Our Bookbag Rollout at Scoil Treasa Naofa
There’s nothing quite like seeing creativity spark in real time — and our recent Bookbag rollout at Scoil Treasa Naofa in Dublin 8 was filled with moments exactly like that.
As long‑standing partners of the Bookbag project, Brown Bag Films was delighted to spend the day supporting a school‑wide celebration of reading, storytelling, and visual creativity, alongside Children's Books Ireland, brilliant Irish authors and illustrators, and the incredible Scoil Treasa Naofa community.
At its heart, Bookbag is about building a love of reading. The initiative generates excitement around books, helps embed a whole‑school reading culture, and ensures every child takes home at least one book of their own. Carefully curated by Children’s Books Ireland, the selected titles are bold, entertaining, and visually striking—chosen to spark curiosity and draw in children who may not yet think of themselves as readers.
This year, the recipient school was Scoil Treasa Naofa. With 187 students from Junior Infants to sixth class, the school library was in need of some excellent new books to keep readers engaged. As part of the Bookbag initiative, Scoil Treasa Naofa received 365 books in total: 187 for students to bring home and the rest for their school library. The Children's Books Ireland team selected books across their Best Irish Books of 2025, and Picture This reading guides to have books that reflected a wide range of interests and genres for all students. With this new, diverse library collection, our hope is that these books will continue to inspire students to dive into reading and creating, while helping every child to experience the lifelong benefits of reading.
The Children's Books Ireland team kicked off the day by setting up an eye-catching display of the brand new books being gifted to the school's library. The students were then welcomed to take part in a Monster Doodle activity led by our Dublin studio's Emmy-Award winning Episodic Director, Mårten Jönmark (Peter Rabbit, Octonauts). After a short introduction and some top tips on character design from Mårten, the room quickly filled with colour as students designed their own imaginative monster creations.
Supported by our Bookbag team, Children’s Books Ireland, and their teachers, the students worked together to create a bold Monster Doodle masterpiece — packed with wonderfully inventive creatures of all shapes and sizes.
Following the Monster Doodle activity, each student was gifted a Bookbag which contained bookmarks, a Brown Bag Films notebook and pencil, reading guides curated by Children's Books Ireland, and a book for them to keep and bring home. The selected books were a mix, with each class receiving a different, age-appropriate title:
- Junior Infants received Goldilocs written by Ella McLeod and illustrated by Rochelle Falconer
- Senior Infants received See You Later by April Suddendorf
- 1st Class received Little Irish History Heroes written by Niamh Donnellan and illustrated by Brian Fitzgerald
- 2nd Class received Squid Squad by Aoife Dooley
- 3rd Class received Squid Sqaud 2: Shrimply the Best by Aoife Dooley
- 4th Class received Milly McCarthy is a Complete Catastrophe written by Leona Forde and illustrated by Karen Harte
- 5th Class received Stitch by Pádraig Kenny
- 6th Class received After by Pádraig Kenny
Throughout the day, students from Scoil Treasa Naofa took part in a series of interactive lessons and workshops with Irish artists whose books featured in this year’s Bookbag project.
Illustrator Aoife Dooley shared insights into her work and creative process with 2nd and 3rd Classes, with students designing their very own fish characters to join the gang from her graphic novel Squid Squad.
Niamh Donnellan led story time sessions with Junior Infants, Senior Infants, and 1st Classes, using engaging props to bring the characters from Little Irish History Heroes to life — with Brian Boru proving a firm favourite.
Pádraig Kenny spoke to 5th and 6th Classes about his journey to becoming a writer, followed by lively Q&A sessions with plenty of aspiring authors. Meanwhile, illustrator Karen Harte explored what inspires her work and treated 4th and 6th Classes to a sneak preview of her brand‑new book, Effie Is Offline.
"The Brown Bag tour was a fantastic experience for the children and really sparked lots of interest and discussion! Such a memorable couple of days! The children got so much from it in terms of confidence, creativity, and just enjoying being part of something different and exciting."
The 5th and 6th class students were also invited to visit our Dublin studio to meet our creative team and see a presentation on our 2D and 3D animation process. They also had the opportunity to showcase some of their own artwork to our experts. During this visit, students got an insight into the animation pipeline and a behind-the-scenes peek at the process of making their favourite characters come to life on screen.
"The Brown Bag tour was a fantastic experience for the children and really sparked lots of interest and discussion - hopefully some budding animators too! Overall, such a memorable couple of days! The children got so much from it in terms of confidence, creativity, and just enjoying being part of something different and exciting. We are chuffed to bits with our new selection of amazing books - blown away by the generosity, thanks so much again!"— Lorraine Spillane, Deputy Principal of Scoil Treasa Naofa
At Brown Bag Films, we believe deeply in the power of stories — especially when they’re accessible, inspiring, and shared. Bookbag continues to do vital work in building a love of reading and creativity in schools, and we’re proud to support a project that places books directly into the hands of young readers.
A huge thank you to the students, teachers, artists, and our partners at Children’s Books Ireland for making the day such a memorable celebration of books, imagination, and creative expression.
