The IBBY Collection Goes North

Over the month of March and into the beginning of April 2018, the staff and pupils of Glenveagh Special School based in Belfast were proud to host the IBBY Collection of Books for Young People with Disabilities. As the exhibition took place in the school, it was co-ordinated with other exciting events which kicked off to great fanfare! 
Laureate na nÓg and IBBY Ireland Patron PJ Lynch arrived to the school to assist pupils with his BIG PICTURE project while at the same time Máire Zepf, the Seamus Heaney Children’s Fellow, arrived to the school to give a reading session surrounded by the books from the IBBY Collection.
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It wasn’t long before PJ was joined by fellow illustrator and  friend Paul Howard who just couldn’t wait to get stuck in. They were joined by pupils from Glenveagh School, Toughmonagh School and Malone College who were all eager to get their hands dirty! Máire Zepf just couldn’t keep her hands off the chalks as the 19ftx 7ft wall mural began to take shape. This was straight after her story telling session with  pupils from the Middle Department of Glenveagh were they were surrounded by the IBBY Special Collection.

The collection was set up in a private room in the school and the local Special needs schools were then invited to come along and have a look at it which they did upon appointment. The response from the other schools was completely positive.
Not surprisingly, the whole morning event was over in a snap as there was so much fun being had in the school! The wall mural was completed in a record 2hrs and when PJ was asked how the chalks on the wall could be preserved, he just said, ‘Use hairspray!'

Watch this space over the next few days for more about the Collection's trip to the North!
​And if you've missed it there, you have one more chance to catch it in Ireland before it heads back to Switzerland. Hurry to Wexford Town Library where it will be hosted until the end of April.