Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books is a museum and visitor centre dedicated to

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

and based in the

Ouseburn Valley The Ouseburn Valley is the name of the valley of the Ouseburn, a small tributary of the River Tyne, running southwards through the east of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The name refers particularly to the urbanised lower valley, spanned by thr ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

, close to the city's regenerated Quayside. The renovated Victorian mill in which it is housed has seven levels. It is the first and only museum in the UK wholly devoted to the art of British children's books. Their archive is housed in a separate building in Felling.

History

Seven Stories opened in August 2005 after a £6.5 million conversion from a former granary building. In March 2006, the centre received the Centre Vision Award, the Civic Trust's national award for best practice in town centre regeneration. Seven Stories celebrated their fifth birthday in August 2010 with an exclusive golden ticket event with popular children's author Dame Jacqueline Wilson. In September 2010, Seven Stories purchased several original typescripts by

Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have been tra ...

, making Seven Stories the largest public collector of Blyton material. The purchase was made possible by special funding from the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

, MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, and two private donations. In 2010, Seven Stories was awarded the Eleanor Farjeon Award, made for distinguished service to the world of British children's books. In 2012, Seven Stories became The National Centre for Children's Books, a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

. The centre closed for refurbishment in April 2015. The refurbishment was intended to focus on improving the visitor experience, functionality for school groups and the energy efficiency of the building. The centre re-opened on Sunday 19 July 2015. In October 2015, author Michael Morpurgo donated a collection of manuscripts, notebooks and letters to the museum.

Exhibits

Seven Stories has a changing programme of exhibitions aimed at both children and adults. Seven Stories brings together original manuscripts and illustrations from some of the UK's best loved children's books, to excite visitors in an exploration of creativity, literature and art. Jacqueline Wilson,

Terry Jones Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones a ...

Philip Pullman Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. He is best known for the fantasy trilogy ''His Dark Materials''. The first volume, ''Northern Lights'' (1995), won the Carnegie Medal

and

Quentin Blake Sir Quentin Saxby Blake (born 16 December 1932) is an English cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator and children's writer. He has illustrated over 300 books, including 18 written by Roald Dahl, which are among his most popular works. For his l ...

are among some of the centre's most distinguished patrons. Seven Stories curates its own exhibitions, many of which go on to tour nationally including Judith Kerr, Anthony Browne and Jacqueline Wilson. They also provide a range of workshops, visits and resources for schools and education professionals from pre-school to post graduates including the

University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick un ...

with which it jointly hosts a number of PhD studentships funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Many children's authors and illustrators visit the centre to run workshops and give talks, including David Almond, Catherine Rayner, Michael Foreman,

Terry Deary William Terence Deary (born 3 January 1946) is a British children's author of 351 books, selling over 38 million copies in over 45 languages, best known as the writer of the ''Horrible Histories'' series. Since 1994 he has been one of Britain's b ...

, Judith Kerr, Julia Donaldson, Mick Manning, Brita Granström and

Oliver Jeffers Oliver Brendan Jeffers (born 1977) is an Australian-born Northern Irish people, Northern Irish artist, illustrator and writer. He went to the integrated secondary school Hazelwood College, then graduated from the University of Ulster in 2001 ...

. Activities include dressing-up and dramatic fun, creative writing and wordplay, illustration and craft.

References

External links

Official siteSeven Stories Enid Blyton Blog
{{Coord, 54, 58, 29, N, 1, 35, 31, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title British children's literature Museums established in 2005 Children's museums in the United Kingdom Art museums and galleries in Tyne and Wear Literary museums in England Museums in Newcastle upon Tyne Charities based in Tyne and Wear 2005 establishments in England

History

Exhibits

See also

References

External links