MHL ONE YEAR ON

In 2002, Anne Fine celebrated World Book Day by launching My Home Library, a unique project to encourage children across the UK to make their own library and get reading. A year later, on World Book Day, Thursday 6th March 2003, the project had already gathered over a hundred bookplates in black & white and in colour on the Home Library bookplates project web site, where hits were (and still are) numbered in hundreds and thousands from all over the world.

So in 2003, Anne was able to announce that "We had a brilliant idea to celebrate World Book Day (and our own first anniversary!).

"We asked some of the most famous and best-loved cartoonists in the country to do their bit and offer you a selection of off-beat, weird and often very funny bookplate cartoons. Dozens have already come up trumps, and more pour in each day - nearly 50 of them so far. (So keep looking here!)

"Stick a favourite in every book you can lay your hands on - old or new. (Then, even if it's the saddest novel you've ever read, you'll get at least one good laugh.)

"There have never been so many lovely, different books around, both new and second-hand, and everyone needs books. The more you read, the richer you are inside.", says Anne.

"So it's time to start building your own Home Library. We'll show you how to find the books you'll enjoy, how you can make them 'mine, mine, mine!' with any one of our dozens of lovely new bookplates, and how to turn your bedroom into an Aladdin's cave of places and people and stories and wonder."

Writing in The Guardian on June 29th, Anne gave a progress report:

"Teachers are already reporting playground swap sessions, and volunteers in charity shops are delighted to have visits from a much younger clientele than usual, clearly on the hunt for some delicious new bookplate that's been printed off and cut to size, and sometimes coloured in, ready to stick in the chosen book."

The idea is spreading to other countries too:

"Like a benign virus, the idea has spread extraordinarily fast to institutions all over the world concerned with children's reading - from foreign departments of education to football and other sports clubs who take the education of young fans a lot more seriously than before, and are now busy designing bookplates in their own colours or featuring their own mascots."

And everyone can join in: a parallel project is making Braille books for blind children - and children with blind parents. There are even special "feelie" book marks so you don't lose your place! Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman, J K Rowling and Jacqueline Wilson are working with Anne to fund this project.

And many of your favourite illustrators have designed bookplates for you to print off and stick in your books, so that everyone can see that they are part of your Home Library. Find these and all the other news and goodies by clicking this link to visit the new Home Library bookplates project web site.