Readathon

Readathon is a scheme of sponsored reading for school kids. It aims to encourage reading among the young and, at the same time, earn money for charity. I think Readathon is a much better idea that sponsored walks we endured at school.


Everywhere Brough Girling goes, he brings cake.

Brough Girling, the founder of Readathon, was in Northern Ireland this week visiting some schools that have done particularly well in the scheme. Schools where the students read lots of books and gathered impressive amounts of money. I went with him to talk to the students about my work and life as a writer. We went to Ashfield Boys' School in Belfast and Cambridge House Grammer in Ballymena. In Ballymena I talked with my biggest group of young people ever, four-hundred and fifty.

Click here to visit the Readathon website.

Monsters in Meath

It's Children's Book Festival time and this week I visited libraries around Co. Meath. I meet lots of school groups and enjoyed it a lot. Hope they did too.


Doing my thing in Slane.


One of the school groups I meet in Ashbourne.

One thing I love about meeting young readers is the surprising angles they take on my work. Often a boy or girl will have paid extraordinarily close attention to someone I considered to be a minor character. Or they will have thought hard about some fleeting detail. This is always an eye-opener for me.

Next week for the Children's Book Festival I am the Ballyroan Library in Rathfarnham, Dublin.