I am so excited to announce the first ever Bookchat Roadshow! It’s been a long time in the planning and came about as part of my desire to help and encourage parents in supporting their children with reading. Parenting is hard work, endlessly rewarding of course, but so often we don’t have time to do all things we’d like to for our children, especially when it comes to reading.
“It’s like starting all over again” said my 13 year old who is going into Year 9 in September – and is dyslexic. “I don’t remember anything…a, b, c”. Then he laughed as he spelled out the alphabet.
Privately assessed by an educational psychologist when aged 7, who said “it’s glaringly obvious” that he has dyslexia, we have been aware of his learning needs for some time. We’ve done our best to support him throughout – including moving schools, when one particular headmaster responded to my complaint that my son was not getting any support, even with an ed psych report: “This is all we are going to do. If you don’t like it, take him somewhere else”. So I did. Parent power is essential for any child with a learning need, in an age where some schools are still ill-equipped to help or are oversubscribed with an ever-increasing number of children who need extra help.
I had a fantastic visit to Warden Park Primary to run bookchat workshops with Year 5 & 6. The children were brilliant and enjoyed sharing their thoughts about reading, as well as participating in the various activities. The aim was to share the joy of reading and enable them to discover the magic of books, with guidance on how to go about choosing the right book, using their own interests as a guide. We looked at the concept of genre and played genre based games, which they loved. They also loved the travelling bookcase and the fantastic books it contained!
It’s such a joy to talk about books with children and see their excitement and appreciation. Bookchat is such a great opportunity to develop reading skills and empower children to become more confident in their reading choices. I’m delighted to say the feedback was great; thank you Warden Park Primary!
“The children loved the workshops, they are now so much more motivated to read and explore books – children that used to say that they didn’t like reading are now asking to go to the library so that is great! Also, when I ask them to find book to do some quiet reading I am now met with smiling faces! The activities that you led were engaging and really encouraged the children to think about reading and what it means to them without being too intense! The workshops had an extremely positive impact.”
When the Manager of Waterstones in Haywards Heath got in touch to ask if I’d like to get involved with a primary school visit to the shop, I jumped at the opportunity.
Lindfield Primary School brought a group of children ranging from Reception to Year 5, to find out about their local bookshop and choose a book for themselves. After an insightful talk about the bookshop from James, one of the fantastic booksellers, I set about delivering a bookchat workshop. Being in a bookshop was a little different to the usual classroom setting, but was definitely a very appropriate place to be chatting about books! I was able to encourage the children in choosing the right book for themselves, giving them hints & tips along the way. Being able to share my love of reading, as well as some favourite children’s books was a thoroughly enjoyable task!
The children were brilliant and clearly very excited to have the opportunity to buy a brand new book. It was great to see them put the ideas they came up with during the bookchat straight into action and choose their books. With so much wonderful choice, there was lots of animated discussion! Finally, decisions made and with the school bus beckoning, there were 25 very happy souls who went back to their classrooms, each clutching a brand new book!
I’m very grateful to Waterstones for inviting me to participate and to the children & teachers from Lindfield Primary for their wonderful response. Thank you!
The B.O.A.T theatre in Brighton played host to a wonderful event on Sunday 19th June to raise money for the School Bus Project, set up to provide education to children in the Calais refugee camps. A group of amazing authors & illustrators came together to entertain and enthrall an audience of children and their parents, with activities running throughout the afternoon.
I was delighted to bump into a Book Activist friend, Adam Stower, who was enjoying talking with fellow illustrators. He very kindly introduced me to Anthony Browne…! Okay so yes, I was a but start struck but wouldn’t you be? Anthony Browne has written some of the most incredible picture books ever published and there he was right in front of me. He too joined in the fun, and had the audience helping him draw marvellous pictures. A F Harrold gave a brilliant performance of his poems and had everyone in stitches. But perhaps most exciting was Axel Sheffler, who proceeded to delight one and all by drawing one of the all time favourite picture book characters, The Gruffalo. How completely magical to see these wonderful images appearing on the paper in front of our very eyes!
For more information about the event and the project visit:
http://www.schoolbusproject.org/
thebookactivist 