Book Week｜Embarking on a New Journey Through Reading, Joining Harrow Beijing’s Great Adventure

At Harrow Beijing, reading is never just an isolated act of turning pages. It is the core cultural foundation deeply rooted in our holistic education system, the spiritual bond that connects all students and staff, and a crucial force that broadens horizons, nurtures thoughts, and unites the community. Book Week is the grand blooming of this reading culture—bringing together every soul that loves words to share the beauty of literature, enjoy the pleasure of reading, and let the light of reading illuminate every corner of our campus.

This year, under the theme “Harrow’s Great Readventure – Many Chapters, One Community,” we embarked on a magnificent reading journey. From in-depth dialogues with internationally renowned authors to unlock the ideological codes behind their words, to creative dress-ups that bring the world of books to life and let imagination grow wildly on campus, to spreading love and warmth to the wider world through the medium of books.

Now, let us look back at this wonderful journey full of surprises and rewards, relive the beauty between the lines, and capture Harrow’s unforgettable reading moments!

Meeting the Masters:
Growth Inspiration Beyond Books

This year, we are extremely honored to invite two heavyweight authors to Harrow Beijing! The platform Harrow provides for its students is far more than a simple meet-and-greet. The two prominent figures deeply engaged with our classrooms, tailoring their sessions to the cognitive characteristics of students from Kindergarten to Upper School. They delivered highly inspiring, immersive workshops and keynote speeches, allowing the power of words and the sparks of ideas to passionately collide and freely flourish across our campus.

Trevor Lai

From Reading to Creation:
Igniting the “Entrepreneurial Dream” in Youth

Trevor Lai is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, illustrator, and the founder of Up Studios, one of the leading animation studios in China. Using his successful cross-disciplinary experience, he opened up entirely new perspectives for the children.

Igniting Imagination: Trevor transformed into a creative mentor, bringing a fascinating character creation workshop to the children in Early Years and Lower School. He guided the children hand-in-hand in drawing and conceptualizing, using engaging and fun methods to let everyone witness firsthand the magical birth of a book character from scratch, igniting every curious young heart.

The Collision of Logic and Design: Trevor delivered highly practical creative sessions, sharing how to turn a small idea into a globally popular tabletop card game and video game. From rule design to the final product, the students immersively experienced the complete creative journey from concept to creation, feeling the magical charm of the collision between logic and design through fun.

Leadership Spirit and Career Enlightenment: For the older students, Trevor shared his true coming-of-age story of founding his first company at the age of 17. As a young entrepreneur and CEO, he used his personal experience to deliver the most vivid lesson, igniting the students’ career dreams and perfectly echoing Harrow’s educational goal of cultivating student leadership.

Sue Cheung

Teaching Children “Empathy” and “Self-Discovery”
Through Brushes and Words

Sue is a multi-award-winning author and illustrator, as well as a trained EmpathyLab author. She not only brought an exclusive after-school presentation for parents on storytelling through pictures, but also shared her unique educational philosophy with Harrow students across different year groups.

Inspiring Creativity and Perception: Sue led the children in creating empathy maps, guiding everyone to learn how to understand others, express emotions, and connect with their inner selves. In the challenging drawing creations, she encouraged the children to break thinking boundaries, boldly unleash their creativity within a time limit, think with their brushes, and solve problems with colors.

Deep Conversations on Adolescence: Facing the senior students, Sue brought a profound, heart-to-heart exchange. Using her own growing-up experiences and her works as a bridge, she sincerely discussed important topics such as identity, belonging, and mental health with the teenagers. She encouraged Harrow students to settle their minds through free writing, defuse difficulties with humor, and bravely pursue their dreams with inner confidence and strength.

Immersive Reading:
A Carnival for the Whole School to Join

In Harrow’s reading system, we encourage children to integrate reading into their lives. In addition to the knowledge-packed author visits, the campus was filled with a rich variety of activities throughout the week:

01
Dress up as a Book Character
As a highly anticipated traditional event of Book Week, the campus completely transformed into a grand fantasy parade on Friday! Our classrooms, corridors, and playgrounds were filled with incredible characters. Thank you to every child and parent who prepared so carefully; it is your creativity and enthusiasm that brought the magic of books into reality, allowing the children to further deepen their understanding and empathy for literary figures through immersive role-playing.
02
Book Fair
The week-long Book Fair brought together the freshest and highest-quality selected books on the market. We not only encourage children to explore independently during their free time, but also welcome parents to participate while dropping off or picking up their children. The dazzling array of books not only made the children linger in the sea of books, but also continuously broadened the boundaries of their cognition and reading through each flip and selection. What makes us even prouder is that we hosted an exclusive book signing event on-site for four of our outstanding student authors—Lucia S, Olivia Y, Audrey D, and Mujun X! Seeing their peers publish their own works and sign them personally not only greatly inspired the creative enthusiasm of other children but also perfectly illustrated the shining moment of Harrow Beijing students transforming from readers into creators.

03
Scratch Bookmarks
Reading is not just the input of knowledge, but also the output of creativity. In the scratch bookmark making activities held in the library and classrooms, the children turned into little artists. By personally designing and scratching their exclusive patterns, it not only sparked their endless hands-on fun but also made this unique little bookmark a warm testament that will accompany them in their future explorations of the literary sea.
04
Free World Book Day Books
To ensure the joy of reading reaches every student, we specially prepared free World Book Day books for all students during their visits to the library. This heartfelt gift accurately sowed the seeds of reading into every corner of the campus, encouraging them to maintain their curiosity about the unknown world and their love for knowledge in the days to come.

Spreading Love:
Many Chapters, One Community

The Special “Harrow’s Great Readventure” Badge

True reading is not just about acquiring knowledge, but also about sharing love and warmth, and cultivating a sense of social responsibility.

Closely following this year’s theme of “One Community,” we specially organized the Charity Book Donation project for Hegezhuang Village. Thanks to everyone’s generosity, we received hundreds of donated books! We will reward every child who donated a book with a special “Harrow’s Great Readventure” badge. Wearing this badge, they will understand the pride and joy of sharing!

Behind the Scenes:
A Guardian of Reading for Twenty Years

Behind this spectacular reading adventure is the dedicated planning of our Learning Resources Manager, Ms. Karen Astill. Having been deeply involved at Harrow Beijing for nearly twenty years, Karen is not only the core organizer of Book Week every year but also the steadfast guardian of the reading spirit on this campus. For two decades, she has carefully built the school’s reading resource library, witnessing countless Harrow students draw strength and achieve excellence in the company of books.

Ms Karen Astill
Learning Resources Manager

Book Week 2026 provided students with opportunities to develop their love of reading while strengthening the school’s sense of community. Through engaging author visits, the book fair and creative activities such as bookmark making and the “Decorate a Door a door competition” our students experienced literacy in number of exciting and memorable ways.  Meeting authors like Sue Cheung and Trevor Lai not only inspired students’ imaginations but also broadened their understanding of storytelling, empathy, creativity, and the writing process.

The week’s events also created a positive impact beyond our school through our Charity Book Donation project, by donating books to the Hegezhuang Village, our student can share a love of reading with children in the wider community.

The celebration of Book Week ended with our ‘Dress up as a Book Character’ day a fun experience enjoyed by students of all ages and staff! Book Week 2026 – “Many Chapters, One Community” – brought families, students and staff together in a shared celebration of books and literacy.

Decorate a Door
Creative Competition

During this Book Week, we also hosted a vibrant “Decorate a Door” competition. In this creative contest, teachers and students worked together to transform ordinary classroom doors into fascinating, three-dimensional books. The colorful designs cleverly showcased a rich variety of literary genres, allowing the atmosphere of reading to flow vividly through the corridors! Strolling through the campus feels like stepping into a magical literary maze, where the children’s every pause and every door they open are filled with surprises and anticipation for unknown stories.

The chapters of reading are always to be continued.
Looking forward to next year’s Book Week!
We will continue to explore new worlds in the sea of books!