Unity held its first ever reading festival which included various illustrators, poets and authors attending to celebrate the joy of reading.
Unity Academy hosted the 'Reading Rocks' event on Saturday 22nd June to encourage more children across the Fylde Coast to read. Children and parents got the opportunity to listen to various authors reading extracts from their books and take part in writing and craft workshops.
Some of the special guests reading at the new festival included childrens author and storyteller Dan Worsley and Bob the Builder illustrator, animator and author Curtis Jobling. Storyteller Serena Ridyard, from Enchanted Events attended the festival dressed as Disney princess Belle to read to the children.
A spokesman for the academy said: "It was an absolutely fantastic day where children's reading was celebrated and enjoyed. We were lucky to have so many high quality authors with us, telling stories and talking about the writing process. It has been a highlight of our year."
Dan Worsley, Unity Academy's patron of reading, said: "I absolutely loved being a part of the first ever Unity Blackpool Reading Festival. It was an ace event. Massive congratulations to all of the hard-working staff who must have gone above and beyond to pull that together."
Author Nathan Parker is an ex-pupil at Unity Academy and his book 'The Disappearance of Timothy Dawson' is shortlisted for Lancashire Book of the Year. He returned to his former school to read to pupils and said it was a "fantastic morning delivering a talk about my book, the journey and the inspiration behind it.'
Unity Academy hopes the Reading Festival will become and regular annual event so this could be the start of many!
A collection of photos from the event can be viewed below:
Unity Reading Festival 2019
