There are all sorts of exciting events planned at Balham Library this month! Library manager, Alex Martin tells us what’s in store.

---

Hello again and happy June from everyone at Balham Library. This month is all about our wonderful communities, from big events like Balham Literary Festival to celebrating our lovely book groups and the reading communities they build. As always, we’d love to welcome you to our regular events, so find out more below…

Balham Literary Festival…

Balham Literary Festival is once again coming to town with a huge range of events across Balham making sure there’s something to interest everyone! We’re particularly excited to once again be a host venue for a fab children’s event; A story time for The Dinosaur Department Store, telling a cheeky little story about Eliza Jane and her plans for a prehistoric pet. For more info about this fantastic free event, and to book your place, please click here.

National Book Group Day…

The 15th June marks National Book Group Day, brought to us by The Reading Agency and the Booksellers Association. It’s a celebration of all the great book groups across the country and the positive effects these groups can have on their members. Balham has three reading groups to shout about. The Golden Years reading group meets on the first Thursday of the month in the early afternoon, our Evening Reading Group meets the first Wednesday of the month and our LGBTQ Reading Rainbow meets the last Wednesday of the month.  All our groups love a good chat about their chosen novels and love to welcome new members. If you’re interested, pop in and speak to a member of staff.

Bookstart’s Pyjamarama Week and Eid al-Fitr…

We’ve had a great first week of the month up in the Children’s Library, celebrating Eid al-Fitr and the end of Ramadan with a very special storytime and sharing the magic of bedtime stories with Bookstart’s Pyjamarama week. As well as running storytime sessions in onesies and reading to playgroups full of pyjama-clad children, we spent the week giving away hundreds of free copies of Nick Sharratt’s new picture book, Car, car, truck, jeep to visiting families. We particularly enjoyed Friday’s pyjama party and bedtime story session for the after school crowd and can confirm that, yes, Lucinda did wear her pyjamas all day!    

Code Club…

Did you know Balham Library has a Code Club for 7-11 year olds? This fab program has been running on Wednesday evenings since the Autumn term and has built up a loyal following among the kids lucky enough to take part, but we’re very happy to announce that the club should be expanding this term and there are a couple of extra spaces in our 5.30-6.30 session! Get in touch to find out more…

Pride Month

Last – but by no means least – Balham Library is celebrating LGBTQ Pride month this June with an amazing, family-friendly, Rainbow Storytime and Crafternoon planned for Saturday June 29th, from 3 to 4.30pm. We’d love to have you there to share stories, learn some new songs, and see just how many different ways we can make rainbows! Our Children’s Librarian, Lucinda, has also set herself the challenge of only reading LGBTQ literature (outside of storytimes) this month, so make sure to stop in and chat to her about what she’s reading, what she’s excited about, and which books are making her cry messily on the tube…