Immersive story-time has arrived for children at Mousehold Infant and Junior School after a new library was launched this week to feed their imaginations.

Complete with a mural covering an entire wall and depicting some of the most famous characters from children's fiction, the £160,000 project has been open to students since the end of last year.

But the library was launched with its finishing touches on Tuesday, and both children and parents are being encouraged to make the most of the new facility.

Head teacher Rebecca Westall said the project began life because the team 'wanted the library to be the heart of the school.' 'Reading should be a priority to give children and parents the ability to have access to books in a really pleasant comfortable space,' she said.

Along with the popular story book characters, the mural bears a view across Norwich from Mousehold as it would appear from the school on a daily basis, with the cathedral on the skyline. 'The floor-to-ceiling mural on the walls was designed by the school council with different story book characters in mind, and was painted by Mark Harper from their ideas,' added Ms Westall. 'When the children are in the library we want them to feel like they are inside a story book. Some of the characters are from well-known story books like The Gruffalo and Winnie the Witch, and we have the Norwich Cathedral in there as you see it looking down from Mousehold Heath.

'We have parents come in and share books with their children, and now we have regular time set aside for them to come and enjoy the books with the children.

'We want the children to choose to go in to the library in their spare time rather than as part of an English lesson, and there are lots of opportunities to research using non-fiction books and cross-curricular learning.' The library was designed by DJ designs and Stephen Moore Architects.