Reading for Life

2008's National Year of Reading is over, but its organisers believe that its work to improve the reading opportunities and outcomes of people in most need should continue. They have therefore set out a statement announcing a new venture, Reading for Life. Its three target groups are:

• pre-school children
• those in their first few years of secondary school, especially boys, black and minority ethnic children, Eastern European children, Pakistani and Bangladeshi children, white working class boys
• C2DE families, especially young fathers, disabled children, print-impaired readers, looked-after children, adult learners

National Year of Reading - December

We are almost at the end of the National Year of Reading. December's theme is “Write the future”, a celebration of all forms of writing. I've suggested 3 possible approached to this on our webpage and on leaflets in the Library. These are:

• What one person writes, others read and technology is bringing reading and writing closer together. Think about blogging, texting or creative writing with a futuristic theme. Investigate the language that new media has created, virtual reality and the future of communication. Think about immediacy in reporting versus thinking first.
• Pledge reading themed New Year’s resolutions. Tie in the end of the year with the season’s activities and get pupils to pledge to read more. Download “My 2009 reading resolutions” from the National Literacy Trust.
• “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing.” Benjamin Franklin, polymath and statesman. (1706-1790)
  Get pupils to write about their own lives and their ambitions for the future, perhaps in a diary format. For this section, I've suggested some books to inspire them, from picture books to teenage novels. See our webpage for full details.

National Year of Reading - November

The November theme for the National Year of Reading is Screen Reads. On the Jordanhill NYR page I have listed books in stock which have been made into films or TV programmes. We don't necessarily have the corresponding DVD for all of them, but I've marked those we have.

National Year of Reading - October

The October theme for the National Year of Reading is Word of Mouth, which is a celebration of oral storytelling traditions and reading aloud. I've updated the Jordanhill page to reflect this, with information on resources such as giant picture books and storysacks.

National Year of Reading Poem

The National Year of Reading now has its own poem, Words are ours, written by the Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen. This is also printed at the end of a recent interview with Rosen in the Independent, "Give children books not SATS", in which he deplores the effects of testing on children's enthusiam for books.

National Year of Reading - September

The National Year of Reading's September theme is "You are what you read" - use reading to celebrate and explore cultural, local and personal identities. Reading can help us find out more about who we are, and help us shape who we become - you could discover more about the places we come from and how others lived before us by reading about family or local history. However, many children just want to know “All about me”, so I've gone for the personal and called Jordanhill's September booklist exactly that. There are picture books and poetry books to encourage children to explore their sense of self, and a section of books on the human body, including a couple of fabulous pop-ups. All are in stock - shelfmarks can be found through the catalogue.

NYR itself has recently launched a new improved Reading Ideas section with fantastic and practical ideas for teens and families, adults and children as well as schools, businesses and publishers, on how to include reading in day-to-day activities.

National Year of Reading - July and August

The National Year of Reading theme for July is Rhythm and Rhyme. As we already have a poetry page on the library website, I've linked to that. It features our lists of poetry books for younger children (Funny poems; Scottish poems; Spooky poems; Weather and seasons) and a list of teenage poetry. There are also links to other sites for finding, reading and teaching poetry.

August's theme is Read the Game. The influence of sport can help promote reading, so I've used this theme to draw attention to some collection of sports stories and, because it's an Olympic year, have included some titles on the Games and on China, especially Beijing where they will be held.

National Year of Reading - June's theme.

NYR's June theme is Reading Escapes, and there are lots of ways to interpret this. You could focus on holiday reading, or how reading helps you escape into different worlds, through fantasy or imaginary lands. If children are going on holiday, you could look at books about the places they will visit, and if they aren’t going away, they could read about their home town and write their own travel guides. Another idea is to ask them to choose their desert island books, a bit like the radio programme, Desert Island Discs, or you could be more literal and look at escape stories and adventures.

I've created a list from Jordanhill Library stock using the holiday idea, including picture books, stories, poems and information books.

National Year of Reading - May's theme

May's NYR theme is 'mind and body'. The NYR has launched an online guide, Wikireadia, to develop good practice in reading. Whether you are working on a national reading project or a small project in your classroom or library, you can share your findings, successes and evidence on Wikireadia and help to build a community of reading professionals. It is for any organisation with an interest in raising reading standards, to learn from the experience of others or get inspiration.

Jordanhill Library's NYR May page is also now available. I have taken the mind and body theme and focused in on the example of healthy eating to demonstrate how books can get the message across in different ways with different age groups.

National Year of Reading's April theme

2008 is the National Year of Reading. Each month from April has a theme, so I have started a site which I will update every month with an appropriate reading list.

April's theme is Read all about it - read anything and everything, anywhere and everywhere. This theme is reflected in Read up, fed up, a report from NYR based on a survey of 1340 children aged between 11 and 14 whose top ten reading choices included gossip magazines, online computer game cheats and blogs. The only books to appear were the Harry Potter series (5), Anne Frank's diary (6), books by Anthony Horowitz (8) and C S Lewis's The lion, the witch and the wardrobe (9). The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph ran pieces about this, with the Telegraph also including a commentary from Anne Fine, author and former Children's Laureate. Anne's view is that schools are raising readers used to "bits" and "snippets", and cites fan letters from children who are studying the opening lines of her novels or her use of similes and metaphors. She likens this to knowing how to take a clock apart and put it back together without understanding the purpose of telling the time, and feels that if parents want their children to read for enjoyment they should lead by example and pick up a book themselves.