Manchester Libraries partnership with Blue Peter Book Club shortlisted for major award!
Manchester Libraries are honoured to be shortlisted as Library of the Year at the British Book Awards for our partnership with the Blue Peter Book Club.
It was announced in 13th March 2025 by the British Book Award judges that ‘Manchester Libraries is the North England winner for its ‘Blue Peter Book Club Live’ programme. It used the much-loved Blue Peter brand to run events including a ‘takeover’ of presenters and authors at the city’s central library that doubled the average Saturday’s visitor numbers. A ‘Reading Makes us Free’ promo with schools was among a rich variety of other creative activity around Manchester’.
Manchester Libraries are now one of nine library authorities shortlisted for the National Library of the Year Award. To be announced on Monday 12th May 2025.
Manchester Libraries’ city-wide Blue Peter Book Club Live programme was a first for the city and a unique way for Manchester Libraries to place themselves at the forefront of a national reading initiative, delivering a suite of engagement opportunities tailored to a local audience. This initiative celebrated the Blue Peter brand, the Blue Peter Book Club booklist, and the joy of reading, by bringing the Book Club into our local communities.
You can read more information about the project and watch a video by Blue Peter presenter Abby to find out more.
Partnering with Blue Peter and the Reading Agency, we devised the local activation programme of library-led activities to engage local communities with the joy of reading. With our Blue Peter Book Club Live campaign, we employed a diverse strategy and multi-faceted approach to engage children and families with reading and the curated booklist, offering free activities and events in both traditional and unconventional spaces throughout the summer.
The campaign hosted a ‘takeover’ event at Manchester Central Library where children enjoyed activities, book-themed performances by actors, meet and greets with the Blue Peter presenters, and live CBeebies Bedtime Stories. Authors from the Book Club including Eve Ainsworth and Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho joined us in this fantastic launch event. Our takeover was covered widely on social media and in the national press, including an article on the BBC News website.
Attendees rated their experience positively, with 100% of parents/caregivers saying their experience was ‘great’ and 98% of children enjoying the event.
Staff and attendees described the event as ‘magical’, ‘the best day ever’ and ‘one of the best things Manchester Libraries had done’, demonstrating its impact on community engagement with reading and the library.
Over 7,500 people visited Central Library on the day of the takeover, an 88% visitor increase compared to an average Saturday. Approximately three in five event attendees (60%) live in an area of high deprivation, and 36% said that prior to the event, they had visited the library ‘never’ or ‘only a few times a year’.
The takeover event was supported by library staff, volunteer Literacy Champions and partners from different organisations. They all praised the event’s success in engaging families from the local community. The presence of Blue Peter presenters was cited as a major draw, with their enthusiasm and interaction with children being particularly commended. For us this highlights the value in partnering with familiar and popular TV personalities in reading-related initiatives, particularly where the Blue Peter presenters can act as reading role models.
“A family came to tell me how amazing the event had been they were overwhelmed with what the event meant to them as a family being lifelong watchers of Blue Peter.” – Volunteer
“My memorable moment was when a very quiet and shy young child came with her parents. I spoke about the reading badge and showed mine, she literally didn’t say a word! Then she reached into her mum’s bag and pulled out a frame and in that were 6 Blue Peter badges magnificently displayed! I was in awe! She was utterly so proud and just smiled.” – Library staff member
“It was a brilliant day; my main memory is how much smiling I did. Highlights were the children who had been artists and how proud they were looking for their artwork and showing it to their families.” – Library staff member
Our ‘Reading Makes Us Free’ creative project involved 10,000 children from local schools who were invited to create their own Reading Book Birds. The 10,000 birds were then displayed around Central Library for the launch event and children invited to come to the library to find their book bird in the art-installation spanning all floors of the library. A small group of children, the ‘creative crew’ co-created the project with the artist and helped other children to design birds at the launch. Feedback from children showed they took pride in seeing their artwork displayed in the library, with 94% of teachers agreeing the project raised awareness of and engagement with Manchester Central Library. Data captured through the artist-led project at the takeover event showed that 96% of children reached through this method were visiting Manchester Central Library for the first time.
Children said who visited the library on the takeover day said:
“I really enjoyed today because I felt proud my artwork was displayed.”
“It was honestly fun trying to find my bird. I liked the place too because of the fun books.”
Teachers also told us about the impact of the Reading Birds project:
“Very keen on the Blue Peter aspect and gaining the badges. Lots of our families actually visited Manchester Central Library on the open day and the week following. We had lots of positive feedback saying they never would have gone otherwise.”
“Bringing people together in our local community is always a good project and has to be something meaningful and something that our families can attend! Gives children experiences and knowledge they wouldn’t normally get and free visits are vital for our families struggling in the cost of living crisis.”
A key element of Blue Peter Book Club Live was families discovering reading in unexpected places and linking this to the Blue Peter Book Club and libraries. Our local Blue Peter Book Club Badge Trail connected 13 cultural venues across Manchester and Salford, encouraging families to explore these spaces, with 20,000 trail maps distributed.
Each Badge featured a book from the Blue Peter Book Club and the trail map led families to discover more books and reading in non-library venues across the city. Each badge displayed a special letter and children could ‘collect’ all the letters to enter our competition to win the Blue Peter Book Club books. Competition entries could be dropped off in any Manchester library.
Data collected from Badge Trail participants shows that 94% of respondents widened their knowledge of free, cultural activities for children around the city, and 89% agreed the trail encouraged their children to apply for a Blue Peter badge.
Impact data shows that the Blue Peter Book Club Live trail resonated strongly with families, primarily through themes of exploration, discovery, and time spent with family. Insights collected from survey data highlights the following:
· 100% would like to attend a Blue Peter Book Club Live event at their local library
· 89% agreed the trail encouraged their child(ren) to apply for a Blue Peter badge
· 100% would like to visit their local library more often with their child(ren)
“We would never [normally] have visited the football museum, the poetry library or taken the tram to Abraham Moss Library, but we had a brilliant time on each of these visits. We also saw an exhibition at Manchester Museum that we otherwise wouldn’t have visited.” – Parent/caregiver
“Good because you get to go to different places and play for a bit and like make puppets and go to the Blue Peter Garden.” – Child
Children were also invited to discover the Blue Peter Book Club booklist in unexpected settings as part of a series of Book Hunt events in parks and open spaces. A city-wide book hunt was organised across four Manchester parks as a trailblazer to the trail launch and takeover event. The books were hidden by volunteers and social media was used to reveal book locations and engage participants, with a prize draw incentive for sharing discoveries online. On National Play Day, children and families enjoyed free nature-based activities as part of the programme, including storytelling, crafts, and a Blue Peter Book Club book hunt and competition. The events also promoted the Blue Peter Book badge and how to join your local library.
We encouraged children to apply for a Blue Peter Book Badge throughout the programme. Integrating our Blue Peter work into core library programming was key, and we offered six Book Badge sessions as part of our Summer Reading Challenge activity programme. Blue Peter Book badge applications exceeded 60,000 across the UK, with 329 applications from one school in Manchester alone. Both online and postal applications increased in Greater Manchester following the takeover event in Central Library.
The Blue Peter Book Club Live also had a major presence on broadcast and digital. A special episode of Blue Peter was shown on CBBC and iPlayer, with authors and local schoolchildren taking part. The takeover event was showcased in one episode and the creative crew from the Reading Bird project demonstrated how to create the birds on another.
A total of 12,308 people became new library members in Manchester during the period covered by the Blue Peter Book Club Live campaign, including 4,636 children. Children’s library membership in Manchester increased by 33% during the campaign compared to the same period in 2023.
Libraries were central to the Blue Peter Book Club Live campaign, reaching into local communities in a way few other organisations can. We believe our programme demonstrates how libraries can design, co-create and partner with others to deliver impactful activities which support children and families to discover the joy of reading.
