A RENOWNED children’s author and illustrator spent the day in Chippenham’s Sainsbury’s store to promote the 20th anniversary of World Book Day.

Tom Percival visited the reading corner set up at the store and read extracts from his book, The Spell Thief, to children from Frogwell Primary School.

The children were then given the chance to draw and colour their own story characters and also take part in an interactive workshop, which taught them how to turn simple shapes into characters.

As well as celebrating World Book Day, the event also promoted Sainsbury’s Make Believe campaign which aims to get children excited about reading.

Mr Percival, who visited the store on Wednesday, said: “I’ve always been passionate about promoting literacy and a love of reading in schools. So when Sainsbury’s mentioned their Make Believe campaign, I said a resounding yes before they’d even finished asking if I wanted to be involved.

“I suppose that could have been a bit rash as they might have been asking me to help re-arrange their frozen food section and I’d have been awful at that.

“Luckily though, they wanted me to come in to the store and do a reading and some creative activities with a class of children so that all worked out well.”

The supermarket has also signed up to the Vision for Literacy Business Pledge, which calls on UK businesses to join the national literacy campaign and help close the literacy gap and boost social mobility in their communities.

Val Atwill, store manager at Sainsbury’s Chippenham, added: “Child literacy is extremely important and this was a fun way for the children from Frogwell Primary School to get involved with reading.

“Our Make Believe event is now so recognised by our customers and it was a privilege for our store to be involved in a reading corner this year.”