Tips and advice
The Libraries Ireland website contains some great downloads to help parents and caregivers encourage children to read. Click here to see what's available.
Reluctant readers
Not everyone is a bookworm, but studies show that regular reading for pleasure at a young age leads to a happier, more fulfilling future. We offer a range of free online courses to help build children’s confidence and children’s reading skills through Universal Class.
We also provide resources such as Comics and Online Magazines for free using your library card and PIN to access a wide range of reading material, that may better suit their tastes.
Here’s a few links that may help to encourage little ones in your life get into the reading habit.
Dyslexia support
Donegal County Library Service offer a range of titles aimed at encouraging children with dyslexia to read more. We have a wide range of Barrington Stoke books, which have dyslexia friendly pages, fonts and colouring. Click on this link to select and reserve a Barrington Stoke title that interests your child.
Many of our libraries have a range of audiobooks which you can pick up in branch or search or e-lending facilities to download child friendly eAudiobooks.
For more help and support visit the Dyslexia Association of Ireland website.
Read DL
Read DL is a county wide community reading initiative which aims to get the whole community reading the same book and generate debate. It runs annually each Spring and schools, community groups and families are encouraged to get involved. www.readdonegal.com
Wainfest
Wainfest is out annual Arts and Book Festival dedicated to children where they get the opportunity to meet authors and immerse themselves in arts and culture. They'll be too engrossed to notice they're learning. www.wainfest.ie
Teachers Resources
Teachers and childcare providers can avail of larger loans for a longer period (40 books for 84 days) to facilitate a group learning environment. To avail of this, please bring a letter from the school to your local branch and complete a short application form.
We now offer class sets of reading material to schools. This is perfect for spicing up your group reading material. Each set can be borrowed for up to 84 days, using your teachers card. Check out what we have on offer and either book online or enquire at your local library.
Ceiliúradh teanga í a léamh
This resource from Donegal County Library and Children’s Books Ireland aims to support adults, whether that be parents, guardians, teachers and others so that they can share Irish Language books with the young people in their lives.
The resource pack focuses on fifteen high-quality books for readers from 0 to 18, with questions, challenges and activities that will allow them to further engage with the stories. This resource and all the activities included in it are free to download here: Ceiliúradh teanga í a léamh
There is a summary of each book along with a a glossary for certain books as well information on the author and illustrator (where this applies). Questions include those where prediction is involved which allows the reader to consider what the book may be about before they even pick it up, questions on the story itself and inspiring, creative activities for the young people to engage with when the book has been completed. Under ‘More resources’ are links to online activities (from the publisher for example) and further reading recommendations for those who really enjoyed the book.
There are thirty copies of each book in the resource pack available to be borrowed by schools in Donegal and these can be ordered from their local library.
