National Bookstart Day 2008
Friday 10 October is National Bookstart Day 2008 and the theme is Pirates Ahoy!
We've produced promotional materials including posters, bookmarks and stickers using the wonderful artwork of Debbie Harter, illustrator of the book Port Side Pirates.
Libraries will be sent these materials from their scheme coordinators.
There are further resources available here to download, along with suggested activities and fun ideas to make this year's National Bookstart Day a wonderful celebration.
Rhymesheets
| We've created special Rhymetime sheets in English and Welsh, using Debbie's illustration. Rhymetime sheets are size A4. You can download these below: | ||||
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Posters | |||||
 | Our colourful posters are ideal for promoting your National Bookstart Day events and are available to download below:
A4 standard posters | ||||
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| Events posters Our events posters are available as PDFs and Word docs (over-typable) | |||||
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Activities
There are lots of fun activities, including activity and colouring-in sheets to download and other great ideas to mark the day. Scroll down and take a look...
Colouring-in sheets
| Sheet 1 | Sheet 2 | Sheet 3 | ||
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| Click to download... | Click to download... | Click to download... |
 | Pirate's hats Some black paper, a round plate and a pair of scissors and you're away! | ||||||
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 | Ship's rats | ||||||
Further suggestions
Here are some other suggested ideas, activities and rhymes for your themed National Bookstart Day event:
- Face-painting
Children can be transformed into a blue bear or a colourful ship's parrot with these easy-to-follow steps.
Download: Face-painting techniques
- Further pirate rhymes
More suggested rhymes to go with the National Bookstart Day rhymesheets
Download: Pirate rhymes
- Pirate map
X marks the spot - invite children to locate the missing gold, or bear, or whatever takes your fancy, with a special Treasure Hunt.
Thanks to Bookstart in Cornwall for drawing up this fantastic map:
Download: Pirate map
Suggested books
 | Here's a list of suggested books to accompany your National Bookstart Day rhymetime or storytime event. Let us know your suggestions for more books and rhymes on the Discussion Board. |
Promoting your events
When you know the details of events in your area, please contact your Bookstart scheme coordinator to update the Events calendar on our website. We really need your events as far in advance as possible to best promote them.
Press release template
We have produced a press release template for you to send to local press to help publicise your National Bookstart Day celebrations.
- National Bookstart Day 08 press release template
(Word doc 350Kb)
Please add your own information and contact details but do keep the logos and everything listed under Editor’s Notes as it is on the template.
Contact Katherine Solomon on katherine@booktrust.org.uk for help in contacting press in your area or any other queries.
Remember, there's also plenty of helpful advice on promoting your events in the Communications Toolkit.
We hope there'll be as many fantastic events being held this year as there were last, so good luck to everyone.