Anatomy of a Book Week

By Ms Odette HOLWEG ,Teacher Librarian, Junior School & DUCKS

World Book Day is an annual event celebrated on 23 April to promote reading, publishing, and copyright. The main goal of Book Week is to inspire a love of reading and to encourage children and young people to read more books. This time, the theme of our Book Week is Bridges to Our Dreams.

This symbol - Bridge embraces Dulwich College Suzhou’s motto Detur Pons Mundo – Building Bridges to the World. And so, in this anniversary year, our Book Week theme, similarly, embraced the role of the bridge, bridging gaps between reality and dreams – both literally and metaphorically.

This year, students have enjoyed a variety of experiences in their learning journey across the 5 days of Book Week 2023. Key events included:

Teddy Bear’s Picnic 

Book Week was kicked off with an exciting Teddy Bear’s Picnic with our DUCKS students. Following the picnic, Junior School students gathered the teddies together and chose some fun books for them to read.  The Teddies and books were reunited with their the DUCKS students for a fun read. Junior School & DUCKS students also shared some reading time together - a thoroughly enjoyable cross-school collaboration.

Authors Visit

Local Suzhou author Haifeng Xu and  Sonia Leong, manga and comic book artist came to our school to present to our students. Mr Haifeng Xu addressed students across the whole College from Year 1 to Year 12, and Sonia Leong ran online workshops for students from years 3 through to 12.

Book Fair

Book Fair was held onsite for the first time in 4 years with 3 merchants in attendance: Shanghai Book Traders, Zhongshuge, and Share Kids (Beijing).  This event was expertly coordinated by Ms Sunny Niu and well supported by College families.

Book Door

Book Doors were a highlight of Book Week environment in Junior School, with each year group adopting a theme for developing their book doors.

Libraries Up Late

Libraries Up Late was launched on Thursday 27 April, where DCSZ families were welcomed into the DUCKS/JS Library until 6pm, facilitating a return to borrowing for our community in conjunction with the commencement of increased access to campus for families.  We hope that this return to the campus libraries by families will be the impetus for a return to borrowing through our school libraries, by the wider school community.

Book Character Dress Up Parade

And for the fun, frivolity and colour, the Book Character Dress Up Parade took place on Friday. This would not be possible without our families efforts – thank you.

Overall, our Book Week has been a success as a result of the many bridges built between classes, schools, faculties, and members of our whole College community.

We thank you all for building a bridge to our dream of a successful Book Week 2023. Thank you for the Mandarin Team’s support to the Book Week.