Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho Visits Tredegar Library
Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho Visits Tredegar Library as Part of an Epic Campaign Championing Local Libraries
Waterstones Children’s Laureate (2022-2024), Joseph Coelho, is on an epic cross-country journey to join a library in every local authority in the UK – more than 200 libraries in total – with the aim of encouraging people, young and old, to join their local library. Coelho is championing local libraries and the vital role they play within the community and inspiring a love of reading in young people.
As part of this mission, the award-winning performance poet, playwright, and children’s author is currently on a jampacked nine-day ‘Library Marathon’ tour of Wales, organised by BookTrust and Literature Wales, which started in Caerphilly and is winding his way to Flintshire.
On Friday 9th September his tour of Wales brought him to Tredegar Library, where he joined the library, took out a book and met with Year 3 pupils from Georgetown Primary School. Coelho read a selection of his poems and 10 Word Tiny Tales to the group, and then worked with them to come up with some ideas for their own poems and stories before doing a short question and answer session, where the students quizzed him on his books and how long it takes to produce them.
Joseph Coelho, Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2022–2024, said: “I am thrilled to bring my Library Marathon tour to Wales. I look forward to visiting 22 libraries across this beautiful country, and joining fellow poet and newly announced Children’s Laureate Wales, Alex Wharton. Libraries made me a writer and make communities thrive. They have been a vital part of my life: from living on estates where I had a library next door, to my first Saturday job, to working at the British Library whilst studying at UCL, to touring theatre shows designed to be performed in libraries. I’m immensely grateful to libraries and the services they provide, so I want to use my platform as the Waterstones Children’s Laureate to champion these essential launchpads of learning. I want to hug every library, these miraculous institutions where new horizons line the shelves, where minds go to grow.”
Coelho’s ambitious ‘Library Marathon’ began prior to his appointment as the foremost representative of children’s literature, the Waterstones Children’s Laureate, and was put on hold due to the Covid pandemic. Now Joseph – who is acclaimed for his work including the Luna Loves picture books, middle grade series Fairy Tales Gone Bad, YA verse novel The Girl Who Became a Tree, as well as poetry collections for all ages including Overheard in a Tower Block and Poems Aloud – is set to complete his campaign by putting library advocacy at the heart of his laureateship.
Claire Furlong, Literature Wales’ Executive Director said: "What a treat for children in Wales to have Joseph Coelho touring libraries across the length and breadth of Wales as part of his Library Marathon tour. At Literature Wales, we’re passionate about the benefits of introducing the joys of creative writing to the next generation. Libraries are essential in this endeavour, as is providing as many opportunities as possible for children to meet and be inspired by writers. I know that Joseph, alongside our very own Children’s Laureate Wales Alex Wharton, will inspire every child they meet in Wales to love their local library and leaving them brimming with enthusiasm for creating reading and writing. We can’t wait to give Joseph the warmest Croeso i Gymru this September."
Diana Gerald, Chief Executive of BookTrust added: “Libraries are essential community hubs for children and families and with the current cost of living crisis, can offer a safe and warm space, packed full of fabulous books that will inspire children of all ages on their reading journeys. Sharing stories and reading together with children has been proven to bring children wide-ranging benefits that can positively affect their lives. If Joseph’s Library Marathon has inspired you to visit your own local library, talk to the librarians – they are experts and can support you to find books and stories that you and your child will enjoy reading together.”
The ‘Library Marathon’ is one of three major initiatives announced by the current Waterstones Children’s Laureate, which is managed by BookTrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity, as part of his two-year tenure.Coelho’s other campaigns include the ‘Poetry Prompts’ weekly online series, which celebrates the power of poetry in all its forms, and ‘Bookmaker Like You’, which aims to showcase a diversity of new talent within the book industry so that every child can see themselves as a bookmaker.