The Penny Readings Festival: Festive fun for the family

The Penny Readings Festival 2013
Sunday 15th December, 1.30-5.30pm
Great Hall, St George's Hall, Liverpool

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Penny Readings, The Reader Organisation is putting on its biggest event to date and hosting The Penny Readings Festival in St George's Hall - and it's this weekend! Join us for an afternoon full of festive reading and fun from 1.30-5.30pm, all completely FREE.

Our very first Penny Readings Festival will be a jam-packed afternoon, and we'll be taking over the grand Great Hall with tons of Christmas activities, entertainment and much much more to get the whole family well and truly into the Christmas spirit. Take a little look at some of the things we have in store...

Christmas reading

• Story Time - come along and listen to some stories for the young and young-at-heart in our Kids Corner
• Experience shared reading with seasonal stories and poems read aloud by TRO staff
• Try out shared reading aloud with our training taster sessions, run by our Big Lottery Volunteer team
• Get some great tips on making reading fun with young people
• Take on a starring role by reading us something aloud on video

There'll be loads of chances to get creative and show us your artistic talents by designing a cover for your favourite book, make festive finger puppets and help decorate our Readers Christmas tree, as well as games and reading quizzes to keep you entertained and thinking.

The Christmas marketplace will give you the chance to finish off your Christmas shopping, with lots of brilliant books from News from Nowhere and The Reader Organisation, as well as beautiful and unique jewellery and crafts. You can find out more about what we do and our various projects, tuck into some yummy food at the Christmas cafe and satisfy your sweet tooth with Just for Kids Cakes. Plus there'll be entertainment in store including the chance to get creative with the Wild Writers and enjoy some beautiful music from our Penny Readings guests the i Choir. And of course, no TRO event would be complete without a Reader Raffle with an array of wonderful prizes on offer, including gifts from Independent Liverpool.

Give us 5!

Along with Publiship, the Penny Readings Festival will be sponsored by Liverpool Learning Partnership who we're joining forces with alongside Liverpool City Council to make 2014 Liverpool's Year of Reading. Being a reader who reads for pleasure in and out of school is the most important factor affecting a child's future chances, and so to make every child who leaves primary school a reader, we're looking to build a City of Readers.

Our Give us 5 for Reading! campaign starts in February, but you can pledge to Give us 5 at The Penny Readings Festival, whether it be 5 minutes spent reading in our YouTube booth, 5 hours to be a City of Readers volunteer or 5 books to donate to our work with young people. Find out more about Give us 5 on the day.

Everyone is welcome to join us for The Penny Readings Festival, this Sunday from 1.30pm - start off your Christmas the Readerly way!