The very first New Zealand Bookshop Day was held on the 31st of October this year, and we decided to take a particularly active role in proceedings. For too long our ping pong table had been taking on workhorse duties in our backroom – piled high with new deliveries on a daily basis, it yearned for a momentary return to its glory days. So it seemed altogether appropriate to celebrate the day with BAT FOR BOOKS – a ping pong tournament pairing up authors with willing 7-to-12 year olds.
Craig Smith, Juliette Maciver and Greg O’Brien were our three paddle-wielding authors, and they were up against Guy, James, Yufeng, Felix, Orson, Elias and Alba. The inimitable Anna Applin took on referee duties along with Helen Hardwick.
After some hard-fought rounds (with plenty of vigorous support from the crowd), Yufeng was the day’s champion, with Alba taking second place.
We’ll let the photos tell more of the story… and we’re all looking forward to another round of competition some time in the future.
Photos by Matt Bialostocki, commentary by Briar Lawry.
