Reading Role Models

A belated Happy World Book Night for Monday! On the day, I had 10 minutes to speak in a full staff meeting at school about ‘How to get the most out of the Information Centre’ and I thought I’d share some of what I said.

I started by explaining why I wanted to speak in a staff meeting: to remind them that there is something for everyone, whatever their department. I went on to highlight the aspects of the new OFSTED framework that put a lot of weight on cross-curricula literacy…I talked briefly about finding things themselves in the library, including me in their planning so that I can suggest useful resources, and referenced the DEMOS Truth, Lies and the Internet report and how I can help with evaluating and referencing sources.

The spiel for the final two slides are what I want to share with you, because I think they are crucial:

There are two sides to my role that are equally important. One is supporting the academic life of the school and the other is developing the pupils’ relationship with books and instilling a love of reading. You know that the latter is my favourite part, but as hard as I try it cannot be a one woman battle. The library should not be the only place the pupils see reading.

The OECD, produces league tables of developed countries for all sorts of statistics, including the percentage of 15 year olds that say they regularly read for pleasure. The United Kingdom has been dropping down in the ranking for years, and countries we would think far less developed, such as Hungary and Lithuania are far ahead of us. Many studies have shown that readers do better in life, regardless of their socio-economic background, so everyone that has any influence on children’s lives needs to make a massive effort to encourage reading…

Sometimes children will suddenly take to reading, something sparks an interest and then they’re hooked. Those of you that teach [name] will have noticed last term that it was difficult to get his nose out of a book, in 3 months he read 23 books despite him having borrowed nothing in the entire year and a term previously. All because one book I gave to him in December caught his imagination.

They can’t do it on their own. A lucky few will just naturally have the reading bug but most of them need a gentle shove in the right direction. That’s why it is so important that they see the adults they know as reading role models. There will be relatives that make an effort to do this but for a lot of our pupils you are their best chance. Miss [name] frequently has to renew books I’ve lent her because when she’s shown them to a pupil that child just has to read it immediately – these are children that rarely choose to read getting hooked in because someone they respect is raving about the book.

I finished by explaining about World Book Night and sharing books, and everyone left the meeting inspired and raring to read...well, some of them :-)

World Book Night

Last year I signed up for the first World Book Night.  For those of you that don't know, 20,000 volunteers chose from a list of 25 titles to give away 50 copies of (hopefully) their favourite book, so a million books were given out in one night.  I chose The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre (it is an excellent book, I was very pleased it was on the list) and pledged to give out my 50 books at an evening about Reading For Pleasure that I would hold in my Library, for parents, school governors and staff.
I planned an amazing evening, with book trailers on the electronic whiteboard, displays of literacy stuff & brilliant books, tea & cake, and a kick-ass speech...to which 1 parent, no governors, and 15 teachers turned up...it has not put me off though!  The number of teachers that said they'd wanted to come, and that have told me since how much they enjoyed the book, made me think that this year I'll just do it for staff because, honestly, teachers are just as likely to be reluctant readers as other members of the public.
They're doing it slightly differently this time round, firstly it is being held on April 23rd (Shakespeare's birthday, and the international World Book Day - the UK does it in March so as not to clash with schools' Easter Holidays).  Secondly, they're letting The Public create the list by gathering everyone's Top 10 books.

I thought long and hard about what to choose as mine, trying to think of things that should have wide appeal, and here's my list:

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Across the Nightingale Floor by Lean Hearn

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Go sign up to the website and tell them your's, you have until the end of August so get thinking, if enough of us do we can get some great YA novels into thousands of hands!