6 November 2018 

Over 90 children from across eight primary schools in Northampton took part in a day celebrating storytelling as part of Beanstalk BookFest 2018 - a free event for schools aimed at inspiring a new generation of booklovers.  

Beanstalk BookFest is a free literacy festival organised each year by national reading charity Beanstalk. The charity exclusively invites schools it works with to take part in inspiring and interactive workshops, which are generously supported by the venues, authors and illustrators who give their time to spread a love of books and reading. 

This year, for the first time, Beanstalk BookFest came to Northampton thanks to Northampton International Academy who kindly provided the venue and to children’s writer Pippa Goodhart, author of hugely successful ‘You Choose’, who hosted 'spooky tales' for the Year One and Two classes as well as Beanstalk children from other local schools. The children had fun with magic tricks inspired by the Winne the Witch stories and designed their own bookmark illustrations. In addition to the workshop with Pippa, there was face painting, fancy dress costumes and singing! 

Pippa Goodhart: “I was a child who really struggled with learning to read. I watched my friends learn easily, but I was the odd child out, the one who was stuck.  I saw reading as a task to dread because I knew I’d fail at it. Once I got through the mental log-jam of learning enough to get a taste of the rewards to be had from reading, I was launched.  And of course I love it now, both for work and play. Beanstalk is doing a wonderful job at helping the many children who struggle with reading, freeing them into a wider, easier, more interesting world. I’m proud to be working with them.” 

Find out more about all the events which took place as part of Beanstalk BookFest 2018.

Find out how your school can get involved with Beanstalk.