A popular children’s author has been in Powys this week encouraging primary school pupils to join their local library.

Andy Briggs, famous for the Tarzan book series, visited key venues in the county to talk to pupils about his new book and to encourage year four pupil join their local library as part of the Welsh Government’s ‘Every Child a Library Member’ (ECaLM) campaign.

The children’s and teenage author met pupils at Brecon’s Theatr Brycheiniog, the Wyeside Arts Centre in Builth Wells and the Hafren in Newtown to talk about libraries as part of the ECaLM, the national campaign in Wales that has encouraged 68,000 school pupils to join their local library over the last three years.

The campaign, which is supported Powys County Council’s Library Service has seen over 4,200 pupils in the county invited to join their local library and enjoy the benefits of reading.

Liverpool-born Andy, who is also a screenwriter and producer, also spoke to pupils about his new, fast-paced adventure series, The Inventory: Ironfist, which is packed with high-tech thrills.

“If I were to compare this to other great children’s books, I would say it was like Alex Rider with gadgets and with the humour of Artemis Fowl.” Andy said.

The book focuses on a secret collection held under a small suburban town. This place is called The Inventory and houses some of the most incredible technology the world has never seen: invisible camouflage, HoverBoots, indestructible metals, and the deadly war robot Iron Fist. The collection is looked after by curator Charlie Parker, with the help of Eema - a beyond-state-of-the-art artificial intelligence system.

“The adventure starts when security is catastrophically breached by a ruthless gang of thieves working for the Collector and the Shadow Helix organization. If the thieves succeed in their goal to seize the Iron Fist, Dev, his friends, and the world are in a whole heap of trouble,” added Andy.

Cllr Graham Brown, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Library Services, said: “The ‘Every Child a Library Member’ campaign invites children to become members of their local library as your library card is the key to a whole world of literacy and learning.

“It’s particularly good for children to meet a popular author who has the great ability to convey the excitement of reading and writing to them and the realisation that they have the ability to do this too.

Trish Thomas, the council’s Children’s Librarian, said: “Andy Briggs is a wonderfully energetic and engaging person and this comes across in his writing. His books are packed with adventure, humour and excitement and they strike a good balance with many children of this age and older - which is why his work is very popular. So far he has seen over 700 pupils in a three day period – and the feed-back has been very positive.

“We are so pleased to have him here again to help us promote library membership.”