Last week I visited West Ealing Library and donated 14 copies of my edited book WAPPY's Arts Council-funded publication, 'Wonderful World of WAPPY. 10 Years of Inspirational Writing and Art by Over 100 Young Contributors’, to every single library in the borough of Ealing (Acton Town Hall Library, Ealing Central Library, Greenford Library, Hanwell Library, Jubilee Gardens Library, Northfields Library, Northolt Leisure Centre Library, Northolt Library, Perivale Library, Pitshanger Library, Southall Library, St Bernard's Hospital Library, West Ealing Library, Wood End Library), to support the fantastic work our professional librarians and their teams are doing in the borough and community at large. This way we make the book accessible to as many young people and families in the London borough of Ealing as we can for free! It's going through the cataloguing process before being distributed to each library.

We are re-launching the book in West Ealing Library mid-March. West Ealing Library is one of the branches threatened with closure if, according to Ealing Council’s strategy, community volunteers do not come forward! All the libraries named above have been used by young people (115 of them!!) who have contributed poetry, short stories, artwork and commentaries in the landmark anthology! It also includes contributions from Professor Benjamin Zephaniah, Eric Huntley, Dr. Rupa Huq MP, Sebastian Jenner, Dr. Rachel Pepper, TUUP, Maureen Roberts, Sally Baffour, and many more. Just one example of how our libraries and books positively impact on communities. Ealing's Library Service, both under the Council and with CCS Libraries Ealing (formally), has been a fantastic supporter and collaborator of WAPPY (Writing, Acting and Publishing Project for Youngsters) for a decade.

We are particularly thankful to Carole Stewart, Assistant Director Arts, Heritage and Libraries who has stated that, "WAPPY has brought high quality arts and creative writing activities into Ealing Libraries, adding to our culture, reading and learning offers." We're also delighted to have been endorsed in the anthology by Martha Lambert, one of the Library managers....She writes, "We had nothing like this in libraries and I recall Grace’s desire to disprove the idea that children and young people were no longer interested in reading and writing stories. I think everyone would agree that WAPPY has disproved that many times over. …..The partnership with WAPPY has brought in communities that would not normally visit the library and discover the services we offer. We have worked together to make joining and accessing library services as simple as possible." Martha Lambert, 2018.

Thank you, Ealing’s Libraries.

You are the best!!!

Akuba (Grace Quansah)