Manchester Children’s Book Festival · 26th June – 6th July 2012

MCBF Reading and Writing Relay

Between Monday 2nd July and Friday 6th July, the Manchester Children's Book Festival wants to create a buzz around reading and writing stories and poetry for children.

Starting at Longsight Library at 10am Monday 2nd July, with author Cathy Cassidy reading from her work and talking to pupils about how she gets ideas for writing her stories, Festival runners will take the baton from school, to library, to bookshop, picking up other Festival events along the way as the week progresses. If you're a local Manchester school or venue and want to be included in this part of the relay, simply let us know what you're planning to do and when by contacting mcbfschools@mmu.ac.uk and you can be part of the fun.

The physical relay will run in parallel with our virtual relay so wherever you are, whether you're a school doing a class read, a writer working on your latest book for children or visiting a school, a volunteer at a local school or community group, a reading group taking a trip down memory lane by reading your favourite children's book, a company who runs a reading programme for children - or simply a parent, grandparent or childminder reading to a child at home, you can take part.

This means that our relay isn't limited just to Manchester, or even the North West of England. We want to get the whole world reading and writing! Whether you're in Manchester England, or Manchester Boston, USA, you can still take part just be letting us know what you're doing.

If you find yourself interested, taking part is easy. You can send any texts, photos or videos to mcbf@posterous.com and see your content uploaded on our blog. Unfortunately we cannot receive HD clips yet, so please make sure the video is a standard recording before sending. Alternatively, you can click the 'start recording' button in the blog's right sidebar and let us hear, in a 3 min clip (or as many 3 min clips as you like), your contribution to the relay. If you let us know who you are and where you are, we'll add you to our reading and writing relay map. Don't forget, you can keep yourselves up-to-date with the virtual relay by following us on twitter @mcbf2012.

Get involved and share! If you want to give us the heads-up before the relay takes off, send us your details in an email and we'll keep our eyes and ears open for your coverage.

Record what you're doing by going onto our blog, www.m-cbf-relay.blogspot.co.uk and pressing the 'start recording' button in the right sidebar.