Kirklees Libraries newsletter

With competitions, events, World Book Day information and more, here is the latest Kirklees Libraries newsletter:

 

February newsletter: 10 reasons to love libraries, free creative sessions for kids, books to support children's mental health and more!

 

 

Newsletter edition: February 2025 10 reasons to love libraries It's February, Valentine's hearts are all over the place and we've been thinking about why we love libraries. Editing down to just 10 reasons was tricky, but here we go: Libraries are free Libraries are open to everyone In a library, you get to choose There's more to libraries than books alone The library is where many of our favourite authors began their book-writing journey Libraries are good for the mind and soul Libraries can be magical places for children (and adults!) Libraries are safe, warm and comfortable spaces  Libraries can be a refuge, a sanctuary and a place of inspiration That's where you'll find the lovely helpful librarians! Have we missed your reason for loving libraries? Message us on our socials (links below) and share! Inspired by Rachael, member of the British Library’s Content Team.  Library Adventures We're looking forward to seeing lots of young visitors in our libraries during February half-term! Don't forget to bring your Library Adventures booklet with you. We're excited to see how you're getting on with your journey and ready to help you catch up with any stickers or bookmarks that you're missing from your collection. And it's not too late to get a free Library Adventurer pack and get started. Skelmanthorpe Library have the Oceans theme at the moment and some fab half-term Library Adventures activities. Find out what theme is at your local library on the Library Adventures webpage.   Room on the Broom Competition Pop in to your local library this half term to enter our latest colouring competition in partnership with our lovely friends at the Lawrence Batley Theatre. Colour in the witch and her cat for your chance to win a family ticket to the fun-filled adaptation of Room on the Broom. We can’t wait to see your magical creations! The Olivier Award-nominated show, adapted from Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s best-selling picture book, is flying to Huddersfield from Tue 18 – Thu 20 March 2025. For more information, visit the website at thelbt.org Makerspace: creative sessions for children Join the MakerWorld community of children and families (4-14 year olds) to become artists and makers collaborating to create sculptural pieces to be exhibited in the MakerWorld gallery space and Huddersfield Library. Free sessions, drop in between 11am to 3pm on Saturday February 8 Saturday February 15 Thursday, February 20 Saturday, February 22 Unit 33-34 Princess Alexandra Walk, Huddersfield HD1 2RS For more information and to reserve your place, please visit our Ticketsource page     Family Craft Sessions with Kirklees College Join us for free, fun family craft sessions in some of our libraries this half term. Monday 17th February, Lindley Library, 10.15-11.15 or 11.45-12.45 Wednesday 19th February, Birkby & Fartown Library, 1-3 Thursday 20th February, Rawthorpe & Dalton Library, 10-11 or 11.30-12.30 To book, please email keeley.loney@kirklees.gov.uk or call/text 07816937331. Limited places available. Children's Mental Health Week, 3rd-9th February 2025 Browse our collection of feel good books chosen by health professionals, librarians, families and children aimed at helping children to understand their thoughts, feelings and the world around them Reading Well for Children Join us for a free after-school craft activity at Holmfirth Library on Thursday 6th February, 3.45-4.45pm. We will be making worry monsters and chatterboxes with Kirklees Keep in Mind supporting Children's Mental Health Week 2025. Suitable for ages 4+.   Easy Street Burglary Campaign Have you tried the hugely successful, action-packed Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam series yet? Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam are two baker-dogs who used to be robbers, but now solve mysteries and sniff out crimes! They're ideal for children growing in confidence as readers and beginning to read alone. Why not borrow one from the library? If you feel inspired to have a go at some crime prevention yourself, have a look at Easy Street, the West Yorkshire Police burglary advice campaign. The campaign has been developed to encourage you to think about two things : What makes it inviting for criminals to target certain properties and streets The importance of reviewing your own home security  Follow the checklist on the Easy Street page. World Book Day Competition We're bouncing up and down in anticipation for World Book Day 2025 on Thursday 6th March. This year's theme is Read Your Way, celebrating the reading that your child chooses to do in their free time without judgement. Read Your Way encourages everyone to let go of reading pressures and expectations, and lets children find fun in reading.  We love this creative competition from our friends at World Book Day. Children 11 years old and younger are invited to create their very own space creature with a sentence describing what could be a magnificent, scary or gruesome space creature! The lucky winner will win an original signed illustration of their creature by renowned comic book artist Will Sliney and a signed copy of his new activity book, Draw with Will! The three runners up will receive one signed copy of Draw with Will by Will Sliney each. Find out more on the World Book Day competition page Author of the Month - Matt Goodfellow This month we're celebrating our favourite poet, Matt Goodfellow, the best-selling and prizewinning author of the wonderful verse novel The Final Year. The book is a powerful and lyrical story about finding your place in the world and the people that matter within it. Matt writes for all ages of children. Our youngest readers love the read-aloud poems in Caterpillar Cake while those aged 10+ will be captivated by the way he balances emotion with humour in Let's Chase Stars Together. Find out more about all of Matt Goodfellow's books on his website then borrow your choice from us. Most popular books of 2024 Most popular paper books Our favourite tech genius, Kev the Librarian, has been interrogating the catalogue to discover our most popular print titles of 2024. The most borrowed junior fiction book was Wrecking Ball by Jeff Kinney and the most popular junior non-fiction was Dinosaurs by Joanna Brundle (for the second year running!). Want to see why? Reserve a copy on our catalogue. eAudio - Children A selection of our most popular childrens' titles. Follow the link below or select a row of books to browse our collections. eBooks - Children eAudio - Young Adult A selection of our most popular titles for our older younger, younger older readers. Follow the link below or select a row of books to browse our collections. eBooks - Young Adult Download the Libby app and choose from over 22,000 eBook titles and 4,000 audiobooks from our Kirklees Libraries collection: https://libbyapp.com/ Looking ahead to... Huddersfield Literature Festival HuddLitFest is an annual Festival with community, accessibility and inclusivity at its heart. We've been busy booking tickets for this fab celebration of books and authors, poetry and performance – in venues and online. We're super excited about this Grandad Wheels event at Birkby Library: Grandad Wheels – storytelling & drawing activity Saturday 17 May, 12pm-1pm, Birkby Library, Lea Street HD1 6HF Free (booking advised) Age guidance: 5-10 years (U16s should be accompanied by an adult) A free fun storytelling session for primary school age children with inspirational author Brian Abram, AKA Grandad Wheels. Grandad Wheels will chat about his life as a wheelchair user then read one of his stories, with audience participation and a question-and-answer session. Children will then be guided in a drawing activity to design a futuristic wheelchair. There will be 40 free copies of Grandad Wheels’ books to be given out to the children attending.  Find out more and book free tickets for Grandad Wheels See all the events coming up with HuddLitFest   PressReader: Digital magazines and Newspapers Our digital magazine and newspaper service can now be accessed from within the Libby app. Select the Pressreader icon from within Libby and follow the on-screen instructions. Our collection of over 7,300 national and international titles available to read online or download includes magazines and newspapers written for children! You have complimentary access with your Kirklees library card and PIN for 30 days before you have to sign in again. For more details, along with details of the text-to-speech and instant translation options, see our PressReader catalogue at: www.pressreader.com   Our Opening Times and Social Stories The addresses and opening times of all our libraries can be found on our website at: Locations and opening times | Kirklees Council We also have Social Stories for each library, which let you have a visual tour of the different buildings before visiting. These Social Stories are ideal for people with Autism or Anxiety and can be found in the opening times section for each library, under the "We are going to..." heading at the top.  WOVEN in Kirklees is back for 2025 WOVEN is a community festival celebrating the heritage, innovation and wonderful textile talent here in Kirklees. The next festival will happen between 1st - 30th June 2025 and they are looking for groups who would like to get involved. If you have an idea and want to talk it through, get in touch with the team at woven@hatchprojects.org.uk or if you run a group in the Ashbrow or Greenhead area, please email chrissie@ls2y.co.uk. Find out more about WOVEN on their website.

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