On My Bike

I've just come from an exciting meeting to do with the Tour de France.

The Tour starts in Leeds this year, creating a great opportunity to engage children with libraries and reading through sport. I met with Leeds Libraries, Leeds Schools Library Service and Leeds Inspired, a charity that supports Leeds-based artistic and educational activity.

This is what we are going to do.

In the last week of June and the first week of July 2014 (running up to the Grand Depart, as we call it) I will visit all 40 of Leeds' public Libraries. Four a day. At each library I will speak to a school class of year three and year four children for half an hour. I will:

1. Read them a specially commissioned story about a girl who goes to her library on her bike, borrows a book and has an adventure inspired by the book she chose on the way home. Sort of Mr Ben for today's kids - and on two wheels.

2. Tell the children how Leeds Libraries took me on an adventure and made me a reader, a writer and a happy person. All very true.

3. Invite the children to enter a writing competition to choose a library book and write the adventure it would inspire for them. Guess what the prize for the winner is?

A bike.

I will travel between all the libraries by bike too. Ten days. Ten to forty miles a day. About 400 miles in all, roughly, if you include getting to Leeds station and back every day.

Leeds will be buzzing with the Tour de France in June and July. I hope this tour will help get children to the library and reading for pleasure. That's the plan.

I also think that meeting an author from Leeds and seeing that using my local libraries had such an impact on me will work too. I hope so.