Alan Gibbon's e petition

For all those that support Alan Gibbons and his quest for the book I urge you to sign the e-petition on the 10 Downing Street pages. If you follow link http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/literacy/ it will take you to the correct sign. This petition should be signed by all those that feel we have a right as citizens to libraries, information, books, reading etc etc. As a school librarian myself this is something that I feel everyone should get behind. Libraries in schools are a fundamental part of a childs education in life. A library encourages a love of reading, opens the doors to so many possibilities and has such an impact in every part of our lives that they are neccessity.
I urge everyone to sign the petition and hopefully together we can get things changed!

Read On

The Publishers Association put on a meeting yesterday to discuss how it could be possible to make it madatory for all schools to have a Reading for Pleasure policy in place. The meeting took place at the Puffin offices in the Strand and some of the biggest names in publishing, literacy organisations, school practitioners, Librarians and Authors were in attendance.

There was a lot of discussions around how this could be implemented and many ways on how we could go about making it happen. Discussions ranged from starting at grass routes levels and making it mandatory and assessed in Initial Teacher Training to setting up a lobbying committee and working party to carry on the work that the group had started.

It was clear that everyone in the room had a clear goal for the programme, for education to see the importance in reading for pleasure and for the school agenda to reflect this in all parts of the school not just as an add-on or extra.

The outcomes of the meeting look very positive with the setting up of a working party of all the main players in which we will be following up the issues and ideas raised in the main meeting.

It's a very positive movement that looks like it will achieve what we hope it to. There are lots of parties both in schools and out that will support it and hopefully it gain momentum and change the way reading and reading for pleasure is perceived in education and schools.

Anthony Browne

It was a great priveledge to be at the announcement today for the new Children's Laureate. Michael Rosen has done such a great job over the last two years that for anyone its going to be a hard task to follow but the laureateship gives the author/illustrator a chance to champion their corner of children's fiction as well as the bigger picture. With Michael poetry played a vital part of his campaign and rightly so. Poetry is such an amazing medium yet something in schools that it so prescibed it becomes tedious, boring and uninspiring - something that Michael Rosen has spent time trying to cure. He has also looked at, like I said the bigger picture. How writing and reading is seen in schools and how 'whole reading cultures' within schools is more the exception than the rule.

The new Children's Laureate - Anthony Browne - will bring his corner of the writing world - picture books - to the forefront. I imagine we will see Anthony showing the world just how amaxing they are and that the links between pictures and words are so close that picture books are for everyone to enjoy and not just those under a certain age. In my opinion the appointment of an author/illustrator is brilliant. In my work I know the importance of picture books and how great they are to share stories (something Jacqueline Wilson championed in her stint). They are also full of so many over types of writing and like poetry in a picture book each word is chosen on its merit to reflect the story and work in cohesion with the pictures on the page.

I can see in the next two years us getting back to the importance of picture books with Anthony Browne spearheading a new revolution. So all hail Anthony Browne - new Children's Laureate 2009-2011!!

Sophie McKenzie

Well done to Sophie McKenzie on winning in her category and also being named the overall winner of the Red House Children's Book Award. Our school really enjoyed the book, in fact they thought all 3 of the older category were worthy winners, and all the staff enjoyed it to!!

RHCBA

WOW what a ceremony and a great result for reading general!!

I was really lucky to not only enjoy a great ceremony but to meet some really great people at this years Red House Children's Book Award Ceremony. The ceremony is always one of the massive highlights of the year and this year was by no means an exception. The whole atmosphere was buzzing from the very moment that the children started to arrive. You could feel their anticipation as they met their favourite authors and gathered numbers of signatures from those whose books they had spent the last year reading and enjoying.

For me it was great to see so many people having fun and enjoying themselves in the name of books and reading. That is what the Award to me is about. It's not just a recognition of all the books that have been read through the year and all the work that the organisers and children have put into it. But its also a recognition of great writers, writing books that we enjoy and ultimately it's about reading. Celebrating a love and enjoyment in its art and giving something back to that act which has given us so much pleasure!!

All in all a great day and very enjoyable with a very worthy set of shortlisted authors and winners. Special congrats go to Sophie McKenzie - Blood Ties is a great book!

Literacy Trust

I met with the Literacy Trust yesterday to talk about how we as organisations can work together. It seems silly that there are so many organisations out there all trying to get reading seen as an important issue and getting as many people reading as possible, that we are not working together to achieve our aims.
The meeting was extremely useful and highlighted ways that in the future we might be able to build more of a partnership.
It is my belief that by working with other organisations the potential impact for the Federation is massive. Not only are we able to reach a wider range of areas but also of children and families. The Literacy Trust is interested in the Literacy of families and especially those families in areas where literacy is a problem. Through the work we do we are already reaching some of these areas but as always we want to do more and get more children reading.
Hopefully in the months to come we will be able to meet with most of the bodies involved in reading and builld the relationships between us, which in the end will benefit readers and potential readers, which is what we are all aiming to do!!

Telegraph Article

On wednesday there was an article in the Telegraph on what it is that makes children read. As a school librarian that is reasonably active, I was quite taken aback by how the article stated that reading does not happen in schools and that it is at home where children are learning to read and being engaged in reading. I can only imagine that this is a side swipe at the curriculum and lack of whole book reading that occurs, something that Michael Rosen commented throughout his Laureateship. But the article did not mention at all the work that goes on in libraries. Sometimes a school library is the only place where a child will have access to books. The article praises parents for the work they do but there is no mention of other organisations such as the Federation, Literacy Trust, Booktrust etc where so much work goes on. Anyway moan over, it is nice to see more about reading in the national press, you just wish that maybe the articles reflected real life better!!