Tuesday August 19th 2025

Dear Diary,

This afternoon, I visited another small neighbourhood library, Stirchley Library. Despite it not being as large as some of the libraries I’ve visited recently, there’s a super spacious children’s section there. Denise and David had not only cleared me a fantastic area with tables and chairs just outside it, but they’d also ordered in a copy of WARNING: Magic Can Be Dangerous! and a copy of WARNING: May Contain Dragons… AND put both books onto the system and proudly out on display! And although it ended up being a pretty quiet afternoon, it was still a rather magical one!

The first two children who entered the library after I arrived weren’t interested in participating in any activities. But when one of them discovered I was a children’s author, he immediately borrowed both of my books! How fabulous!!!

I always donate a copy of each of my books to any libraries I visit, so David very kindly quickly added my donations to the library system… and THEY were later both borrowed whilst I was there, too! In fact, we ended the session with both books also being requested by yet another borrower. So, on a borrowing scale, this visit was on fire!!!

And it wasn’t long before a few children settled in to join in with some activities. Among them were Remi and Forest — who both did some lovely colouring:

… Meher — who designed a pretty book cover and plotted out a story (revealing that rainbows are really giant slides for fairies):

… Rosie — who really went to town with her comical black-and-white comic strip entitled Cat Catastrophe:

… and Aashriya — who produced a beautiful technicolour comic strip entitled Summer and the Superpower:

There’s never any knowing how well attended events such as these will be until on the day. But I’m so grateful to Stirchley Library for allowing me to visit. Denise, David, and the team couldn’t have made me feel more welcome, the children who were there on the day were an absolute pleasure to spend time with, and my stories managed to capture the hearts of a few new young readers. So, in my book, today was another success!!!