 I'm Julia Donaldson. I'm a children's writer. I live in Scotland in the UK and I'm over here in San Antonio primarily to attend a reading conference, a big international reading conference but I was so excited to find out there's this fantastic library here so I'm going to do an event in the library and I'm hoping loads of people will turn up because well I've got a bag of props, I'm going to be acting out stories about dragons and stories about the Gruffalo, which is probably my most well-known book. Yeah the Gruffalo is, well he's quite legendary back home I have to say but he hasn't quite made it in the States yet so I'm hoping all that's going to change. He's a monster but you start off at the beginning of the book thinking he's just a figment of this little mouse's imagination but oh no the real Gruffalo appears in the middle of the book to be real and the mouse has to, where's the picture of him? Here we are and he's got purple prickles all over his back, a poisonous wart on his nose and the poor little mouse has to find a way of outwitting this terrible monster but he's very very brainy the mouse and brain tramps over brawn. We've just arrived my husband and he's very important part of the show he's going to be bringing his guitar along to the event singing act and some of the characters. We brought two huge bags of props so we've got well we've got lots of fish because one of the stories is called the fish who cried wolf so we're going to probably act that one out. We've got some dragon's head so we're going to be acting out this story it's called a gold star for Zog. It's about a very very ultra keen dragon who goes to dragon school but never kind of wins a gold star and we're I'm going to get the audience to they won't just be the audience a lot of them will be being flying dragons and different animals and so on so it's very interactive and songs as well we're going to be including. Back home I have the role of children's laureate it's a two-year role where you're kind of a spokesperson for for children's books and reading and my special passion really has been libraries because I'm not sure about the situation here but back home they're really under threat the budgets have been cut a lot of libraries are closing and I feel so strongly that well it's it's a shame for everyone but for children it's an absolute disaster you know if you haven't got a library which is easier to get to how are you going to find out the whole range of books there are how are you going to discover your favorite authors so I've been really campaigning to keep them open. I think these days when libraries are cut back bearing in mind that bookshops are going as well and of course it costs money to get a book from a book shop but even if you had the money if there's no bookstore in your area if there's no library you're just not going to discover the whole range of books you may never become a reader and when people talk about e-books and or will all be able to just download books little children are not going to be going online and saying I'm going to browse Amazon and see what books are are suitable for my age group you know that you need these physical books when the children are young or we won't have the generation of readers that are going to be reading electronically. I was delighted to come to the library this morning just to look around and I found that all the children are coming going to get this fantastic goodie bag it's a little little Gruffalo bag and it's got one of my other books oh no it's got Gruffalo activities inside it so everyone's going to get one of those to take home so hope to see loads of people there tomorrow. Back home we have a National Libraries Day in February and last year I wrote a poem about libraries which goes like this it's more of a wrap really than a poem. Everyone is welcome to walk through the door it really doesn't matter if you're rich or poor there are books in boxes and books on shelves they're free for you to borrow so help yourselves. Come and meet your heroes old and new from William the Conqueror to Winnie the Pooh. You can look into the mirror or read the Times or bring along a toddler to chant some rhymes. The librarians are friend who loves to lend so see if there's a book that she can recommend read that book and if you're bitten you can borrow all the other ones the author's ever written are you into battles or biography are you keen on gerbils or geography gardening or ghosts sharks or science fiction there's something here for everyone whatever your addiction there are students revising deep in concentration and school kids doing projects finding inspiration over in the corner there's a table with seating so come along and join in the book club meeting yes come to the library browse and borrow and help make sure it'll still be here tomorrow. I think that it's lovely for you know to just read a book and immerse yourself in that book privately but it's also just great to read stories aloud especially stories for younger children they were designed they were written really to be read aloud whether it's at bedtime or what I really like doing is acting the stories out with a group of children that's what I do when I go into schools and as children's lawyer I've created a whole website about that about dramatising picture books it's called it's called www.picturebookplays.co.uk and it's got lots of footage and tips about reading stories aloud and acting out stories.