At London Evening Standard’s Get Reading Event

My birthday weekend was an absolute blast as I spent it with my dear family and had close relations and friends come to my house over the weekend.

The highlight of my birthday weekend had to be going to Trafalgar Square in London for the ‘Get Reading‘ event organized by the London Evening Standard newspaper.

The key sponsor of the event was Nook who have done a fantastic job giving free copies of their eReader to schools in London and are working hand in hand with the London Evening Standard to improve the literacy levels in London. This event has been featured in the newspaper for the last couple of months and I knew I wanted to be a part of it in some way.

The main purpose of the event was as the title of the event suggested, to get kids reading. To that effect, there were many stars of the screen and stage who graced the stage and did a bit of reading. Dick and Dom (popular UK kids presenters) hosted the show and did a fantastic job.

Some of the celebrities and stars at the event included Hugh Grant, Princess Beatrice, David Harewood, Barbara Windsor, Malorie Blackman and Peppa pig to mention but a few. They all read a few pages from popular children’s books.Malorie Blackman who is the children’s laureate also took some time to read a few pages from her popular series ‘Noughts & Crosses.’

You could almost describe the event as a reading marathon or relay as different authors, actors, celebrities etc came on stage and sat on this big red chair and then read a few pages from a popular children’s book. My children had fun splashing their feet in the pool at Trafalgar Square as they listened to the person reading on the stage.

The star I was most impressed was David Harewood as he plays David Estes in my favorite TV show – Homeland. Such a shame he’s not going to be in the third series as his character was killed off at the end of series 2. I think my children were most impressed by Peppa Pig 🙂

My wife and I put down our names to be reading volunteers. So tell your loved one to be on the look out as children’s author David Chuka could be visiting their school very soon. If you live in London or surrounding areas, I would like to encourage you to join this great cause as we all have a part to play to ensure every child can read. You can discover more about the Get Reading campaign by visiting the link below