What an affirming afternoon we have had today. The Children’s Book Tree was off icially launched today, the 5th December. We had a rousing speech from David Fickling about the power and magic of stories and books; Sally from The Children’s Society spoke movingly about the children who will benefit from your generosity and then Rebecca from our Children’s Department spoke persuasively about how books change lives and, who knows, how a gift from the Children’s Book Tree might transform the life of one of the recipient children. David then read a wonderful Neil Gaiman story from A Little, Aloud, For Children Keep your eyes peeled for a piece in the Oxford Times and…Keep spreading the word!
We are working with The Children’s Society to make sure that a little bit of extra joy is brought to hundreds of children who are less fortunate than most. For the first time this year we are running a ‘giving tree’ in our Children’s department and buying a perfect gift couldn’t be simpler:
- Visit our Children’s Department at the back of the ground floor
- Select one of the red tags on the Christmas Tree that will give a little bit of detail about the child and what interests them
- If you want some advice on what to purchase just speak to one of our booksellers – they will be thrilled to share their expertise
- After you have paid for the book we will wrap the book with the tag and make sure that it is delivered in time for Christmas
The Children’s Book Tree is in the Children’s department now but you may choose to visit it on Saturday 8th of December, the day of our Christmas Family Day. The day is packed full of festive fun including; Christmas music from Abingdon Brass Band, face painting, balloon modelling, Christmas storytelling with Andrew Weale, Cartoons with Clive Goddard, Arts, crafts, activities, games and much more
UPDATE THAT WILL WARM YOUR COCKLES AND TUG ON YOUR HEARTSTRINGS
Over the weekend we had some fantastic stories about The Children’s Book Tree;
The youth of today:
One little boy chose two 342 books and for his 3rd book he chose one for the giving tree instead of getting a 3rd for himself in the series he was buying.
Two girls from America visiting with their parents were told they could get one book each for themselves, the older one (I’d guess she was about 10) gave her book to the giving tree and didn’t get one for herself.
Two girls were told by their mother that they could each choose a book for the giving tree and she would pay, once at the till the older one (guessing about 10yrs old again) offered to pay for her choice with her own money.
It makes you want to cry!
Harry
UPDATE 2: A number of requests if you can take part in the Children’s Book Tree online – I am looking in to this. However, you can take part remotely – just contact our Children’s department either by phone (01865 3333694) or email (childrens@blackwell.co.uk)
The wonderful Nicola Morgan has written this lovely piece about the Children’s Christmas Tree that our Edinburgh shop are running. Keep spreading the word, beautiful friends…
The heartwarming stories keep on coming – today we had the utter pleasure of meeting Garrick and Janey, two actors, who came all the way from Stratford-Upon-Avon with the sole purpose of buying a book for The Children’s Gift Tree. They chose a tag from a sixteen year-old girl who is interested in acting and art so decided to buy for her a book on Stanislavski. Cheers all round and, you never know, we may have been a small part in developing the next Judi Dench…
Garrick and Janey with their chosen book for a sixteen year old girl
Filed under: Bookshop news and events, The Children's Book Tree, Gift of Reading, Giving Tree, The Children's Society
Looks like a fantastic idea. Holly and I will be along to do that.
Thanks Sam – and thanks for putting it on your blog as well, much appreciated x
[...] in the run-up to Christmas. They have joined forces with The Children’s Society to run The Children’s Book Tree. All you need to do is visit the tree in the shop, select a red gift tag and choose a book or [...]
PS I have just ‘pressed’ this onto my blog to try to get more people along!
[...] with The Children’s Society this year, and have a ‘giving tree’ in store.. Read here to find out more about the idea behind [...]
Reblogged this on Idleness.
[...] give the gift of a book to a child this Christmas, please do. Blackwell’s in Oxford have a Children’s Book Tree to collect gift books for The Children’s Society. You will probably find a similar scheme [...]