Families attended the first in-person reading group at Stoke Newington Library in almost two years last weekend.
Children and parents/carers gathered in the library on the morning of 30 October for a Halloween themed storytime for under 5s. Library assistant Lois Bort read stories with the children, led them in sing-alongs and created craft animals.
Hanna Klein-Thomas, who attended the event with her daughter, said the return to in-person activities was “amazing”.
“I really enjoyed it…It’s good that the kids could look at the books and interact with each other. It’s so important”, she said.
Alka, library supervisor, described the adjustments the library made to ensure that the event was Covid-safe: “We had to make more space [on the carpet] and open all the windows.”
Families were asked to socially distance and parents had to wear face coverings.
Although staff worried they might be “rusty”, Alka described the event as a “big success”.
The reading group was a “test run”, said Alka, to see whether larger scale events would be possible in the future.
A regular reading group will take place twice weekly, from 2-3 on Wednesday and 11-12 on Saturday.
