Encouraging the reluctant reader

Reluctant readers, especially boys, have been in focus this week starting with the National Literacy Trust's report from the Boys' Reading Commission which found that the gender gap is widening and 76% of schools are concerned about boys' underachievement in reading. Michael Morpurgo picked up this theme in a blog post for the Guardian Teacher Network in which he says "The truth is, when it comes to the enjoyment of reading, we are failing far too many children and boys in particular" and then comes up with seven suggestions to deal with this. There's a lot in it about teacher education and the role of libraries and librarians with which I heartily concur. Follow the links to find out more - you can add your own suggestions for books to encourage reluctant readers to the Guardian's ongoing debate here.

In the spirit of Michael Morpurgo's remarks about libraries, I also recommend you look at the University of Strathclyde Library's pages on reluctant readers and books for boys.

PS 9/7/12 Just discovered a useful blogpost, Here come the boys, from the Literacy Advisor (Bill Boyd) which has a lot of useful suggestions to add.

The Next Chapter - new blog from Barrington Stoke

Barrington Stoke, the Edinburgh-based publisher of books for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers, has a new blog, The Next Chapter, with inclusive literacy ideas for teaching with their books. First up is a write-along competition based on Ninja: First Mission by author Chris Bradford. Check out the blog to see how your class could win.

Jordanhill Library has a good selection of Barrington Stoke books. See our Reluctant Readers page for more information.

Children's book miscellany

Stuff about specific authors:

David Almond has won the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Award. Every other year IBBY presents this to a living author and illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children's literature.

Theresa Breslin's web page is currently advertising a drama competition based on her latest novel, Prisoner of the Inquisition, in which secondary schools can win £1000 worth of books in a competiton.

Morris Gleitzman tells the Perth Writers Festival (i.e. the Australian one) about his latest book, and how he became a writer, in an hour long podcast.

Meg Harper writes about school visits in Being Nice - if you are planning on organising an author visit, read this first and learn how not to do it!

Eric Hill celebrates Spot's 30th birthday in the Guardian with an audio slideshow showing how he draws 'my little puppy' and explaining how fell into writing the books almost by accident.

More general stuff:

Author Hotline is a school resource of exclusive author, illustrator and poet profiles giving a unique insight into the creative process and enabling young readers to connect with published professionals.

Barrington Stoke publishes fantastic books for dyslexic and struggling readers. We have a selection of their books in our catalogue and link to them from our Reluctant Readers page. For an opinion piece on them, see Bookwitch's blog.

Mrs P is an award-winning free interactive digital storybook destination - classic children’s stories brought to life by Kathy Kinney as Mrs. P.

Storytubes is a US site where kids enter a competiton to make short videos about their favourite books. Award winning entries are on the site - many of the titles will be known to Scottish children too and would make great introductions to the books, or they might give you ideas for your own videos.

Barrington Stoke's Secret Santa

Books from Scotland's Children's Choice this month is Secret Santa. A ghost story by Alan Combes, it is the latest in Barrington Stoke's Dead Man Files series of novels for teenagers with a reading age of six. Luke Smith is dead - killed in a drink driving accident. But this doesn't stop him looking out for his brother, who is at risk from an imposter in Santa's grotto. But is this secret Santa match even for ghostly Luke?

For more information about Barrington Stoke's range of novels for struggling and dyslexic readers, see their own website and Books for Scotland's earlier feature on them. Secret Santa is not yet in Jordanhill Library, but you can find a list of Barrington Stoke books we have in our catalogue here. The publisher also features on our Reluctant Readers page.

Special Children

The latest edition of Special Children has a couple of book-related articles:

In Story stampede, pp. 18-20, Sal McKeown finds publishers trying a wealth of approaches to help teachers motivate reluctant readers, such as graphic novels and audiobooks. She also includes tips for overcoming reluctance from Diana Kimpton of Wordpool.

Audiobooks feature again on pp. 22-24: Let’s hear it for the heroes. Teri Terry describes Young Calibre, a free postal audiobook library for dyslexic, visually impaired and physically disabled children.

Reluctant Readers

I have recently updated our page for reluctant readers. Here, you can find suggestions for engaging the interest of those who can't or won't read, including graphic novels, talking books and storysacks, plus a brief list of links to other sites. The Reluctant Readers page can also be collected as a leaflet from the display area of the Jordanhill Library Children's section.