Tuesday August 5th 2025

Dear Diary,

I had a brilliant time at Burnham-on-Sea Library with the children who attended my activity session this afternoon. After a busy morning at Bridgwater Library, it was great to have a slightly quieter afternoon, allowing me to spend more one-on-one time with each child.

And these children were a talented bunch! They coloured in book covers, created their own book covers, produced comic strips, and wrote imaginative stories of their own.

Oscar drew a lovely picture. Harry worked on a colourful comic strip whilst his sister wrote a story. Ava and Alfie both whizzed through all number of activities in no time. Elsie told me all about her recent success as runner-up in the BBC 500 Words competition. Her brother Edwin did some very detailed colouring. And Drew and Finn let their imaginations go wild!

There were stories about mermaids, dragons, Pokémon, and Mc Donalds, to name but a few!! But I especially loved Finn’s story entitled Stanley the Snake Clown… I just sadly forgot to take a picture of it!

I think all of the children who attended were participating in the Summer Reading Challenge run by Somerset Libraries. This super scheme encourages children to read for pleasure during the summer holidays, offering rewards along the way and a medal and certificate once they’ve completed the challenge by reading six books. And I think it’s a great way to keep children excited about reading!

It was lovely to see how much this group enjoyed spending time at their local library. And it was such a joy to witness them having fun doing activities requiring nothing more than paper and something to write or draw with.

I had a lovely afternoon at Burnham-on-Sea Library, and hope to return next year with WARNING: Grandma’s Gone Bonkers.