School students have created a Christmas tree with a difference – made up of hundreds of books.

Around 346 books were used to build the work of art in Guiseley School library.

And students paid tribute to Nelson Mandela – placing his book, The Long Walk to Freedom, at the top of the tree.

A spokeswoman for the school said: “Tracy Dunn, the school librarian, was inspired by a picture she saw last year and could not wait to put it together.

“ It took about an hour to build and volunteers had to keep checking that it looked straight and did not turn into a leaning tower of books. The book tree was built in time for Book Week, where students are encouraged to read in every lesson.

“Every day a book is chosen to be the ‘star’ of the tree. On Friday, with the announcement of Nelson Mandela’s death, his book The Long Walk to Freedom was placed in pride of place at the top.

“The only downside to the display is the question of who puts back all the books in January?“ To help celebrate Book Week students have also been set the challenge of writing a story in just 12 words.

Book loans from the school library have almost doubled since last year, following the launch of a Book Week every half term.