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World Book Day: Wollaston horse detective is best in class

Martin Heath
BBC News, Northamptonshire
Ollie Conopo/BBC A brown horse, a black and white sheep dog and a woman dressed in blue in a school playgroundOllie Conopo/BBC
Cody and Tess are the heroes of Natasha Fountain's detective story and both of them came to Wollaston Primary School

Children at a primary school had an unusual visitor to their World Book Day assembly - a horse.

Cody joined a sheepdog called Tess and Natasha Fountain, an author, to meet the youngsters at Wollaston Primary in Northamptonshire.

Cody and Tess investigate a crime together in Ms Fountain's book.

World Book Day has been going in the UK since 1997 and aims to encourage young people to develop a lifelong love of reading.

Ollie Conopo/BBC A brown horse getting off a horsebox in a school playgroundOllie Conopo/BBC
Natasha Fountain said Cody coped very well with walking down a school corridor to the assembly hall

Natasha Fountain, who owns Cody, was pretty sure he would cope well with visiting a school, but he got a chance to practise his entrance.

She said: "We brought him on Monday - I was expecting to go through a door from the outside to the inside [of the assembly hall], but I had to walk him down a corridor. As I thought he would be, he was amazing."

The idea for the book came from Ms Fountain's experience as a PCSO [Police Community Support Officer], when she was allowed to patrol on Cody.

"So, for three years, we patrolled, and that gave me an idea of a horse investigating crime," she said.

Ollie Conopo/BBC Posters on a school noticeboard advertising World Book DayOllie Conopo/BBC
Many activities had been organised at the school to mark World Book Day

World Book Day has become famous, or possibly infamous, for requiring children to dress up in the costumes of their favourite fictional characters, but Wollaston Primary took a different direction this year.

Kate Bryan, the teacher in charge of reading at the school, said: "We just felt this year, with the cost of living, rather than put pressure on families to dress up, we would just come in our pyjamas."

Ollie Conopo/BBC A woman with long brown hair wearing black and white pyjamas and a boy and girl in blue pyjamasOllie Conopo/BBC
Kate Bryan, the reading lead at the school, and the head boy and girl dressed in their pyjamas for the day

Among those donning the nightwear were the head boy and girl, Darwin and Willow.

Willow said: "I just love the topic of reading. You can go into different worlds in your head and you can zone out from everything that's going on."

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