The summer events that have been keeping us busy

Kids making origami bookmarks

 

We’ve spent 4 full days outside at events over the past month and we’re extremely grateful that the weather was so kind to us. There’s no doubt that being so busy made navigating all the usual end of term commitments with the kids that much trickier. But we’re so glad we did it and had great fun in the process.

In late June we ventured into the depths of beautiful Kent for the Wealden Literary Festival. Taking place in the stunning Boldshaves Garden, this fantastic family event brought together all generations for talks, workshops, a spot of shopping and lots of food and drink. We were thrilled to meet so many enthusiastic young readers and their families, who stopped by our trusty blue gazebo to make some bookmarks, browse our books and talk about what they enjoy reading.

Kids activities and books at Wealden Literary Festival

We particularly loved hosting an informal storytelling session on the Sunday afternoon. We chose to read a chapter from a book that we sent our Parakeets last year: Ariki and the Giant Shark by Nicola Davies. We’re huge fans of reading aloud to children and it was great to see them captivated by Nicola’s beautiful descriptions and the drama as Ariki encounters the shark for the first time. With their imaginations sufficiently fired up, we invited the children to do an ocean-inspired drawing or colouring activity. It was fantastic to see what they came up with!

Last weekend, we set up our stall a little closer to home. On the High Street that lies between our two houses to be precise! Malden Fortnight is a great community event and we were thrilled to see so many familiar faces over the course of the day. Having invested in some new display shelves this was our first chance to use them at an event. It took us a while to get the hang of the assembly but once we did, we were very happy with the result – more of our brilliant books and activity packs on display at eye level for those browsing!

Parrot Street Book Club set up on New Malden High Street

We rounded off our summer events schedule with a stall at Northcote Road Summer Fete. With this busy shopping street closed to traffic for the day and the Wimbledon Tennis and World Cup Cricket finals on a big screen, there was a real carnival atmosphere. We particularly enjoyed catching up with families that had visited our stall back in November and being able to show them the huge range of exciting books and activities we’ve sent to subscribers since then.

Parrot Street Book Club set up at Northcote Road Summer Fete


Are you keen to supercharge your child’s love of reading but feel like you could be doing more to support them? We know that discovering, purchasing and recommending books that maintain your child’s enthusiasm for reading, helping them to reach their full potential, is time consuming. Why not let us take that off your to-do list? With a Parrot Street Book Club subscription your child receives a carefully chosen new children’s book and accompanying activity pack through the post each month. Prices start from £12 per month. Find out more here.


JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST

Children's book news straight to your inbox

Sign-up now