LONDON, 9 May – It’s festival time here in Barnes! We’ve just launched with our wonderful sell-out event featuring former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo and Virginia McKenna, and look forward to welcoming you all to Barnes this weekend for our packed main programme of events!

And what perfect timing – National Share-A-Story Month takes place throughout May. Created by our friends at the Federation of Children’s Book Groups (FCBG), National Share-A-Story Month (NSSM) is an annual celebration of the power of storytelling and story sharing, providing a fantastic opportunity to fulfil the core aim of the FCBG of bringing children and stories together. Across the country Federation book groups and individuals run a whole host of events, and this year Barnes is partnering with the FCBG to promote and celebrate the power of sharing stories.

This year’s theme is ‘A Place for Stories’. The idea is to encourage the telling and sharing of stories in unusual (but safe) places. Anywhere from under a tree to aboard a canal boat or a cross channel ferry, in the depths of a castle, on a bridge or under a bridge, under the bed, in a café, at a stately home, in the depths of a forest, a tent, at the bottom of the garden, in a bird hide, on an island, at a museum, at a fairground, on the bus, on a park bench… the ideas are endless!

Beautiful Barnes provides plenty of unusual places to Share-A-Story, whether it be among the ducks by the pond or in our Big Top marquee, on Barnes Common or by the River Thames, we invite you to take a photograph of you and your families enjoying National Share-A-Story Month – share them with us on Twitter or Facebook, tagging @KidsLitFest and @FCBGnews, with the hashtag #NSSM.

We have book bundles up for grabs for our favourites!

Find out more about the work of the FCBG and National Share-A-Story Month at http://www.fcbg.org.uk/national-share-a-story-month/