World Book Day online offering this week

World Book Day will this year be celebrated and marked by Gibraltar Cultural Services on with several initiatives and online offerings.
Due to the latest restrictions, GCS has been unable to offer the traditional event based at the John Mackintosh Hall, but they will be sharing and promoting the love of literature, books and reading.
“In this way, we will be releasing a series of recorded and written book reviews on social media, featuring a cross section of the community and local personalities,” GCS said.
These will be published on the John Mackintosh Hall Library and GCS Facebook pages, starting on Saturday, February 27 and running for over a week.
Book reviews written by a selection of young people will also be published in the Gibraltar Chronicle during this time, with the first being published in this edition on page 13.
Radio Gibraltar will also be collaborating by featuring interviews with a selection of authors on their Breakfast Show every morning.
“Books play such an important part in our lives, from a very early age,” the Minister for Culture, John Cortes said.
“The way that the team at GCS has designed this celebration of World Book Day will encourage youngsters in particular to engage with books and with authors, and so get drawn into the limitless world ofliterature.”
“We will this year be celebrating books and authors, particularly Gibraltar’s rapidly growing literature. I’m really looking forward to all that we have in store for the coming year.”
GCS has also produced an informal written ‘Meet the Author’ segment, where members of the public can learn about local authors, what inspired them to write, what their favourite book is, and what anecdote or quote resonates with them.
GCS is also bringing the public a story telling session with a difference.
“We have engaged a variety of people, young and not so young, to select short extracts of some of their favourite children’s stories which we have pieced together to present a one-of-a-kind adventure,” GCS said.
This will be released on social media on World Book Day itself, Thursday, March 4.
“As part of our drive to make books accessible and stimulate an interestin reading we will be working with Families in Need,” GCS said.
“We will be supporting young people with the books required to assist them with their studies and gifting younger children some storybooks so they can take pleasure in reading.”
A further initiative includes a competition for children which will run on the JMH Library Facebook page with the closing date and a selection of winners announced tomorrow.
To be in with a chance to win a book all that is needed is submit a photo of yourself and your child/ children, with their favourite book and post it on the page.
GCS will also be launching the John Mackintosh Hall Library Instagram page, so users can follow the Library and keep up to date with all the latest news.

See more on World Book Day with a book review by Tammy Randall here.