Yesterday, the University Library hosted its first-ever Global Storytime Event. We invited parents and carers to bring their children into the University Library, where two of our talented students read to them from a selection of illustrated children’s books from the Outside In World collection of children’s books in translation. After this, the children were invited to participate in an art activity, colouring and drawing images inspired by the books.

I am so grateful to our talented students Abigail and Santosh, who engaged the children so effectively, and to all the parents and children who participated. A wonderful time was had by all and the artworks created by the children were particularly fun and entertaining.

We were thrilled with the way you engaged on World Book Day. Many of you are clearly well read and you made such interesting recommendations for things others should read. I’ve summarised the list of suggestions below so you can see what everyone else is recommending that you read! It’s certainly a varied and interesting list. What’s even better is that we have quite a few of these in the Library already that you can either read right now online or borrow in print!

We are always looking for new ways to make learning more fun and interesting. To that end, one of our resident sci-fi enthusiasts has pulled together a reading list of science fiction books we have in stock that were all written by People of the Global Majority.

Happy World Book Day! Explore five books from around the world that will take you on a journey from the artworks of feudal Japan to the mysteries of philosophy and from the worldview of a man in self-imposed social exile to a fantastical parody of pre-war Soviet society and a poignant view of the arrival of British colonialism in Africa told from an African perspective.