I have started seeing children’s books, left outside, in Abingdon. They are left in clear bags with a note from the person who donated them. In the last 24 hours I have seen three such books.

The note says You have found a book. You can either read me, leave me, or take me home.

This is the initiative of the Look for a book Oxfordshire Facebook Group. The group began on Saturday 10th August 2019.

Read it Daddy, a fellow Abingdon blogger, has been blogging for over 9 years at https://readitdaddy.blogspot.com/. His speciality is reviewing children’s books, sometimes more than one a day. He will know most of these found books.

On 22nd July Read it Daddy reviewed a book by an Abingdon author – Nicki Thornton.

Nicki used to be the co-owner of Mostly Books. Looking at the window at Mostly Books I see they have lots of children’s books including some about Starting School.
Meanwhile at The Bookstore in Abingdon there are a lot of children’s books in the corner window. They even have one that I recognise – Starting School By Janet Ahlberg and Allan Ahlberg.

After the success of her bestselling first book, The Last Chance Hotel, Nicki Thornton was back at Mostly Books, on Saturday, signing copies of her second book –The Bad Luck Lighthouse. The book is a sequel and is part magic and part detective story.

Nicki and Mark Thornton were previously the owners of Mostly Books. The first book came as a result of winning the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition 2016.

If you look at Nicki’s blog you can see the first book has been translated into several languages including a Russian version.

Ruby Wax will be talking about her book How to be Human at the Amey Theatre at Abingdon School on January 8th thanks to Mostly Books.

Then as part of the ATOM Science Festival, Dr Hannah Fry will be giving a talk on ‘How to Be Human in the Age of the Machine‘ on 22nd March at the Amey Theatre at Abingdon School.

It will interesting to hear their different talks about How to Be Human, in Abingdon.

Children have been converging on Abingdon Library for this year’s summer reading challenge. This year’s challenge is called Mischief Makers and features Dennis the Menace and other characters from the Beano. There are books to read, a treasure map to solve, and lots of stickers.

If you are over 12 and too old for that challenge then you can take part in the adult challenge and recommend two books on a postcard and be entered for the prize draw. This is just one of many cards on display at the library.

I am currently reading Empire of the Sun by J G Ballard – from the library. It follows Jim whose life, with his parents in the European quarter of Shanghai, is shattered by the second world war. They are separated and the book follows Jim’s struggle to survive. He begins by scavenging food from the houses in the street where he lived. When that supply runs out he tries to hand himself to the Japanese, seeking the relative safety of an internment camp … An epic!