Dream On by Bali Rai - Barrington Stoke Book 35

Dream On by Bali Rai has a lot of elements that indicate it is going to be a bit of a cliched 'multi-cultural' story, but this turns out to be completely wrong. Baljit's family run an Indian take away, but it's a fish and chip shop. There is family tension, but there are no arranged marriages. They suffer racism, but authority figures step in to deal with it. And these themes aren't even the heart of the story.
Dream On is all about Baljit's attempts to be a top-flight footballer, and as he says "I never see even one Indian playing the football". A brilliant turn-of-phrase, and the book is full of them. I learnt a few Indian slang words myself ("Chadd deh" means "leave it"!). As a result the dialogue is really sharp, and the relationships between mates, school staff and family members highly believable. Baljit's Dad uses"innit", but this doesn't stop the youngsters taking the mickey.

The endearing characters mean the football trials are nail-biting affairs, they are really well described. However, the story could end any way, and it wouldn't matter because it is the personalities Bali Rai has created that matter most.

[The publishers, Barrington Stoke, produce a pack of resources to accompany Dream On, which look like they are worth checking out.]

Kelham Island Museum Volunteer Reading Mentors Meeting

Today (19/10/10) we had a super meeting for Volunteer Reading Mentors in Sheffield and Rotherham at Kelham Island Museum guests of the Sheffield Industrial Museum Trust .

It was the normal opportunity to meet other Reading Mentors, collect resources and have a cup of tea. But the main attraction was an introduction by Kirsten Timms, Education Officer of Sheffield Industrial Museum Trust about the 'Changing Face of Work in Sheffield' Pods.

The pods are fantastic packages of information, archives, resources and articles from the museum's collection. They wonderfully contrast aspects of work in Sheffield over the last 200 years. They are available for schools to use and explore, especially when combined with visits to the museum.

For our Reading Mentors they introduced a new angle on reading activities (and some old favourites), and perhaps more importantly reminded us of the living history of South Yorkshire's industry, and the passion it can inspire.

The aim of the meeting was to explore the possibility of Reading Matters volunteers accompanying the pods when the go to schools, to help the staff and pupils get the most out of them and support their use with a programme of reading sessions. If you would like to take part in such a scheme, please do get in touch.

Reading Leaders at Seven Hills Special School

Just a quick post, last week I trained a bunch of new Reading Leaders from Seven Hills Special School. I said that I would be writing to say how awful it had been and how I never want to work with them again! In fact I'll be back in a couple of weeks, to present the previous Reading Leaders with their certificates from the Open College Network.

I am second on the bill to the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, just like I was at the Summer Reading Challenge Celebration.

I hope to catch-up with the new Reading Leaders too, they were a great bunch and I am sure they are going to do a great job with their reading partners. It was interesting working with children from the 'special' school. They had all the same questions and ideas as anyone else. And they read exactly the same sort of things; Facebook, Sports Pages, Tracey Beaker etc. In fact they were a lot more enthusiastic than some of the ultra-cool older Reading Leaders from mainstream schools.

Turnaround by Alison Prince - Barrington Stoke Book 34

I am not sure Barrington Stoke are still publishing Turnaround by Alison Prince, which is a shame because it's a very short touching read.

At face-value Kerry has a lovely life helping out her parents B&B. She organises the 'turnarounds' of visitors. But, behind the scenes, family life is very traumatic. This is made worse because no one wants to face up to it. Tellingly, breakfasts are eaten in silence.

Paul comes to stay and Kerry develops a new relationship. In the end, with Paul's help Kerry must face up to the problems in her life; alcoholism and depression.

It is heavy subject matter, but handled very well. The characters are very believable. I like Kelly's Gran, she's a Beach Boys fan! The first two thirds of the book let you get to know these sympathetic characters, so when the drama arrives in the final third you really feel for them.

Things do not end perfectly, but necessary corrections are made, as Kerry says "the turnaround always seem to take ages".

Booked Up at Newfield and Crookes in the Library

Last Friday (1/10/10) , I visited my friend Louise at Newfield School. As well as giving me some top tips for future reading (Something Wickedly Weird by Chris Mould, Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson and Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley amongst others) she also reminded me about the fantastic Booked Up programme.

Booked Up is organised by the Book Trust and delivered through schools. It allows Year 7 pupils to choose a free book from a specially selected list. The whole project is mainly promoted by school librarians like Louise, but the website is well worth a look. The list of books is always great, their are some nice pages and ideas for parents and carers and interactive tools, games and competitions for participating young people.

After my Newfield visit I was off to Sheffield Town Hall for a little celebration event for the young volunteers I had trained as part of the Summer Reading Challenge. I'll give a bit more info and some images when I get them through. Safe-to-say it was a splendid evening the volunteers were all quietly brilliant and I met the Lord Mayor too. The volunteers all got free tickets to The Crookes gig that was happening in the Library that evening. I heard the band on 6Music the next day - a very literary bunch they sounded too. I didn't go to the gig, but I did get a flyer!


Gigs in libraries - I love it!

Mina's views on school

I have just been reading Skellig by David Almond. I can't believe I haven't read it before. It is truly one of the most beautiful books I have read in a long while. I was reminded to pick it up of the shelf by the recent publication of My Name is Mina, a sort of prequel that I will definitely be getting hold of.

Mina is a key character in Skellig; the strongest personality in the book. I particularly like her views on school. Her friend Michael brings home a book from school with a red sticker on the back. "It's for confident readers" he explains. "What if other readers want to read it?" she responds. Quoting Tyger, Tyger by William Blake she goes on to ask "Is that for the best readers or the worst readers? Does that need a good reading age?"

David Almond was a primary teacher, and obviously has a view on this sort of thing. I really agree with Mina. I get hung up on reading ages tests and interest levels, when sometimes we just need to focus on interest and excitement of books and other reading materials.

There has been a lot of focus recently about teaching boys. I get frustrated when any groups of children are spilt up based on something as arbitrary as gender. Lots of girls like climbing trees and lots of boys like cooking, it's impossible to generalise in this way. A particular bug-bear of mine are gender specific book covers. Just like we can't find any Clarks shoes for our daughter that aren't pink, it's hard to find a Jacqueline Wilson book that a boy is going to pick up of the library shelf, but I know a lot would get a lot out of them.

Meet me at the Steelmen (Meadowhall)

Yesterday, I met some Reading Matters collegaues at Meadowhall. Firstly I couldn't believe how busy it was on a Monday morning.


Secondly it reminded me of a book I have been meaning to blog about. Meet me by The Steelmen, is one of four Time Slip adventures by Theresa Thomlinson. In these stories children are whisked off to times past due to a historical connection with a place they visit. In Meet me by The Steelmen Jenny visits the steelmen from the statue in the shopping centre, in their own time at Hadfield's Steelworks which stood on the site Meadowhall was built.

The books are beautifully done, making strong connections between modern children and somewhere they might visit. The short lengths, accessibility and use of illustrations makes them similar to the excellent Barrington Stoke books I have been reviewing.

The other title I have read, with another Sheffield link, is Errand Lass. A painting in the Millennium Galleries, transports Maddy back to the time of the Buffer Girls. The experience gives her to courage to deal with issues in her own life. Great Stuff.

I think a book or any sort of reading material that a reader can relate to is going to be ideal for a reading partnership. I have added a few more books with a Sheffield/Rotherham connection to our Amazon store. Let me know if you have other similar ideas.

[pic credit: lovestruck94]

Problems with a Python by Jeremy Strong - Barrington Stoke Book 33

I love the way Problems with a Python starts, with a great big full-page illustration that really sets the scene. The text gets going quickly too. Gary is going away for a week so Adam nervously agrees to look after his pet snake. Safe to say the week does not go smoothly!

As you'd expect from Jeremy Strong it is written in a very jokey way, but still very believable and factually specific (it's an Indian Python). All the characters are excellent. I personally really related to Rob, the Weedy boyfriend of Adam's big sister. The snake is scary enough but Emma is worse! Adam himself is easy to empathise with, he is so naughty, it's hard to believe he gets away with it.

Adam is in Year 6 and I think this is the perfect sort of age range for readers. The story is just on the edge of believability, I know children of this age would love the idea of loosing a snake in their school.

Rose and Roald - Two important birthdays

Today, 13 September, is my daughter Rose's second birthday. It is also the day Roald Dahl was born. I am very pleased that every year Rose will be sharing her birthday with Roald Dahl Day.

A key part of Roald Dahl Day in 2010 is the Roald Dahl Reading Relay; read three Roald Dahl books during September to December. The first 5,000 entrants win an exclusive I'm a Revolting Reader badge.

The Reading Zone has a great list of some of the other activities taking place.

Bloodlines by Kevin Brooks - Barrington Stoke Book 32

After the previous Kevin Brooks book I read, Jonhny Delgado, Bloodline had a lot to live up to. And it does, the story zips along like a Danny Boyle film.

Actually, the first Chapter starts very slowly, four generations of men bored in a dark room.But by the end of the chapter they are in a full-blown hostage situation.

It's a real chapter book, with cliff-hangers and chapter titles taken from the text. There is also a bit of swearing and no pictures, so definitely for older readers.

Finbar is our 15 year-old narrator, he tells the tale of the beautiful kidnapper with a very insightful voice. There are some great descriptions, grandad gets up like a "skinny old monster wearing a cardigan". None of the characters are the stereotypes I expected, at one point grandad states "I didn't ask to be born", That's something you'd expect from the teenager, but Finbar seems like the most good-hearted member of the whole family.

The five people in the story are all deeply flawed, and everyone has been double-crossed before the story plays out. I like the fact that even by then end, we are not sure if Finbar has done the right thing or not.

My only criticism is the cover, I don't think it really reflects what the story is all about, which is a shame, because it's great.