City author seeks support to give a copy of her latest ‘Lamby’ book to every school in Liverpool and Knowsley

Author and storyteller Jude Lennon is hoping to get a copy of her latest book into every primary school in Liverpool and Knowsley.

Featuring the fleecy friend who found fame in her ‘Little Lamb’ tales, in this book Lamby sets out on an adventure-filled day trip to the city.

And Jude reckons Lamby and the Liver Bird will be the perfect story to get children and their families reading, and discovering the joy of ‘losing themselves in the pages of a book’.

Former early years teacher Jude, 50, from Mossley Hill, says: “Getting children interested in reading books and stories has always been a particular passion of mine, and particularly now with findings from the National Literacy Trust that reading for pleasure is at an all-time low. To me that seems so sad.

“I have always taken so much pleasure from books, and all my family and friends do as well, and I just want children to be able to lose themselves in them.

“Reading is such an important thing because not only does it improve and enrich their literacy literacy skills and close the gap in literacy inequality, it widens their vocabulary, and it’s so good for wellbeing and mental health.”

She adds: “If you can teach a child to read, they can teach themselves anything in the future.  The world just opens up to them.”

Jude, who’s the current Disney Winnie the Pook Laureate for the North West, has re-written a story in which the honey-loving bear visited Liverpool, and put her sheepish story star centre stage instead.

“It’s about Lamby and another key character of mine Flossie and the rest of their friends going into Liverpool for a day out because they’re feeling a bit bored and they don’t know what to do.

“When they get there Bertie the Liver Bird swoops down and says come up here and from the top of the Liver Building you can see what we’ve got going on all over the city. He takes them up and they sit there as he points out all the various landmarks across Liverpool and shows them there’s loads of things to do.

“Then they can’t believe they were bored and get ready to have a great day.

“So many people asked me for the Winnie the Pooh ‘book’ and it wasn’t available as such because I did it for a competition, so I’ve completely re-written it (I’ve even had to do last-minute edits to revert Radio City tower to St Johns Beacon) with Lamby and Flossie and the hope of getting it into local schools.”

The book takes children on a tour of Liverpool, and there’s even going to be a map of all the famous places in the book along with fascinating facts about the city.

“With it being about Liverpool – you know what it’s like when you see a TV programme about your area, you think ‘I’ll watch that’ – if I can get children and their families reading it together, then not only does boost children’s reading pleasure, but adults’ too.”

Jude, who’s now written eight Lamby books with themes including camping, pirates, space, knights and exercise, as well as two books for the Bobby Colleran Trust (Super Bob and S.T.O.P) to help children understand about road safety, would like to get businesses to sponsor the book, which will be out in June, so that she can place one copy in every Liverpool and Knowsley primary school.

There are sponsorship options from £75 to £300, and benefits including their name on a sponsorship list or their logo on the Liverpool map as well as, above all, knowing they have helped put one or more copies of Lamby and the Liver Bird into education centres across the region.

“It’s a celebration of the city and a way to encourage children to pick up a book and enjoy it because it’s all about a place they live in and love.”

To find out more on Lamby contact Jude at Jude@littlelambpublishing.co.uk

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