Manchester UNESCO City of Literature’s Festival of Libraries has announced that Sir Lenny Henry and his book The Boy With Wings will be coming to Manchester to front the festival’s Look for a Book campaign, which runs from 16th May to 22nd May.
The mass participation event will engage the whole of Greater Manchester to take part in a borough-wide book hunt. Copies of Lenny Henry’s adventure for children, The Boy With Wings, will be hidden all over Greater Manchester, with clues to their location released by libraries in the run up to the event.
Everyone who finds a copy of The Boy With Wings, or takes part in the hunt, can come to their local library to receive a certificate, and lucky winners who find the books will be entered into a prize draw with the chance of attending a special event with Lenny Henry at a showcase author event on 18th June in Manchester City Centre.
Sir Lenny Henry, author of The Boy With Wings, said, “Copies of my book, The Boy With Wings, have been hidden across the whole of Greater Manchester as part of the Manchester Festival of Libraries – how exciting!
The story’s an adventure about an ordinary kid who becomes an extraordinary hero, and you can be a hero too! Your mission is to find the clues at your local library, then keep your eyes peeled and your ears open, and you could find your very own book to keep and enjoy, but if not you’ll have lots of adventures along the way.
Not only that, some lucky winners will be coming to see me at a special event, fingers crossed it could be you! I can’t wait to come to Manchester – you’ve got some pretty amazing libraries!”
Look for a Book is one of the highlights of Manchester’s Festival of Libraries full live programme of 80 events, running from Wednesday 15th to Sunday 19th June, 2022. Led by ambassador Lemn Sissay OBE, and delivered by UNESCO Manchester City of Literature, the festival showcases the library network’s full offer, for people from all backgrounds and demographics, with events taking in wellbeing, culture and creativity, digital and information, and reading, all of which are now listed on the festival website.
Joining ambassador Lemn Sissay, Julie Hesmondhalgh and Jay Blades, as part of the Inspired by strand are author and podcaster Elizabeth Day (Magpie, The Party, How to Fail with Elizabeth Day), broadcaster Mike Sweeney (BBC Radio Manchester), public historian, broadcaster, and author Greg Jenner (Horrible Histories, You’re Dead to Me), plus poets Jackie Kay and Elizabeth Reynolds.
Also added to the programme are tours of the Manchester University and Bolton NHS Libraries, which are not normally open to the public and have book collections, with highlights including the only entire hospital based copy of the human printed genome.
The festival, which is supported by Arts Council England, highlights the richness and diversity of the libraries on offer in the North West, from world class heritage libraries, to specialist and independent libraries, to re-designed public library spaces.
Festival of Libraries aims to celebrate the librarians who run the spaces, the users who make use of the services and the extraordinary stories that emerge from the everyday use of libraries.
Sir Lenny Henry has risen from being a star on children’s television to becoming one of Britain’s best known comedians, as well as a writer, philanthropist and award-winning actor. He is co-founder of Comic Relief. Lenny is a strong advocate for diversity and has recently co-written the book Access All Areas: The Diversity Manifesto for TV and Beyond. The Boy with Wings is his first middle grade adventure published by Macmillan Children’s Books.
