As part of the international World Book Day celebrations, Offaly County Library conducted a countywide event to vote on Your Favourite Children's Book of All Time. A very successful poll was conducted throughout the branch library network and on the library website, www.offalycountylibrary.ie . Almost 1,000 votes were received. The overall most popular titles were:
| Ranking | Book Title | Author |
|---|
| 1 | Horrid Henry | Francesca Simon |
| 2 | The boy in the striped pyjamas | John Boyne |
| 3 | Twilight | Stephenie Meyer |
| 4 | The BFG | Roald Dahl |
| 5 | Matilda | Roald Dahl |
| 6 | Fantastic Mr. Fox | Roald Dahl |
| 7 | The twits | Roald Dahl |
| 8 | Diary of a wimpy kid | Jeff Kinney |
| 9 (Joint) | Cinderella | Hans Christian Andersen |
| 9 (Joint) | Under the hawthorn tree | Marita Conlon-McKenna |
Offaly County Library would like to thank everyone who voted for contributing to the success of the World Book Day celebrations. The list of the most popular titles in the individual local libraries can be viewed at those libraries.
World Book Day Author Visit
Dolores Keaveney will be visiting two libraries – Birr & Edenderry on Thursday 4th March. “If I were a bee…..I’d dance on a sunflower” is her first book. She was inspired to write the book by her grandchildren Ellie & Greg and their many visits to the walled garden in Belvedere House, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath to watch the honeybees hard at work on the masses of beautiful flowers. Dolores is also a member of the Bee Breeding Group in Belvedere.
Dolores will be speaking to children in Junior and Senior Infants about nature and bees in particular. She will read an abstract from her new book and will wear her bee keeping outfit and speak about all the bees busily heading into the hives to feed all the baby's and the queen. It will be a wonderful event and will be a fascinating morning of fun for all involved.
Elsewhere, in Tullamore Library storytelling for children and class tours of the library are taking place. In Clara Library a creative writing for adults will take place as part of the One Book One Clara reading initiative.