Meet the Author Visit with Emma Swan

On Saturday, we celebrated the start of the Summer Reading Challenge 2026 with an extra special treat.

Children’s author, Emma Swan visited the library to deliver an interactive meet-the-author session. Emma, who is originally from Rotherham, is an award-winning children’s author and West End Actress. She has recently written two children’s novels, ‘Cruise Ship Kid Thief At Sea’ and ‘Cruise Ship Kid: Kidnap At Sea!’, which are based on her childhood growing up onboard cruise ships.

18 children aged between 3 and 11 years old attended the engaging session and also joined up to the Summer Reading Challenge. The children thoroughly enjoyed being entertained by Emma and loved joining in with games, acting and even some singing. Emma’s protagonist, Silver, even made an appearance and played pranks on everyone.

Local bookshop, The Little Fox Bookshop from Whitby provided a pop-up bookshop and Emma signed copies of her books for the children to read at home.

This is the third children’s author to visit our library. We love inviting authors to inspire the young people in our community. Emma’s visit brought a whirlwind of joy and she reminded us all why it is important to dream big. We were delighted to have Emma launch our programme of Summer Reading Challenge activities. We would like to thank Scarborough College who funded this brilliant event. Also a huge thank you to Clare, Maureen and Lucy who helped behind the scenes to organise this event.

The Summer Reading Challenge 2026 is running in all North Yorkshire Libraries from 4th July to Saturday 12th September 2026. Children aged 4 to 11 can register for free at any North Yorkshire library and are encouraged to read six books over the summer to win prizes and stickers. We are running children’s events throughout the summer as part of the Summer Reading Challenge programme. For more details see our posters and full summer schedule.