Loose Leaves

Compiled by GILES NEWINGTON

Ramp up kids’ reading on World Book Day

Free book tokens, special editions, visits to bookshops, author events and readings: all these are part of the 15th World Book Day, on Thursday, March 1st. The annual celebration of books and reading, aimed at children of all ages, involves publishers, schools, libraries, literacy charities, bookshops, authors, illustrators and the media.

The day will see almost every schoolchild in the country receive a €1.50 book token to exchange for one of eight new special-edition books or use towards full-price books. What this means in practice, in a country where there are still thousands of children who don’t own a book, is a chance to choose a free one.

One of the many initiatives connected to World Book Day (the ripples of which will continue to be felt until March 25th) is the annual Bring a Book Buy a Book scheme, in aid of the charity St Michael’s House, which provides services for people with intellectual disabilities in the Greater Dublin Area.

Launched this week by the broadcaster Miriam O’Callaghan, and taking place from March 1st to 8th, the fundraising scheme involves volunteers setting up Bring a Book Buy a Book locations in offices, schools, clubs or homes, then donating second-hand books and buying those contributed by friends or colleagues for €2 each. A number of pop-up shops will also appear, with all funds raised going to St Michael’s House.

“We were delighted to raise €45,000 last year and aim to exceed that figure this year,” says Eamonn Fitzgerald, chairman of St Michael’s House, which provides specialised services to more than 1,600 children and adults through 170 centres.

For details of this and other World Book Day initiatives, see smh.ie, bringabookbuyabook.ieor the World Book Day Ireland section of worldbookday.com.

Banks and Gale bound for Ennis festival

The line-up for next weekend’s Ennis Book Club Festival includes two influential British novelists, in Lynne Reid Banks, whose debut novel, in 1960, was the acclaimed The L-Shaped Room, and Patrick Gale, whose 14th novel, A Perfectly Good Man, will be published next month. The festival, to be opened by the writer Vincent Woods on Friday, will include public interviews with Banks and the Irish short-story writer and novelist Kevin Barry at Glór Theatre next Saturday.

Other participants in the Co Clare festival include the I rish Timesjournalist Peter Murtagh, Maureen Gaffney, Sheila Flanagan, Joseph Woods, Paula Meehan and, on the panel in the Sunday Symposium, Catriona Crowe, Michael Harding and Christine Dwyer Hickey.

Booking for all festival events at all venues is through the Glór box office, on 065-6843103 or at boxoffice@glor.ie. The 2012 festival programme is at ennisbookclubfestival.com.

Grand reasons to focus on Listowel

With Listowel Writers’ Week offering a prize fund of more than €30,000 this year, it could be worth remembering that Friday, March 2nd, is the deadline for entering its literary competitions, including categories for novels, poetry, short stories, plays and “writing for youth”.

The Co Kerry festival, which takes place from May 30th to June 3rd, will also offer a wide range of three-day workshops, though most of these are limited to 15 places and are likely to get booked up quickly. Writers in attendance at the 41st Writers' Week will include Germaine Greer, Simon Armitage, Anne Enright, Des Bishop, Belinda McKeon and Anna Carey. For details of competitions and workshops, see writersweek.ie.