Give the gift of reading this Christmas

Reading is the greatest gift - it opens up so many new worlds. The children in your life probably already have easy access to this gift, but could you help some of the children who don't this Christmas? Here are a few suggestions you could consider.

National Literacy Trust - Gift of Reading

Many children across the UK do not have books of their own, nor are they likely to receive any for Christmas this year. Donating just £7 will buy a book for one such child.

Blackwell's - Children's Giving Tree

Giving Trees in the Children's Departments of a number of Blackwell's shops are adorned with gift tags with requests from children who might not otherwise receive any presents (in association with local charities). Customers choose a tag and the booksellers wrap the requested book and deliver it to the child in time for Christmas. You don't have to live near a shop - gifts can be purchased online for £5.99 or £9.99.

Finally, Playing by the Book lists 125 Literacy / Book charities that you could choose from. Happy giving!          

Book Week Scotland and other stories: posts of the week 3

The programme for Book Week Scotland (25/11/13 - 01/12/13) was announced this week. Some items particularly relevant to children are:

• Three free picture books will be given to every Primary 1 pupil in Scotland. The titles consist of the shortlist for the Scottish Children’s Book Awards 2013: Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb, What's the Time Mr Wolf by Debi Gliori and Jumblebum by Chae Strathie and Ben Cort.
• Scottish children’s illustrator and author Mairi Hedderwick will bring her most famous character, Katie Morag, to life for children across Scotland during a special live broadcast in partnership with the BBC on 28 November.
• Book Week Scotland's Author Ambassadors include children’s author and illustrator Nick Sharratt. Along with popular fiction author Shari Low and poet Ryan Van Winkle he will lead the push to spread the joy of reading throughout the country.

There's a new edition out of Books for Keeps, the online children's book magazine, featuring news, reviews and features on authors such as David Almond, Patrick Ness and Neil Gaiman.

New sites discovered this week include Outside In World - the organisation dedicated to promoting and exploring world literature and children's books in translation - and Picture Books in ELT which has just won the Best English Blog Award from Really Learn English.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned Lynne Rickard's work as a Writer-in-Residence in Methil in Fife where she has been collaborating with a group of women to produce a picture-book on healthy eating. In the project's blog, The Methil Makars, this week there is an account of a workshop with Alison Murray, author of Apple Pie ABC. It's an interesting insight into how an illustrator gets from first sketches to finished book.

Last week, I mentioned an exhibition about children's books in New York. Slightly closer to home is the British Library's Picture This exhibition about ten of the most iconic illustrated children's books of the 20th century. The Telegraph lists all ten (my favourite has to be Paddington Bear) and the Guardian also has more information. It's on till 26th January if you happen to be in London before then.

Kirsty's Blog has a piece on drama and children's literature (not new, but I've just spotted it) - Kirsty is a B.Ed (Primary) student in Australia. Here, she writes about the work she did with her class based on Night of the gargoyles by Eve Bunting, and there's a lot more on drama elsewhere in the blog.

The BBC reports on a new survey by the National Literacy Trust which suggests that fewer children across the UK are reading in their own time and one in five is embarrassed to be caught with a book. This is sad for all sorts of reasons, not least the evidence that children who read do better at school and in life - most recently, again from a BBC report, the Institute of Education report found that reading improved performance not only in English but in Maths. Not to finish on a negative note, let's take this full circle and return to Book Week Scotland - a chance to get more children reading and try to increase the two in five in the survey who thought that reading was cool.

That's all for this week! Happy reading.

 

Julia Donaldson stirs things up

From yesterday's Herald: Children's author Julia Donaldson has blamed bureaucratic jargon in Scotland's new school curriculum for making teaching difficult.

What Julia is complaining about is an aspect of Curriculum for Excellence whereby teachers allegedly can't state what a child has achieved, but are expected to link it to the four underlying principles: that pupils be successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. She also goes on to criticise the pendulum in methods for teaching reading which swings to and from phonics, whereas she is more in favour of blended techniques and, in this context, mentions a new series of plays she has launched to encourage group reading. As a non-teacher, I wouldn't dream of entering either of these arguments, but it reminded me of an article that I read before Christmas and had forgotten to write about.

Glasgow's Westender Magazine (scroll to the December / January edition) also interviewed Julia and she spoke to them about her plays too (Bug Club Plays To Read, a series of 36 published by Pearson - a few are shown below). As she said to the Herald "Reading a play is a way of involving everyone and it is brilliant because it means the children can all take part and can have roles which reflect their reading abilities." It can also help reluctant readers by making reading more fun and improve shyer children's self-confidence. Her new website, Picture Book Plays, has been set up to help teachers dramatise stories themselves. So Julia might be stirring things up, but it sounds as though it could be to good effect!

Patrons of Reading

If you are a School Librarian or teacher, you might be interested in the Patrons of Reading scheme which aims to match up authors and schools to work with each other and promote reading for pleasure. The first partnership started in Wales between Helen Pielichaty and Ysgol Esgob Morgan and the first Scottish Patron was Nicola Morgan who is now working with Larbert High School. There's a list of authors still available, including two in Scotland: Joan Lennon, based in Fife, and Lynne Rickards of Glasgow.

While we're on the subject of promoting reading, there are more ideas from the winners of the Siobhan O'Dowd Trust's competition last year to promote the joy of reading. As with the Patrons of Reading scheme, both primary and secondary age-groups are covered.

So, short and to the point - this is the first post of 2013. I'll try to write more next time and in the meantime, as the graphic says, Happy New Year!

Getting books to kids at Christmas

Any books in these parcels?

I don't need to tell readers of this blog about the joy of books and the importance of getting children reading, nor that many children do not have the advantages of growing up in a house full of books or with parents that take them to libraries. Libraries, are of course, very important - for one of the best, recent arguments of this, read Jeanette Winterson's impassioned piece in the Guardian - but there's something wonderful about holding a book that you actually own, especially if it's your first. I've come across a couple of initiatives that aim to put books in the hands of children who otherwise wouldn't have any this Christmas.

Books for Kids for Christmas is linked to the charity Children First.
Last year they raised over £3300 to buy books for vulnerable Scottish children at Christmas, as a result of which 380 children and young people received a book of their very own from Santa. The appeal runs until Sunday 2nd December. Nicola Morgan writes about Blackwell's Children's Book Tree - you can join in by phone if you don't live in Edinburgh, Oxford or Cambridge where they have branches - from which you choose a request from a child in difficult circumstances, and that child receives the book for Christmas. These are just two ideas - Zoe at Playing by the Book lists 125 book and literacy charities and, going off the book topic altogether, did you know that John Lewis has a gift list so that children in refuges get Christmas presents? List no 522953.

Happy giving!

Book Week Scotland

Yesterday, the Scottish Government announced Book Week Scotland, a national celebration of reading. It will be organised by our old friends, Scottish Book Trust and it takes place from 26th November to 2nd December 2012. SBT will work with authors, workplaces, libraries and schools across the nation to deliver a packed programme of free projects and events, bringing Scots of all ages and from all walks of life together to celebrate books and reading. What will you do to help? Follow the links above for more information and ideas.

Sue Ellis stars in Michael Rosen's blog (and other news)

Our very own Sue Ellis, Reader in Education, spoke at the recent CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) Conference on Reading for Pleasure. Michael Rosen was also there, and his blog about the event features Sue's talk heavily, for example "Sue Ellis is precisely the sort of person this government and the last want to keep at arms length because she presents her arguments backed entirely by research" and "At the heart of her talk was a humanistic defence of reading, which can't come about simply or only through reading schemes, can't come about by simply working through set texts." He obviously approves heartily, as do we - Jordanhill is proud of you Sue!*

In other news, Jordanhill Campus had its closing ceremony on Friday. You can read more about the event in my Storify. I was pleased that the Library was mentioned several times in favourable terms, once by David Bell, Vice Chancellor at Reading, who graduated from here in Primary Education in the early 80s. He talked about Gene Kemp's 1977 book The turbulent term of Tyke Tiler which we still have in stock (well, it's in its new home in the Andersonian Library now). This was famous for the twist at the end, which was a surprise at the time, but really shouldn't be now. That's all I'm going to say - read the book to find out more!

Finally, Judith Kerr, author of the Mog books, The tiger who came to tea and When Hitler stole pink rabbit received an OBE in the recent honours list. Borrow all her books from Strathclyde.

*PS 22/6/12 Michael Rosen even dedicated a second blogpost to Sue!  He used some of her ideas as a basis for one of his workshops for teachers on writing with young people. Go Sue!