The Books Council of Wales is encouraging people across Wales to share a story in celebration of World Book Day 2021 on Thursday 4 March.
Sharing a story could include reading at home with the family, sharing a story with your pet, reading in your favourite place, reading in an unusual location and more!
With only a week to go before the big day, the Books Council is also asking people to share their reading photos on social media during March, using the hashtags #ShareAStory #WorldBookDayWales. Prizes for the best pictures will be awarded at the end of the month.
The winners of a special competition organised jointly by the Books Council and Huw Aaron will also be announced on 4 March on BBC Radio Cymru’s Aled Hughes programme between 9 and 11 a.m.
The challenge for contestants was to identify as many characters as possible from Welsh children’s books and television programmes in a colourful poster designed by Huw Aaron for his book Ble mae Boc? Ar goll yn y chwedlau, published by Y Lolfa in November 2020.
Meet the Authors
World Book Day celebrations look very different this year with a number of author sessions happening in a virtual way. The past year has shown the need for flexibility and also the value of having quality material to promote reading in a digital format. To help inspire young people to pick up a book and read for pleasure, the first in a series of videos with some of Wales’ leading children’s authors will be released on the Books Council’s website and social media channels on 4 March, featuring short readings as well as activities.
The main aim of these resources is to support families and schools whilst they are distance learning but they will also be a valuable resource for classroom use once schools re-open for all ages.
The authors include Huw Aaron, Lund Aaron, Myrddin ap Dafydd, Huw Davies, Nicola Davies, Malachy Doyle, Valériane Leblond, Lucy Owen and Manon Steffan Ros. More videos featuring authors from Wales will be published over the coming months.
Helgard Krause, Chief Executive of the Books Council of Wales, said: “World Book Day is an opportunity for us to celebrate our love of books but the transformative power of reading is with us all year round. Although we may not be able to hold our usual events this year, the message is the same – that reading for pleasure does us all a world of good, in these difficult times perhaps more than ever. So celebrate with us by sharing a story on the 4th of March as a family, with friends from afar, or even your cat or dog!”
Angharad Sinclair, Project Manager in the Books Council’s Department of Children’s Books and Reading Promotion, added: “Reading can open the door on new worlds and experiences, and we are delighted to be able to offer a great range of £1 books once again this year ensuring that a choice of Welsh-language books is available alongside the English. Research shows that spending 10 minutes a day reading with a child makes a big difference to their future success and the aim of this special day is to ensure that all children have access to the world of books and the benefits they bring.”
£1 Book Token
World Book Day is now celebrated in 100 countries across the world and aims to promote reading for pleasure, offering all children and young people the opportunity to have their own book.
As part of the annual event, children in the UK and Ireland receive a £1 book token which they can either exchange for one of the £1 World Book Day books or use towards buying another book.
Ha Ha Cnec! Jôcs Twp a Twpach (Broga) by Huw Aaron is the brand new £1 Welsh-language book for World Book Day 2021 and is available now through bookshops across Wales.
Three other Welsh-language books are available for £1 this year namely Stori Cymru – Iaith a Gwaith (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch) by Myrddin ap Dafydd, Na, Nel!(Y Lolfa) by Meleri Wyn James, and Darllen gyda Cyw (Y Lolfa) by Anni Llŷn.
The World Book Day £1 books are a gift from booksellers, who fully fund the cost of the £1 book token redemptions. The £1 books are also available in braille, large print & audio via Guide Dogs and RNIB.
World Book Day book tokens are valid from Thursday 18 February – Sunday 28 March 2021 but participating booksellers will honour the tokens beyond the 28 March while stocks last. Please contact your local bookseller to check if they are able to offer £1 off other titles. Read the full terms and conditions here.
While bookshop doors are temporarily closed, they are still open for business online and over the phone offering a click-and-collect or mail delivery service. Details of all independent bookshops in Wales can be found on the Books Council’s website.
Further information
The World Book Day campaign in Wales is coordinated by the Books Council of Wales and supported by the Welsh Government and Waterstones.
Every year, with a host of publishers and booksellers, World Book Day curates a list of bespoke £1 books for children and young people across the UK and Ireland.
World Book Day’s mission is to encourage children and young people to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own.
Copyright permissions on re-using published material in schools and colleges have been temporarily increased during lockdown, following efforts by the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), the Books Council of Wales and the publishing industry.
The CLA announced on 9 February 2021 that, following consultation with their members, there will be a temporary increase in the copying limit in the Education Licence from the current 5% to 20% until 31 March 2021.
And the Books Council of Wales has made special arrangements with some of the country’s main publishers to make it easier for teachers to use their material during the Covid-19 pandemic.
CLA Education Licence
The temporary changes to the terms of the Licence mean that teachers can copy up to 20% of a print book, owned by the school, including scanned book content held on the school VLE.
The move, which applies to schools, sixth form and further education colleges in the UK, will give teachers and students more flexibility to access resources to support remote learning while schools are closed.
Education Platform users will also be able to copy up to 20% of a digital book available on the CLA’s Platform during this period.
Licensed schools should read the full conditions on the CLA website. The CLA has also published guidelines for teachers explaining their copying rights under the standard terms of the Education Licence.
All Local Education Authorities in Wales are currently registered with the CLA which means that the terms of the Licence are applicable to all their schools.
Publishers’ Permissions in Wales
The Books Council of Wales has also agreed special temporary permissions with a number of publishers in Wales for re-using published material in schools during the pandemic.
The aim is to make it easier for teachers to use content from books to support remote learning, including for example their ability to record and share book readings with pupils.
The terms and conditions of use vary from publisher to publisher, and full details of the temporary permissions agreed in Wales are available on the Books Council’s website.
Helen Jones, Head of Children’s Books and Reading Promotion at the Books Council of Wales, said: “This is a challenging time for everyone, and schools in particular who continue to offer a quality education at a time when most pupils are learning from home. In today’s exceptional circumstances, we welcome the CLA’s announcement that copyright permissions are being increased to support educators through the latest lockdown. We are also very grateful to the publishers in Wales for their ready cooperation and support for children’s education, during what is also a difficult time for them as commercial enterprises.”
The Welsh Government’s Education Minister has launched a new scheme to ensure that all primary schools receive a special pack of books supporting children’s health and well-being.
The Iechyd Da (‘Good Health’) scheme was launched on Wednesday 3 February 2021 during Children’s Mental Health Week.
Working with the Books Council of Wales, the Welsh Government’s Education Department is funding a package of 41 books for every primary school, to help children understand and discuss issues around health and wellbeing.
Every book has been chosen by a panel of experts, and the selection includes both picture books and chapter books suitable for a range of ages between 4 – 11.
The aim is to support schools in dealing with health and well-being topics as part of the new curriculum, and to help teachers discuss these subjects during extremely challenging times.
Officially launching the Iechyd Da scheme, Education Minister Kirsty Williams said: “I am delighted to be involved in the launch of the Books Council of Wales’ Iechyd Da project. The Iechyd Da project aims to help address the impact of long-term social distancing and self-isolation, in providing reading books that stimulate conversations and parental engagement on these themes.
“Making sure that all children and young people can share a love of reading is an important part of the work that I do as Minister for Education and I would like to thank the Books Council of Wales for its hard work in developing an interesting series of resources to support teachers and learners in response to the pandemic.”
In addition to the pack of 41 books, schools will be provided with a comprehensive set of resources with all the material prepared by a network of teachers specialising in children’s literacy, health and wellbeing.
Catrin Passmore, Deputy Head at Ysgol Gymraeg Cwmbrân school, said: “These books have been carefully selected and will be an excellent resource in terms of helping pupils to understand themselves, to understand others and to understand the world they live in. The themes in the books include friendship, resilience, self belief, mental health and physical health, and these all very relevant to what we’re going through today.”
Helgard Krause, Chief Executive of the Books Council of Wales, said: “We know how beneficial reading can be in terms of our wellbeing and mental health, and this scheme will help to open the door to conversations with children about quite difficult topics. It’s always important to encourage understanding and conversations like this but now more than ever, and we are delighted to be working with the Welsh Government’s Education Department to make this important project a reality.”
There’s a list of the Welsh and English books included in the Iechyd Da pack on the Books Council’s website and all of the titles are available through local bookshops. Some of the titles are also available as e-books on ffolio.wales.
READING WELL
The Books Council is also involved in the Reading Well Books on Prescriptionfor children scheme which helps children and young people to understand and manage their mental health and wellbeing through reading.
Aimed at Key Stage 2 children, the scheme includes 21 volumes in Welsh and 33 in English which discuss topics such as anxiety and grief, bullying and web safety, and how to deal with events in the news.
Books on the list can be recommended by health and social care professionals, teachers and anyone else working with children and families.
The Reading Well Books on Prescription programme for children has been developed by health professionals as well as children and their families. It’s delivered in Wales by The Reading Agency in partnership with the Welsh Government, public libraries and the Books Council of Wales.
A brand-new digital platform to showcase e-books from Wales has been launched by the Books Council of Wales.
ffolio.wales will be the first-ever bilingual platform to focus on selling e-books from Wales to the wider world.
The not-for-profit site launches with more than 800 fiction and non-fiction titles for children and adults, as well as educational books for children in both Welsh and English.
More than 500 of the Welsh-language books on the website are available as e-books for the first time ever, and this figure will continue to increase.
Independent bookshops in Wales will benefit from every purchase, with a percentage of each sale going directly to help support these small businesses which are so important to our high street and our communities.
Chief Executive of the Books Council of Wales, Helgard Krause, said: “In launching ffolio, we are providing a not-for-profit digital platform with a unique offering – a platform hosted in Wales, where almost every single e-book stems from a Wales-based publisher. The service will help keep jobs in the publishing industry in Wales, as well as support independent bookshops which make such an important contribution to our communities and which will receive a commission on every sale.
“As a national charity dedicated to supporting publishing and promoting reading, we have a duty to ensure that readers of all ages and interests can choose books from Wales in a range of formats. ffolio affirms and widens that choice, and we are grateful to Welsh Government for funding this significant development.”
The development of ffolio is part of a two-year investment programme awarded in March 2020 by the Welsh Government through Creative Wales to enable the Books Council to upgrade its digital systems and introduce a new integrated IT system for the sale, supply and distribution of books.
Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Lord Elis-Thomas, said: “ffolio is an exciting new platform which will showcase the wealth of creative talent, make the work of Welsh authors more accessible and also benefit the publishing sector and our Welsh bookshops. It’s very important that people have access to books in the format of their choice – especially in the current circumstances.”
The website includes a wide selection of e-books suitable for young children which will support their reading for pleasure and help develop literacy skills.
Thanks to the co-operation of publishers in Wales, more e-books will also be available to schools through the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and can be used to support lessons.
For further information or queries, please email the Books Council at ffolio@books.wales.
Independent booksellers across Wales continue to take orders online, over the phone or click-and-collect.
If you just want to curl up with a good book, our booksellers have got a fabulous selection of titles to choose from. They also offer a unique personal service and great advice on what to buy.
We’ve listed below the contact details for independent bookshops across Wales or you can click on our interactive map to find your local bookshop:
Griffin Books, Penarth – www.griffinbooksonline.co.uk / info@griffinbooks.co.uk / 02020 706455 / Facebook: Griffin Books / Instagram @griffinbooksUK / Twitter @griffinbooksUK Click and collect available for prepaid orders from 9.00am-5.00pm, Monday to Saturday and also postal orders fulfilled as normal. You can order in advance via their online shop, email or phone – they cannot make new sales at the door.
The Books Council of Wales is delighted to support a story writing competition for Welsh primary school pupils organised by BBC Radio Cymru.
As part of World Book Day 2021 events, the station’s morning presenter Aled Hughes is calling on children to write a Welsh-language story of up to 500 words on the theme of “Y Llwybr Hud” (‘The Magic Path”).
There are three categories for different ages, namely:
Foundation Phase, 5-7 years
Key stage 2a, 7-9 years
Key stage 2b, ages 9-11
Aled Hughes will announce the names of the winning entries on his programme in the week leading up to World Book Day on 4 March 2021, with the winners each receiving a bundle of books from the Books Council.
Helen Jones, Head of Children’s Books and Reading Promotion at the Books Council, said: “World Book Day is a landmark event in our annual calendar and we are delighted to support this competition being organised by BBC Radio Cymru. They say everyone of us has a story buried inside them so this is a great opportunity to develop writing talent among the young.”
Author Llio Maddocks will be judging the entries and choosing the three best stories.
To enter, schools need to send their pupils’ stories to BBC Radio Cymru by the deadline of 25 January 2021 along with a completed copy of the entry form available on the Radio Cymru website.
The address for sending the stories is:
Sgwennu Stori Aled Hughes
BBC Radio Cymru
Bryn Meirion
Bangor
LL57 2BY
The pupil’s pseudonym, age category and school name must be clearly marked at the top of each story, and the school will need to keep a list of the names that match the pseudonyms.
Further details including terms and conditions can be found on the BBC Radio Cymru website or you can contact the Aled Hughes programme aled@bbc.co.uk.
The Books Council of Wales is delighted to announce that Huw Aaron is the author of the new £1 Welsh-language book being published for World Book Day 2021.
In his own distinctive style, the talented cartoonist and illustrator from Cardiff is creating Ha Ha Cnec for children young and old to enjoy on the next World Book Day, 4 March 2021.
As the title suggests, the volume will be packed with jokes and cartoons along with some of Huw’s unique characters.
To celebrate the announcement of the title, the Books Council has organised a special competition to find 150 characters from Welsh children’s books and television programmes which Huw has hidden in a busy poster.
Competition Time The ‘Ble yn y byd, Boc?’ (‘Where in the world, Boc’) competition is open to schools and individuals of all ages, and there are some great prizes to be won.
The winner of the schools’ category will receive a bundle of books worth £150, with a second prize of a bundle of books worth £75.
The top prize in the individual category will be an original piece of Huw Aaron’s artwork and a bundle of books worth £50, with a second prize of a bundle of books worth £25.
Huw Aaron said: “I am delighted to be part of the celebrations for World Book Day 2021. For the competition, I’ve drawn a picture of a very special party where all the guests are characters from Welsh children’s books or television programmes – some new, some from my childhood, and some which are very old by now! There are 150 to find – but you may need the help of mum and dad (and maybe Mam-gu or Taid!). Pob lwc!”
You can enter the competition by going to www.mellten.com before the closing date of 31 January 2021. The winners will be announced on World Book Day 4 March 2021.
Copies of Ha Ha Cnec (Llyfrau Broga) will be available to buy for £1 from 25 February 2021 or exchanged for the £1 National Book Token given to each child to mark World Book Day.
Stori Cymru – Iaith a Gwaith (‘The Story of Wales – Language and Work’), written by Archdruid Myrddin ap Dafydd and published by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, will also be available again in 2021 for £1. It tells the story of Wales and the work of its people through story, image and song.
Accessible versions of the books, including braille, large print and audio versions, will be available thanks to the support of the RNIB. They will also be available as e-books.
Angharad Sinclair, the Welsh Books Council’s Promotion of Reading Campaigns Manager, said: “World Book Day aims to ensure that every child has the opportunity to have their own book and to help them enjoy the experience of reading for pleasure, with all the benefits that brings. We are therefore delighted that Huw Aaron has agreed to create a new book which, alongside Myrddin ap Dafydd’s book, will ensure there’s a good choice of Welsh-language children books available for £1 or for free on World Book Day 2021. “
The poster behind the competition appears in the new book Ble mae Boc? Ar goll yn y chwedlau (‘Where’s Boc? Lost in the legends’) by Huw Aaron, published by Y Lolfa in November 2020 and selected as the Books Council’s Book of the Month for December 2020.
World Book Day In Wales, the World Book Day campaign is coordinated by the Books Council of Wales and supported by the Welsh Government and Waterstones.
Each year, in collaboration with a host of publishers and booksellers, World Book Day organizes a list of specific titles for £1 each for children and young people, and the mission of World Book Day is to encourage them to enjoy books and reading by for them to have their own book. The Books Council of Wales works with World Book Day to ensure a choice of £1 Welsh-language titles. Information on the English £1 books for 2021 can be found online www.worldbookday.com/books and further details about World Book Day 2021 celebrations in Wales will be announced in the New Year.
On 20 November 2020, Wales lost one of its great literary figures following the death of Jan Morris at the age of 94.
A journalist, novelist, travel writer and historian, she wrote more than 40 books during her lifetime, including Pax Britannica (Faber, 1968, 1973, 1978), a trilogy on the history of the British Empire; The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country (Oxford University Press, 1984) and Conundrum (Faber & Faber, 2002), a memoir recording her transition from man to woman, from James to Jan Morris.
She was born in England in 1926 but her father was from Wales and she moved here in the 1980s, settling down with her family in Llanystumdwy on the Llŷn Peninsula.
Jan Morris was an Honorary President of the Friends of the Books Council of Wales and here, our Chair, Professor M Wynn Thomas, our Chief Executive, Helgard Krause, and Ion Thomas, Chair of the Friends of the Books Council, pay tribute to the talented writer who made Wales her home.
“During her remarkable lifetime, Jan Morris wrote enough books to supply the entire UK publishing industry. A world-famous chronicler of countries and places, and a peerless traveller of the globe, she nevertheless remained firmly anchored emotionally in the Wales she so loved and with which she totally identified. With her passing, Wales loses another of its very greatest writers and the Books Council of Wales one of its staunchest supporters” – Professor M Wynn Thomas.
“Jan Morris was a pioneer in every sense of the word. She was an unrivalled wordsmith and an eloquent chronicler of the life, culture and landscape of Wales. She will be sorely missed but leaves a rich legacy in her many books, essays and reportage” – Helgard Krause
“If anyone deserved to be called a ‘Friend’ then it was Jan Morris. After all, friendship and kindness were the traits she put above all others. Through her words, she became a friend to so many people and so many places. She was an Honorary President of the Friends of the Books Council, and her contribution to our literature and her support for the language, our culture and our identity as well as our humanism will remain. Thank you, Jan, for guiding us with a smile and a keenness of mind to the peaks of the literary world” – Ion Thomas.
A new scheme is being launched in Wales to help children understand and manage their mental health and wellbeing through reading.
The programme, which has been developed by leading health professionals alongside children and their families is being brought to Wales by UK charity, The Reading Agency in partnership with Welsh Government and public libraries.
For World Mental Health Day on Saturday 10 October, The Reading Agency and public libraries rolled out Reading Well Books on Prescription for children in Wales, with book collections and supporting resources made available in both English and Welsh. The booklist responds to the increasing demand for expert-endorsed information and advice to support children to understand and manage their mental health and wellbeing.
More than a million parents believe their child could benefit from professional help in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown and Childline has delivered almost 7,000 counselling sessions with children about the impact of coronavirus outbreak. In Wales, one in 10 children between the ages of five and 16 have a mental health problem and many more experience behavioural issues
The Reading Well for children booklist contains 33 books selected to address key challenges facing children today. The titles in the list deal with topics from anxiety and grief, to bullying and internet safety, to how to cope with events in the news. The booklist also explores living well with a range of diagnosed conditions including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), dyslexia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and physical disabilities.
The booklist is targeted at children in Key Stage 2 and includes titles suitable for a wide range of reading levels to support less confident readers, and to encourage children to read together with their siblings and carers.
Karen Napier, The Reading Agency’s CEO, said: “One in 10 children in Wales have a mental health issue, with recent global events exacerbating the problem. At The Reading Agency, we believe in the proven power of reading to tackle life’s big challenges and this new and important area of our work will use quality-assured information, advice and stories approved by experts, to help all children manage and understand their feelings and cope during tough times.”
Titles from the booklist can be recommended by health and social care professionals, teachers and anyone else working to support children and families. The book collections are available free to borrow from local public libraries. The Reading Agency is working with the Books Council of Wales make titles from the list available in Welsh.
Helgard Krause, Chief Executive Officer of the Books Council of Wales, said: “Children’s wellbeing is important at all times but the current pandemic has made us ever more aware of the need to ensure that children have access to trusted print and digital resources that help to support them and to enable them to talk about their feelings. It is vital that these conversations can happen in a child’s first language, which is why we at the Books Council of Wales are proud to be involved in the Welsh translation of these fantastic books.”
Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, said: “I am pleased that we have been able to provide funding to ensure rights to produce and distribute e-book versions of the children’s Welsh-language list. This is crucial given the vital role of digital content during this period. The funding will also enable the distribution of free copies of print versions of the books for use in libraries across Wales and as part of the click and collect schemes. This will be a significant boost for libraries and its users across Wales.”
Recognised by leading health bodies, in partnership with the Society of Chief Librarians Cymru, and with funding from the Welsh Government and Arts Council England, the Reading Well for children collection can support children in understanding and managing their mental health with evidence-based resources outside of clinical settings, or while they await treatment.
Health Minister, Vaughan Gething said: “I am delighted that the Welsh Government will continue to provide financial support for this important scheme which has been a huge success and played a significant part in delivering our Mental Health Delivery Plan and ‘More than just words’, our framework for the Welsh language in health and social care. Books have long since been places where people seek escapism, answers and comfort alike. I hope this initiative inspires children and families to read for both pleasure and wellbeing. The power of reading is limitless, let’s harness some of that energy to help tackle the growing challenges facing children’s mental health.”
Bethan Hughes Chief Librarian and representative of SCL Cymru, said: “We are happy that Reading Well Books on Prescription for children is being launched here in Wales as a bilingual scheme, and are excited to work with our partners to deliver the scheme.
“Reading, in essence, is good for you and for your wellbeing, and reading for pleasure in order to understand emotions and feelings is essential for us all, and especially for children as they learn to understand the world around them and their reaction to it.
“This scheme will be an opportunity for us to put into children’s hands, in their choice of language, books which have been selected carefully to help them understand their feeling, through the medium of words, pictures and imagination.
“People trust their local library as a place to seek help and unbiased information, locally in their community, in a non-clinical non-stigmatised place. This scheme is another example of how we can offer this help.”
Reading Well Books on Prescription for children is the third Reading Well scheme to be delivered in Wales following the success of the dementia and mental health book collections.
For more information about the Reading Well Books for children visit: reading-well.org.uk/wales
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