Favourite reads book a place on staircase for World Book Day

A children’s author got to see the title of his book writ large at a Plymouth secondary school when he paid a visit ahead of World Book Day.

A staircase at Stoke Damerel Community College has been decorated to resemble a giant pile of books especially to celebrate the annual event and Marcus Alexander’s latest book Blood and Fire was one of them.

Lesley Wrennall, the College’s librarian, explained how the idea came about.

“We always do something special on World Book Day in the College and this year we decided we wanted to be completely different,” she said. “We asked staff to tell us what their favourite books were and used their suggestions to decorate the stairs.”

The College’s display co-ordinator Sarah Arrowsmith created enormous versions of the book spines, marking each one with the name of the member of staff who chose it.

“Not only does it look fantastic, “said Mrs Wrennall, “hopefully it will also inspire students, and staff, to try a new book they might not know about.

“We had so many suggestions we actually ran out of stairs and had to create a separate display in the library of the rest of them!”

Recommendations included The Bone People by Keri Hulme, EB White’s Charlotte’s Web and Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer.

Year 8 student Thomas Short said he thought the stairs “were a really good idea”.

“It gives you ideas for different genres of book to read,” he said.

Fellow Year 8 Simon Ssenjovu won the library’s World Book Day Quiz prize - a signed set of Mr Alexander’s books.

“I’ve read the first one and I can’t wait to read the next two,” said Simon, 12.  

At the end of his visit to the College on 4 March 2014 Mr Alexander was also presented with a piece of book art - also made by Miss Arrowsmith - as a memento of the day.

Made from his own book, the pages are folded in a specific pattern so they spell out a word - in this case “thanks”.

“The book is awesome,” said Mr Alexander.

“The students are brilliant and I’ve really enjoyed my day here – SDCC rocks!” 

Mrs Wrennall said Mr Alexander had held the Year 7 and 8 students “mesmerised” with tales of his real-life adventures travelling across Europe, America, India and the Far East.

“And his love of Parkour, dance, acrobatics and Thai Boxing are all reflected in his Keeper of the Realms Trilogy, a fast-paced action-packed fantasy adventure,” said Mrs Wrennall.

“His books are flying off the shelves of the library and I hope our stairs will offer suggestions for everyone for future reading too.”