We've got knits!

The BIG Little Library is all about books and reading, of course - but there are other things going on there as well!

One thing that's proving popular is the chance to do a bit of knitting :-) The idea of 'Knit a Shop' (needles & wool supplied!) is that anyone can choose a colour and knit a few rows... then tie a tag to it with the date and a few words about why you chose that colour.

All the little bits of knitting get joined together, and over the 3 months the 'shop' is open it builds up its own story of the people who've visited (and it'll look like Tom Baker's Dr Who scarf :-))

The BIG Little Presentation!

Finally, the pics have arrived to prove it, and we can - very proudly - bring you our other news from World Book Day!

Regular readers will be aware that the Lord Mayor, Erica Kemp, was one of our earliest supporters - and some time back we discussed with her the possibility of getting a Little Library for Liverpool Town Hall - she was very keen on the idea so we asked our friends at Gateacre School if they'd be interested in providing one... and they said yes :-)

Pictured above is the moment where headmaster Mr Gerard Lonergan presented the Little Library to the Lord Mayor, flanked by Lisa Mitchell, the unstoppable force behind the BIG Little Library, and yours truly on behalf of the Middlefield Rd version.

What a proud moment!

After I'd performed my most important task of the day (I carried it back to the Lord Mayor's limo), the Little Library took up pride of place in the magnificent splendour of the Town Hall's foyer - where the staff are already helping to stock it. 

But that's not all...

One of the most important aspects to the BIG Little Library is the active promotion of more Little Little Libraries :-)

Over the course of its 3 months, Gateacre School will be providing a total of 10 Little Libraries to people around Merseyside!!! The first one is in the Town Hall, the last one is going to stay in Belle Vale Shopping Centre... and the ones in between will be going to a variety of people, institutions and community groups who've asked for them - we'll keep you up to date with each one right here :-) Is that fab, or what?!?!

Unfortunately, yes it does mean that those Little Libraries are all already spoken for... fortunately, there is still a way for you to get one of your own :-) Whilst these Little Libraries are made from new materials, we also encourage people to 'upcycle' (apparently that's a word... now) various old materials and furniture to make their own, unique and beautiful Little Libraries (like ours <3) - we're going to be using the BIG Little Library (and 'elsewhere') to run some workshops helping people to do this (and providing some or all of the materials), so keep watching... 

Oh, and if you're wondering who the lady in the marvellous hat is, apparently she's the High Sheriff of Merseyside ;-)

Speaking of unique & beautiful Little Libraries - here are some more pics of the amazing decoration job Lisa did on the Town Hall's... if you look really closely at the pic on the left you'll see a pic (bottom centre) from the Giants, with a couple of Lilliputians walking in front of Grandma - yes folks, that's me and Lisa, and that's how we first met up and started planning crazy stuff :-)

  

  

Wow - starting with a bang!

WOW! And, when we say "Wow", we mean full-on Kate-Bush-arm-swinging "WOW!" (YouTube it :-)). Today was the opening day for the BIG Little Library - and what an amazing first day it was :-)


Our friends at Gateacre School (in particular Lisa Mitchell) have worked so hard to pull this together - Belle vale Shopping Centre very kindly offered them a shop unit for 3 months, so long as they used it for something to do with literacy... and they loved our Little Library so much they decided to create the BIG Little Library (by Gateacre School) - and they've done a great job!

Some of the pupils from Gateacre School came over to help out with the opening - and a credit to the school they were too :-)

In addition there were several groups of kids from other local schools... and - what with it being World Book Day - the younger ones were all dressed up as their favourite book characters... don't they look fab?

The Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Erica Kemp, has been a big supporter of our Little Library since not long after we launched it, and - despite having a big Volunteer Event on at the Town Hall today - she made the time to come along and open the Big Little Library :-)

The kids gave her a great welcome!

The big moment - Erica snips the (Gateacre purple) ribbon and declares the Big Little Library... OPEN!

Ably abetted by (L-R) Paul, the Manager of Belle Vale Shopping Centre; Bella, the Belle Vale Bumble Bee, and the unstoppable Lisa...

So much for official duties! Erica's first priority once everyone was inside was to get comfy in 'Cosy Corner' and start reading a story to the little girl of one of the shoppers - I think that says a lot about why we like her :-)

It was so lovely to see the place so full and absolutely buzzing!

Of course we realise it's not always going to be quite so busy... but three are various special events and activities planned so we'll be talking a bit more about some of them in future posts...

We'll also be following up (very soon) with another post about the other reason why Erica was at the opening and how we're tying the Big and Little, Little Libraries, together...

The dressing up basket in 'Cosy Corner' proved to be a big hit :-)

Lots of satisfied 'customers' - that's what we like to see! :-)

Hopefully Lisa's having a very well earned rest at the end of a hectic first day (at the end of several hectic weeks) 'making the magic happen'...

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Tomorrow's the BIG (Little Library) Day!

Can't remember whether we've mentioned that tomorrow - World Book Day, 5th March - at 1pm is the opening of the BIG Little Library? Think we may have mentioned it in passing, but worth doing so again because it's really pretty special :-)

Lord Mayor Erica Kemp will be there to be open it - and we'll be making a very special presentation to her... I wonder if you can guess what it is?

It would be fantastic to see you too - especially tomorrow, but any time in the next 3 months :-)

More Teasing...

We know you shouldn't tease... but we just can't resist... we're so excited about the BIG Little Library opening in Belle Vale Shopping Centre at 1pm this Thursday (World Book Day) that we just had to share this photo of 'Cosy Corner'... just in case you're not all following @GateacreLL

DO please come along and support our friends from Gateacre School - we heard a rumour there'll be cake :-)