Read DL was launched on World Book Day at an outside broadcast with John Breslin’s ‘Around the Northwest’ at Letterkenny Institute of Technology.
Based on the worldwide ‘One Book, One Community’ project, Read DL has grown from strength-to-strength in recent years and this year boasts its greatest participation numbers to date.
For Read DL 2022, schools, organisations, and individuals across Donegal will be reading Check Mates by Stewart Foster.
The book is a heart-warming tale about a young boy who struggles at school and explores the challenges of having ADHD, relationships and finding lessons from unexpected places.
The author Stewart Foster joined John Breslin live on air to talk about the book and his delight at being involved in the initiative.
This year Read DL has distributed 3,100 books across Donegal and due to unprecedented demand had to close registration early in December.
Speaking on behalf of the Read DL committee, Karen Sheehy, Executive Librarian with Donegal County Library Service, expressed their happiness with the uptake in interest this year.
“We were absolutely thrilled to see the volume of registrations in such a short space of time. Thanks to the generosity of the LYIT and Donegal ETB we are able to make these books available free of charge to those who have successfully registered,” Ms Sheehy said.
“There are still ways to participate by visiting donegallibrary.ie and reserving a copy of the book. Or anyone can call into their local branch as they are fully stocked with copies for lending.”
There are so many good reasons to participate in Read DL 2022.
Zach Ferry, Katie Burke and Vice Principal of Scoil Cholmcille Drumman, Maura Kelly.
Vice Principal from Scoil Cholmcille Drumman, Maura Kelly, and pupils Zach Ferry and Katie Burke visited the outside broadcast to talk of their experience of participating in Read DL in 2021.
Participation from schools and wider community is a key element of the initiative, it is not just about reading.
Speaking about the programme Karen adds “The initiative launches today and will end with an online mini-festival from the 29th to 31st March, which will include content from the author Stewart Foster, creative workshops and performances. Throughout the festival there will be opportunities to get involved by showcasing any activities participants get up to such as art, music, writing, or videos. The Read DL annual Creative Writing Competition is back as are teaching resources to accompany the book and an opportunity to take part in a question and answer session with author Stewart Foster.”
Anyone interested in participating this year can connect with ReadDL on social media Facebook @readdlsocial, Twitter @ReadDonegal, Instagram @readdonegal and visit the website www.readdonegal.com.
Tags:
