Moredun Library from 10.30 to 11am

Morningside Library from 10.30 to 11am

Muirhouse Library from 10.30 to 11.30am at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre, EH4 4BY

Oxgangs Library at 10.30am

South Queensferry Library from 10.30 to 11am

Stockbridge Library from 10.30 to 11am.

Bookbug Week is here!

Starting today, Edinburgh Libraries are celebrating Bookbug Week, and this year’s theme is Bookbug’s Big Shoogle. We have a range of events happening all over the city that will get you up, jumping and shoogling as you sing.

Please check your local library’s Facebook page for details on how they are celebrating and or find information about Bookbug activities happening this week online.

Scottish Book Trust also have loads going on this week, with lots of quizzes, competitions and activity ideas. Find more information about the Bookbug’s Big Shoogle! and join in!

Bookbug Week 2022 – join Bookbug’s big journey!

It’s Bookbug Week! We’ll be celebrating all kinds of journeys, whether it’s the excitement of riding on the bus or a train, strolls through the park, an adventure to outer space or even just a wee trip out in a buggy!

There’s lots of excitement in store this Bookbug Week.

Blackhall Library
Special multilingual Bookbug session takes place in the library garden (weather permitting) on Thursday 19 May at 10.30am. Please see Blackhall Library Facebook page for booking details.

Central Library
10.30am on Tuesday 17 and Friday 20 May
Join us in our Children’s Library for special journey themed sessions. Please see Central Library’s Facebook page for booking information.

Craigmillar Library
On Friday 20 May Bookbug is going on a big journey camping! Join Hannah for a walk around the Library garden with your favourite teddy bear, have a ‘camp-fire’ sing-along and then we will go to Bookbug’s campsite! Inside our special black-out sensory den you will be able to watch the Northern Lights, see the stars come out and enjoy a sleepy storytime.

This event is limited to small groups of five families, and is designed to be inclusive of children with autism or sensory processing issues, or who may find larger, noisier groups overwhelming. If the weather is too bad for an outdoor adventure we will still host the event indoors, and if all the tickets for this session get snapped up, we will add more sessions later in the day. Please check Craigmillar Library Facebook page for booking details.

Mobile Libraries
Our Mobile Library team will be popping along to Fox Covert Early Years Centre on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate Bookbug Week (closed event).

Moredun and Gilmerton Libraries
Bookbug is taking his Big Journey to the Union Canal on the Lochrin Belle, on Tuesday with his friends from Rainbow Kindergarten Nursery (closed event).

There will be two special Big Journey themed sessions at Gilmerton Library during the week, at 2.30pm on Tuesday 17 May and at 10.30am on Friday 20 May.

Oxgangs Library
Join our friends from Oxgangs Library for a special outdoor session at the Oxgangs Spring event at Colinton Mains Park on Friday 20 May between 1 and 4pm.

Stockbridge Library
On Monday 16 May, we will have a special storytelling and craft session around the Bookbug week theme Big Journeys. On Saturday we will have themed Bookbug and storytelling session with songs, rhymes and stories about buses, cars, rockets and boats.

Wester Hailes and Sighthill Libraries
Staff at Wester Hailes and Sighthill Libraries are joining forces to take you on a special Bookbug buggy walk. Details will be released on their Facebook pages.

Sendak on stage

Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are was published in 1963 – a much loved, much lauded, very famous picture book. And as an illustrator, he has opened and generously filled the imaginations of little minds everywhere. Wild thing critters, with their big heads and short thick legs, judder through his books in hatchy ink, or graphite, and watercolour. He can draw a jitter perfectly, a heebie-jeebie in the trees; just let the rumpus begin.

“Happy Birthday Maurice Sendak, he would have been 85!” by stitchin.thyme is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

What is less known about Maurice Sendak is that in the 1970s he began what he referred to as his second career, shifting away from illustrated books – very willingly – into the world of set and costume design. He found a release in the theatre, “I became the person I want to be”, he said of it, and the storyboards, watercolours, dioramas, preparatory sketches, props and costume studies, all the many things he made during this time, are a wonderful expression of just that. As with all great artists, he knew how to make his work distinctly his own.

When he died in 2012 he bequeathed a large amount of his work to the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan, and in 2019 they put on a show, Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak’s Designs for Opera and Ballet. (The book is on order for the Art & Design Library, it’s a treat, and will be available for borrowing soon. In the meantime, do image search the designs and visit The Morgan’s website).

Mozart’s The Magic Flute
“I know that if there’s a purpose for life, it was for me to hear Mozart,” Maurice Sendak once said. And so when the director Frank Corsaro contacted him and asked if he might design the sets and costumes for The Magic Flute with Houston Grand Opera, Maurice Sendak was delighted – nervous because of his inexperience – but excited. (“You wanted a fresh, dumb designer and, God help you, you found one,” he wrote later.) Frank Corsaro had no idea of Maurice Sendak’s passion for Mozart; he’d been reading his illustrated edition of The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm (1973), and in terms of mood and tone, he thought Maurice Sendak would be a perfect fit for his new project.

First performed in 1791, The Magic Flute was Mozart’s last opera, and it has long been seen as a gift for the designer. It is the story of the fantastical adventurings of Tamino and the birdcatcher Papageno. Pamina, the daughter of the Queen of the Night, has been kidnapped by the ‘evil’ high priest Sarastro, and Tamino and Papageno are to rescue her. They are given magical musical instruments to help them; Papageno, bells, and Tamino, a magical flute, but on meeting Sarastro their quest isn’t quite as clear as they first thought.

Both Mozart and his librettist Emmanuel Schikaneder were freemasons, and this thread of enlightenment philosophy runs throughout the opera. Early masonic texts trace the ‘craft of masonry’ to Euclid in Egypt, and thus masonic imagery has always been wedded to Egypt. Corsaro and Sendak agreed they would set the opera in Mozart’s time. They would tell Mozart and Schikeneder’s story and explore these founding themes. They wouldn’t overturn, defamiliarise, or subvert; they would employ none of these sorts of approaches, approaches that an artist-turned-set-designer might readily employ. They were storytellers, historians; and Maurice Sendak set about his excavations into art history for imagery. He drew sphinxes, temples, pyramids, Horus figures, beds, hieroglyphs… Tut mania was in the air in the late 1970s as a major exhibition of Tutankhamun’s tomb was touring the country. It reached The Metropolitan Museum of Art in December 1978 – and whether Maurice Sendak saw it or not is unclear, but he was certainly looking at the objects when he was drawing his designs.

Maurice Sendak loved Mozart. He loved all music but he loved Mozart especially. As he drew he would always listen to music, and music and drawing shared a symbiotic relationship for him. He’d sit in front of the record player and reach out for what he felt would suit his drawing. He called it choosing a colour, and the colour had to be just right. In an article he wrote for the Sunday Herald Tribune called “The Shape of Music” (1964), he elaborated on this: how he conceives of his drawing as a musical process; how drawings must be animated, and how they must have a sense of music and dance – they cannot be glued to the page. The artists he most admires he thinks of in terms of their musicality; their artistry has an “authentic liveliness” as he calls it. He’d turn to books too, “but it is music that does most to open me up,” he said.

He also drew wonderful fantasy sketches of operas, even before he started to work on them, The Magic Flute being one of them. And just as he saw the work of the illustrator as illuminating a text, so too he saw set design as being in service to the music: “… your job is to make Mozart look even better, if that is even possible,” he wrote.

Listen to The Magic Flute on Naxos.
Watch performances of the opera, as well as documentaries, on Medici TV.
Watch a short video and take a look at some of Maurice Sendak’s designs on the Morgan Library & Museum website.

The article, “The Shape of Music”, is collected in Maurice Sendak’s book Caldecott & Co.: Notes on Books and Pictures, and is available for borrowing from the Art and Design Library when we reopen.

Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges
Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges is a commedia dell’arte fairy tale about a young prince, who is cursed by a witch and travels to faraway lands in search of three oranges, each of which contains a princess.

The tale was collected in Giambattista Basile’s Pentamerone, and in the 18th century, it inspired the playwright Carlo Gozzi to write L’amore delle tre melarance. Prokofiev based his opera on Gozzi’s play as well as a translation of the play by the Russian director Vsevolod Meyerhold.

It was The Morgan Library and Museum’s Tiepolo drawings, and in particular Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo’s Punchinello sketches, that inspired him. He wrote to Frank Corsaro: “It is an odd matter indeed, this almost magical union that occurs between stealer and stealee; it is as though I know what I want but can see it only inside (in this case) a Tiepolo drawing and then I can draw it out and make it quite properly my own.”

They produced the opera for Glyndebourne, the first Americans to be invited to do so, debuting there in May 1982.

In 2013, New York City Opera filed for bankruptcy and many sets and costumes, Maurice Sendak’s among them, were auctioned off. Some photographs are available on the Cotsen Children’s Library’s blog and on the R. Michelson Galleries website (have a look at, among other things, the peeing fountains, gondolas, throne coverings, a dragon in the clouds, and many many hats…)

Listen to Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges on Naxos.
Watch the opera on Medici TV.
Browse the Tiepolo collection online at The Morgan Library and Museum.

Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen
Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen is another opera Maurice Sendak and Frank Corsaro collaborated on for New York City Opera, premiering in April 1981. It tells the story of a feisty young vixen who is captured by a forester but later escapes. She then marries, has cubs, and dies at the hands of a poacher. Revisiting the place where he first caught the vixen, the forester encounters a baby generation of forest animals and is reminded of the cyclical beauty of nature.

Maurice Sendak chose to unapologetically anthropomorphise his animals. The characters he designs are musicians, actors and actresses, dressed up – as a fox or a badger or a frog. He designs the artifice. It is a fun, playful, joyful thing this artifice.

Listen to Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen on Naxos.
Watch the opera on Medici TV.
Do just image search the designs – visit the R. Michelson Galleries website to see 3 sets of chicken feet, frog feet, weasel feet, headpieces for weasels, woodpeckers and ants…

Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker
In 1983 Maurice Sendak designed the sets and costumes for Pacific Northwest Ballet’s The Nutcracker. It was his first without Frank Corsaro and he was proud to have achieved it on his own. The original ballet is “about a little girl,” he said in an interview with Marcia Alvar, and “a dream she has… all these adventures occur… [the wooden nutcracker toy comes alive. The evil mouse king declares war and is defeated. The young prince carries her away to a magical garden kingdom in the clouds]… and then at the end… a whole bunch of grown-ups dance at her party. No kid would want that.” Maurice Sendak was unenthused by the project at first, and prickly for being pigeonholed always as an illustrator of kiddies’ tales. And so he made changes, he returned to E.T.A. Hoffman’s story and darkened it up. Marie – Clara, in Sendak’s version – becomes a young woman, and instead of travelling to a land of sweets, she arrives at a seraglio. “A throbbing, sexually alert little story,” he called it.

In 1984 a book was released, and in 1986, the film version.
Nutcracker: The Motion Picture with designs by Sendak is available to watch on Amazon Prime (for a small fee unfortunately, but it’s available).

Listen to Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker on Naxos.
Watch the ballet on Medici TV.

Articles of interest (great pics included):
A New York Times review of the exhibition.
A Smithsonian Magazine review of the show.
A Brainpickings article on Maurice Sendak and “The Shape of Music”.

Reading together whilst apart – using picture books in your online calls

In today’s blog, Catherine from Muirhouse Library, (currently attached to Kirkliston Library) and an illustrator, gives some handy tips and advice for reading together whilst apart.

We’re all getting so used to Zoom calls with friends and family, but it can be difficult to find a way to keep little people in the room when they’re so busy bobbing around doing their own thing. There are fantastic online storytelling sessions available and lots of families have been enjoying these together. But if you’re on a video call with your own family, and especially if you want to keep a connection alive with a wee one who’s far away this winter, you have the perfect opportunity to tailor a reading experience to your child’s exact preferences. Make it funny, make it chatty, make it musical, make it silly – give it a shot and see what books can bring to your Zoom call!

Illustration by Catherine Lindow

Choosing a book
Little ones won’t cut you any slack if their attention starts to wander while you’re reading, so the safest choice is a book that is bold and attention-grabbing. Interactivity is brilliant onscreen. It gives both readers a role and keeps your listener hooked into the plot while they wait for ‘their bit’.

Some books are written so that it’s clear when each person speaks – try ‘There’s a Dragon in your Book’ by Tom Fletcher/Greg Abbott – or ‘Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus’ by Mo Willems. In other books, you just can’t resist joining in. ‘All Join In!’ by Quentin Blake is great for this. Animal noises are also good – ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ by Julia Donaldson/Lydia Monks will work well. You probably have others in your household – don’t rule out the option of reading a book that is already familiar to the child. Having it read by a different person is really satisfying!

Humour is a winner when you have a small wriggly person to entertain. ‘Danny McGee Drinks the Sea’ by Andy Stanton/Neal Layton is a fantastic read-aloud, with a punchy rhyming text that little ones love. Theresa Heapy & Sue Heap’s ‘Very Little Red Riding Hood’ has a really funny toddler main character that brings out the silly voice in any reader; older siblings especially will laugh their socks off. And the ‘Oi Frog’ series (Kes Gray/Jim Field) is always popular– you’ll have a job getting through without snorting with laughter yourself.

Big bold illustrations are much easier to see than soft detailed ones when you are holding a book up to a camera, so opt for something punchy and visible. Read any by Morag Hood, or Jon Klassen’s pictures read really well onscreen – try I want my hat back or ones written by Mac Barnett.

Rhyming texts are also fab – pick any Julia Donaldson title, or how about Mike Nicholson’s ‘Thistle Street’ series (illustrated by Clare Keay), for rhyming text in Scots. Don’t be shy about getting a saucepan and a spoon out and using them to beat out a simple rhythm while you read – and your little reading partner at the other end of the call can do the same! An all-time winner for rhyme is ‘The Giant Jam Sandwich’ by John Vernon Lord and Janet Burroway, but watch out for the fantastically detailed illustrations. Hold them right up to the camera for best effect.

Before your storytime
Look at the book by yourself beforehand. It can really help to be familiar with the story, so you can read confidently while holding the book up to the camera.

Which are the important bits of the illustrations? If some of the story is told in the pictures, make sure you hold that bit of the page up to the camera so that it can be seen at the right moment.

Are you going to put on a different voice for any of the characters? If you enjoy doing that, it’s easier if you know beforehand when you’re going to do it. If you want to be really organized you can put little sticky page markers against the bits you need the voices for. This makes it easier to spot if you are reading upside down or from the side of the page!

Check how the whole set-up looks onscreen and make sure your listener can see the illustrations properly. If there’s a reflection on the page, if it’s lit from behind or if the book is too far away, it won’t be visible to the child. Be prepared to ‘zoom in’ on important or entertaining details within the pictures and decide beforehand what those are. This is a great way to change the pace – like showing a close-up in a film.

During the storytime
Use any way you can think of to make it easy for the child to listen. It’s very different from the close-in, physical experience of reading a book together on a sofa, so you have to work a wee bit harder to replace that. It’s nice for them to know they’re under no pressure. If you tell them up front it’s just something to try out, you haven’t lost anything. If you’re feeling flexible you could offer them a choice of a couple of titles, and tell them what’s good about each one.

You can give the child clues for things to look out for: ‘We’re going to see a cow in this book. What does a cow say?’ and that sort of thing. If they know they’ll get a chance to add sound effects it’s already a winner.

While you’re reading, your face can be part of the story too. You can pop round the side of the book and show by your expression that you think the dog licking the ice-cream is being naughty, or that you’re sleepy and yawning just like the main character. Switching between showing whole double spreads of the book, showing close-ups of the illustration details and showing your own face in shot are your three main options for changing the pace and keeping the visual interest. Of course it’s also brilliant if you’re reading to a little family member and you want to show them your friendly face as part of the package!

The most important thing of all!
Don’t aim to read for very long. Short. Is. Sweet. Lots of books invite conversation afterwards if they still have energy, or do you know any songs that tie in with what you’ve just read? ‘Old Macdonald Had a Farm’ could pair up with ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ – with pictures of animals held up to the camera at just the right moment!

When you have a book in your hand, you have a huge resource-pool for your onscreen chats, however you choose to use it. You don’t even need to read the whole story if there’s a single picture that you think your reading partner will love. It’s a great tool and a lovely way to link in with the real-life experiences you can have when you and the wee one are able to snuggle up together on that sofa once again.

Baby STEM at Muirhouse Library

Once Upon a Time…
…as all great stories are supposed to start. Not too long before Christmas 2018, a BIG box of resources arrived at Muirhouse Library. At first, we were a bit confused, we stood and looked at the box, we scratched heads and we wondered what to do.

So we rummaged, looking at this and that, until we stumbled upon a box of Lego Duplo. It wasn’t the biggest box of Duplo we had seen – and it didn’t have lots of pieces – but it looked fun. It’s name was Animal Bingo and from this little box, Baby STEM* was born (* in case you don’t know STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math!!).

Our journey begins with Bookbug…
…Bookbug sessions are popular at Muirhouse Library and we all know it has positive effects on early years child development. Parents often would stay after Bookbug for a chat and a cup tea. This gave us a bright idea!

As parents were already in the library, we could use this as a chance to try out our new activity. So when Bookbug finished, we asked the adults (after their cup of tea of course!) if they would like to stay and try out a this new activity called Baby STEM.

All the grownups thought ‘oh what a grand idea!’ In the first session we used the Animal Bingo. Out of the box there are eight animals to build with flash card instructions. Afterwards everyone asked if we could do it again next time and some even asked where they could get their own set of Animal Bingo. We were all so happy that everyone had a good time.

And finishes with a busy morning…
…since that first Baby STEM session, it has become a regular activity. The most popular activity with the babies is playing with the Lego Duplo. It has been fantastic and well received! Not only have we noticed that Baby STEM builds on the skills we encourage in Bookbug, but also it builds on some other skills too such as:

• Hand eye coordination
• Shape and Colour recognition
• Matching and Counting
• Taking Turns
• Social development with other children
• Adult-children interaction

From Baby STEM, we have seen children develop from struggling to find the right part when prompted and having difficulty with the fine motor control needed to put the blocks together. To being able to follow the flash cards and build everything themselves!

A Tuesday or a Friday morning at Muirhouse Library for our youngest customers starts with Bookbug at 10:30am, wrapped up with Goodbye babies and a sticker. Followed by short intermission for juice and a snack at 11:00am and then onto some Baby Stem around 20 to 30 minutes.

Then it is nap time for EVERYONE, and we all lived happily ever after.

Baby’s Own Aesop by Walter Crane

In Central Library’s Special Collections sit many special books, and one such book is Baby’s Own Aesop. It was created by the artist Walter Crane (1845 – 1915) and first seen by the eyes of little Victorian tots in 1887. It was made specifically for them, for the nursery – that was Walter Crane’s intention. And he cheats them not. Each page is a very beautiful picture, often an elaborate one, that is drawn together with a rhyme. And animals are everywhere of course, because it’s Aesop that the rhymes reference.

Porcupine, Snake & Company; The Bear & the Bees

These new publishing ventures for nursery children were all about visual literacy, and Walter Crane was an influential figure. His designs were highly decorative and architectural, colour and pattern abound; there is comedy, and visual puns – on cranes prominently. And behind it all was the belief that art and design could stimulate a child by being interesting, and therefore it could help them to learn.

The Ass and the Sick Lion

Baby’s Own Aesop is the third publication of three, the others being Baby’s Opera (1877) and Baby’s Bouquet (1878). Throughout, the line and the form show quite how good Walter Crane’s understanding of his subjects and settings was: their movement, poses and anatomy is so full of life inside the picture space. Old men have old sagging skin; foxes, deer, donkeys and lions are rendered in all their animal detail and plasticity. And his use of clear and definite lines was also helpful to the printing process which became increasingly sophisticated over the years.

Take a look at the exhibition of this beautiful book on the libraries’ image collection website, Capital Collections

Reading Rainbows launch 2019

Around 1,200 four-year-olds across the capital will receive two brand new books each, specially chosen to inspire children to read and share stories.

Reading Rainbows, aims to spark a love of reading amongst under-fives, giving them the best start when they begin school.

Reading Rainbows launch 2019 at Muirhouse Library

The initiative is also designed to support parents and carers to share books and stories with their children, encouraging them to think about sharing books together and to visit libraries more often.

On Thursday 16 May, children from Forthview and Pirniehall nurseries visited Muirhouse Library to receive their Reading Rainbow packs from Councillor Alison Dickie – Vice Convener for education, Children and Famillies. The packs included two brand new books – ‘Everybunny Count!’ by Ellie Sandall and ‘This Zoo is Not for You’ by Ross Collins and enjoyed a visit from Cool Creatures, where they got a chance to meet some new friends up close.

Cool Creatures visit at Reading Rainbows launch

Reading Rainbows is a joint library and Early Years initiative focusing on areas of disadvantage across the city.  It addresses the fact that, in Scotland, children receive free book packs between birth and the age of three and once they turn five from the Scottish Book Trust, but nothing when they are four.

By supplying free literacy gift packs, including two books, a white board and marker and a literacy advice pack for parents and carers, as well as story and craft events, we aim to impact children’s literacy development.

Cool Creatures visit at Reading Rainbows launch

Come and celebrate Bookbug week with Edinburgh Libraries

All over Scotland from 13 to 19 May, families with babies and young children will be celebrating Bookbug Week 2019. The Scottish Book Trust will be encouraging everyone to take part in singing, rhyming and sharing stories.

Copyright Esther Kent

This year’s theme is Bookbug’s Big Picnic and there is a wide range of story, song and craft activitiestaking place across Edinburgh.

Find out about the Bookbug Week events at your local library by following their Facebook page or contacting them direct.

If you are unable to get to any of our sessions, visit the Scottish Book Trust website to find out how you can join in from home. You’ll find suggestions for stories and songs plus details on how to watch a very special Bookbug Week broadcast with author Emily MacKenzie who wants you to draw along with her while she shares her funny story ‘There’s Broccoli in my Ice-cream!’

Come and celebrate Bookbug Week in Edinburgh Libraries!

All over Scotland from the 14 to 20 May, families with babies and young children will be celebrating Bookbug Week 2018.

This year’s theme is Bookbug’s Friends and there is a wide range of story, song and craft activities taking place across Edinburgh.

Starting the celebrations a little earlier on Friday 11 May will be Granton Library who are inviting their friends from Granton Early Years Centre to come along and meet Granton Library Link where they will be hosting an ‘Old Friends/New Friends session’ with songs, stories and cake!

Other things to look forward to during Bookbug week:

• Teddy Bear’s picnic at Fountainbridge Library on the Thursday 17 May at 10.30am
• Fancy Dress Bookbug at Muirhouse Library on the Friday 18 May at 10.30am
• Baby Stem Session with Dr Kirsty Ross from Strathclyde University at Granton Library on Friday 18 May at 10.30am

Find out about the Bookbug Week events at your local library by following their Facebook page or contacting them direct.

If you are unable to get to any of our sessions, visit the Scottish Book Trust website to find out how you can join in from home. You’ll find suggestions for activities, stories and songs plus details on how to watch a very special Bookbug Week broadcast with the author of ‘There’s a Bear on my Chair’, Ross Collins.

Bookbug’s Library Challenge re-launch

Bookbug’s Library Challenge is a fun way to encourage young children to explore and enjoy their local library.

Bookbug Library Challenge at Oxgangs Library

As a result of the feedback from consultation, a few changes are being introduced to the materials we use to support the program. What better excuse for some Bookbug fun? Children from 2 local nursery classes came to Oxgangs Library to celebrate the changes.

We were delighted to have author/illustrator Alison Murray, who shared stories, songs and activities with us and each of the children also got a gift of a mini bookbug!

Alison Murray and the Bookbug Library Challenge at Oxgangs Library

Bookbug’s Library Challenge runs in all libraries in Edinburgh. Talk to staff at your local library for more information.

Collecting contemporary children’s illustrated picture books

Regular visitors to Central Library may know that the Art & Design Library holds a historic collection of children’s illustrated books by Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway, and Arthur Rackham, many of which can be viewed on Capital Collections.

We’re adding to this collection with a new special collection of contemporary children’s illustrators focusing on mainly illustrators working in Scotland. Books illustrated and/or written by illustrators Catherine Rayner, Alison Murray, Debi Gliori, Mairi Hedderwick and Ross Collins are now available to view in the Art & Design Library.

Examples of children’s illustrated picture books provide a valuable resource for students of illustration and we’re hoping that the start of this new collection will inspire artists and designers both today and in the years to come.

View our collection at http://bit.ly/childrensillustrators. Please note these items held in the Art & Design Library are for use in the Library only but there are plenty of lending copies available from Central Children’s and community libraries.

Children grown? Donations of picture books to this new collection can be placed with the Art & Design Library. Please contact central.artanddesign.library@edinburgh.gov.uk if you wish to donate a picture book. Please note we can only accept items in good condition.

Around the world with Bookbug

We’re getting ready for a trip ‘Around the world with Bookbug’ to mark Bookbug Week (16 – 22 May).

Libraries are already working on ways to make this another fun-filled Bookbug Week and there will be special events in many libraries to mark the occasion. Please contact your local library here for more details. You’re welcome to join in the conversation on twitter using the#bookbugweek hashtag

The international theme will inspire children and adults alike to explore songs and rhymes from around the globe, and is a chance to celebrate a real library success story.

Find your nearest session  and join in the conversation on twitter using the #bookbugweek hashtag.

 

More about Bookbug in Edinburgh City Libraries

The Bookbug programme is managed by Scottish Book Trust but run in partnership with libraries, health professionals and nurseries. The programme encourages all parents and carers to enjoy books with children from as early an age as possible, developing a lifelong love of books in children all over Scotland. As well as a host of activities in libraries, every year in Edinburgh, nearly 7000 bookbug packs are gifted to children before they start primary school

 

Find out more at www.scottishbooktrust.com/bookbug

Teddy Bears Sleepover

Last week nearly 30 children from across the city brought their soft toys (not the favourite ones!) to the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

They enjoyed stories and songs in the cosy Imagination Lab after that the toys were tucked in for a sleepover.

As their carers were away for the night, the soft toys decided to stay up late and explore the book festival venue.

What did they get up to during the night? Look through the full range of pictures on Flickr to find out!

Dr Book comes to the urban garden

The George Street Urban Gardens are looking good, and we especially approve of the new book benches which were tried out by local literati Ken Macleod, Lizzy MacGregor and Ron Butlin.

We’re looking forward to paying a visit ourselves and meeting some of our younger readers.

So bring along your wee ones to the George Street ‘parklet’ week beginning 27th July to enjoy a storytime (Monday, Thursday and Friday from 11am and again at noon) or get a reading prescription from Dr Book! (Tuesday and Wednesday from 11am until noon)

Look out for us around the Assembly Rooms!

And if your kids haven’t signed up for the Summer Reading Challenge yet don’t worrry –  there’s still time!

The ‘Tedinburgh’ Book Festival sleepover

Lots of young readers brought their special soft toys along to Edinburgh International Book Festival on Friday for our very first teddy bear sleepover. Author Linda Strachan brought Hamish McHaggis!

After some songs and stories the children tucked their toys up and left them to settle down for the night.

Or so they thought. Almost as soon as Linda had left the room the teddies were getting up to all kinds of mischief…

They enjoyed Linda’s story so much they thought they’d sneak a look at her web site.

Snip introduced his new friends to his favourite titles at the bookshop.

Look! Doctor Book! Everyone queued nicely for a reading prescription.

“Antony Beevor? Any relation?”

All this was hungry work. Might there be some food at the authors’ yurt?

Bingo!

“This is my first trip to the book festival. How about you?”.

And off to bed, although Snip’s snoring made Big Ted wish he’d brought his earplugs.

You can see more of the teddies’ adventures on Flickr.

 

 

Love Bugs

Our latest selection of brilliant books for under fives has been chosen with Valentine’s Day in mind…

The Love Bugs by Simon Puttock
Love is in the garden air on Valentine’s Day, but Ladybird is feeling all left out. But then she gets a letter from a secret admirer. Could it really be from blue Dragonfly? Ladybird is overjoyed! And who is shy Beetle writing to? A daft but funny and heartwarming love story by Simon Puttock with fabulous illustrations by Russell Ayto.

I Love you Always and Forever by Jonathan Emmett
Longtail enjoys playing games with his daughter Littletail. Longtail is faster and cleverer than Littletail – but that will change as Littletail grows bigger. At the end of a busy day, as they curl up in their nest, Longtail reminds Littletail that one thing will stay the same. A tender celebration of love between father and daughter.

Love Splat by Rob Scotton
Splat the cat is desperate to become friends with one of the girls at school. But he’s much too shy to talk to her. However will he get her attention? Perhaps Valentine’s Day will provide the perfect opportunity?

Spooky stories and chilling tales for children

If you are looking for some spooky tales to tell at your kids’ Halloween party then check out these titles available in the library.

The Octonauts & the Great Ghost Reef by Meomi

‘Hello Kitty’ meets ‘Star Trek’ under the sea! Dive in for adventure with these much-loved picture book characters. The Octonauts are a crew of cute animals who love to explore the big blue ocean. From their underwater base, the Octopod, the eight intrepid friends are always ready for fun and excitement!

The Haunted House by Jeff Brown

Stanley and his brother are going to their school’s Halloween party. They dress up in costumes and Stanley is looking forward to the limbo competition. They’re rather disappointed by the haunted house, though, it’s really not very scary. But when they see a bully upsetting their friend Martin, they decide to teach him a lesson

It’s the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Children can stick the reusable stickers on each page to dress-up the Peanuts gang in Halloween costume, decorate for the Halloween party, collect tricks ‘n’ treats, and more.

For the little book lover in your life

Three brilliant books for readers under five:

Who Ate Auntie Iris? by Sean Taylor and Hannah Shaw

The feeling of anticipation is there even before you open the first page. Auntie Iris lives in a block of flats where she has wolves and crocodiles and other scary folks for neighbours. When, one day Auntie Iris goes down to put the rubbish out and didn’t come back, little Chinchilla was determined to find out what had happened to her and who was responsible.

The illustrations are very bold and attractive. The little notes dotted all over the pages help to tell the story in a humorous way. This is a good book to enjoy with your toddler.

Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins

Rosie the hen went for a casual walk one evening, effortlessly negotiating the pond, fence and other challenges on her way. The most exciting part of this story, though, is the trials of hungry fox as he sneaks after Rosie! You can’t help but feel sorry for, yes, poor fox as he clumsily moves from one disaster to another. But mostly, your child is likely to dissolve in giggles as fox’s misadventure unfolds!

One, Two, Cockatoo! By Sarah Garson

A beautiful counting book weaved into a lovely little story. Your child learns to count without even realising it! The rhymes, beautiful illustrations and a game of hide and seek make it even more of a fun read.

More recommendations soon!