Sheffield Poetry Festival

At the great World Book Night, I heard local authors from the MA Writing course at Sheffield Hallam University read from a their ‘Matter’ anthology and as a result found that, Fay Musselwhite's poem has been chosen by Simon Armitage for a Sheffield Poetry Prize.

Fay is one of our Reading Mentors. She is also involved in the first Sheffield Poetry Festival. She is collaborating with award winning filmmaker and taxidermist Susannah Gent to present a 30 minute performance piece called Goat Boy and Other Journeys, as part of the Sheffield Poetry Festival on Saturday 2nd April, 3pm at Bank Street Arts.

Sounds incredibly intriguing.

World Book Night 2011 at Waterstone's in Orchard Square, Sheffield

That's me at Waterstone's in Orchard Square, Sheffield on World Book Night, 5 March 2011. It really was a great evening. The Waterstones' guys really looked after me. Everyone was super friendly. Well, they were when I had explained that my copies of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time by Mark Haddon were for Reading Matters Reading Mentors, not just up for grabs!

Loads of familar faces turned up from schools and other settings, aplogies to anyone I didn't speak to very much, it was pretty busy for a while. I did sneak a peek at the other attractions:

• Rachel Genn reading from her forthcoming novel The Cure.
  
• Local band Nat Johnson and the Figureheads (very quiet even for a books hop, but cool)
  
• Local authors from the MA Writing course at Sheffield Hallam University read from a their ‘Matter’ anthology (as I was checking this out, I saw one of our very own Reading Mentor, Fay Musselwhite's poem has been chosen by Simon Armitage for a Sheffield Poetry Prize, brilliant)
  

World Book Night was all round a great evening, I am looking forward to what the Reading Mentors and their partners make of The Curious Incident. I almost ended up with more books than I started with! I have registered my interest for 2012, and I'm hoping some more books for young people are included, I'd suggest Holes by Louis Sachar, but what do I know!

Jeremy Strong's Campaign for Fun

Author Jeremy Strong is looking for the funniest school in the UK and Ireland with his Campaign for Fun.

By being a bit silly you could win all sorts of cool stuff! Mr Strong also has some nice downloadable resources to check out. He has also introduced the Campaign for Fun in an article on The Guardian website. He list all sorts of great books to cheer us all up:

• Fungus the Bogeyman
• Lauren Child's Clarice Bean
• Allen Ahlberg
• Julia Donaldson
• Elephant Elements
• Andy Stanton
• The Wrong Pong
• Louise Rennison

For something a bit more involved but no less fun how about The Reading Zone's picture book competition.

Interplay Leeds Volunteer Reading Mentors Meeting

Last Thursday (9 December 2010) we held our latest meeting for Volunteer Reading Mentors and School Co-ordinators. The first thing to say is that it was very cold and very icy, so thanks to all those people that made it along. Leeds was Frozen.
We are very grateful to Steve Byrne and all the staff at Interplay for hosting us and supplying generous amounts of much needed tea, coffee and cake. The refreshments were not the main reason for travelling to Interplay however, we were there to hear about their latest project, which has potential for Reading Matters to work along side them in schools.

Interplay have been delivering a workshop in Special Schools that is based on the short Story Spit Nolan (Creative Short Stories), author of Alfie.

The workshops provide a thrilling and engaging sensory learning experience centred around the construction of old-fashioned go-carts that feature heavily in the story.

We are hoping that as Interplay take the workshops to more schools, Reading Matters will provide Reading Mentors and/or Reading Leaders to sustain and embed the inspiration and enthusiasm generated by this exciting project.

At the same meeting I gave a short presentation about some recent developments at Reading Matters. I'll share these with you in a separate blog post very soon.

2010 Book Awards - Sheffield Children's Book Award and YoungMinds

Today (23/11/10), I was at the Sheffield Children's Book Award at the City Hall where the 2010 winners were announced. I am sure there will be an official announcement with all the winners, but here is a hint - Morris the Mankiest Monster by Giles Andeae and Sarah McIntyre did really well.

It was a superb event the City Hall was full of kids shouting and screaming and stamping their feet for books and reading! I have never done so much clapping in one hour.

I was at the Children's Book award with some of the volunteers I had trained as Volunteers for the Summer Reading Challenge. Both project are organised by the Sheffield Library Service, who deserve a lot of credit.

Another award I have been involved in was also announced this week. The 2010 YoungMinds Book Award was won by Siobhan Curham, author of Dear Dylan.

There is a lovely post on Siobhan Curham's own blog about the award. She writes about how she struggled with a lack of confidence, and that 'I love being able to go into schools and tell the least confident of kids, ‘if I can do it then so can you.’ It is quite emotional and the blog post after she won is even more so.

I think our Reading Matters Mentors can also play a big part in boosting the self-esteem of struggling students, the comments on Siobham's blog show what a difference it can make.

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.

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.

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.

8 September is International Literacy Day

Today is International Literacy Day. Founded by UNESCO, International Literacy Day raises awareness of the importance of literacy across the globe.

The TES have a nice set of resourses to celebrate the day.

A few football reading resources

I have been going on about football a lot recently, my last review was a football story. But the World Cup means (almost) everyone is hooked on the sport.

At both the Inspired for Life event in Rotherham and a celebration event at Sheffield Town Hall for Volunteer Reading Mentors last Friday, I talked to people about engaging reluctant readers. We found football was often a great 'hook' . I thought I would list a few of the resources I have found that can work really well:

• Football based stories, such as The Dirty Dozen I reviewed recently
• Football Games such as these England Football Stars Top Trumps Specials or this BrainBox Football Quiz
• Comic style stories such as My Brother's a Keeper or Moving the Goalposts
• A football based play, such as Not Just a Game or Selling Out
• Some non-fiction such as Great World Cup Moments or Wicked World Cup 2010
• Poems; I Love You, Football or Fantastic Football Poems
• Biographies, the Name Your Link are great and include Wayne Rooney and Hope Powell
• Learn some new skills with Soccer Skills (Usborne Activity Cards) or Football Skills
• Football Things to Make and Do or the official 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Activity Book

YoungMinds Book Award Meadowhead School Reading Leader Reviewers

I used to work for a great organisation, YoungMinds, the children's mental health charity. I was with them when their Book Award got started. It was something I loved being involved with (especially as we discussed the books in the local pub).

I am really pleased to get back involved with the YoungMinds Book Award. I have just received a full set of books on this years long list. I will be taking these to Meadowhead School to be reviewed by the Reading Leaders there.

Any young person can get involved by reviewing a book, more details on the YoungMinds website. The 2010 long list is:

• Dear Dylan, by Siobhan Curham (AuthorHouse)
• Desperate Measures, by Laura Summers (Piccadilly)
• Ember Fury, by Cathy Brett (Headline)
• Ice Lolly, by Jean Ure (Harper Collins Children’s
  Books)
• Inside, by J A Jarman (Andersen press)
• Lottie Biggs is not desperate, by Hayley Long
  (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• No Way To Go, by Bernard Ashley, (Hachette)
• Running on the cracks, by Julia Donaldson (Egmont)
• Them and Us, by Bali Rai (Barrington Stoke)
• The Truth about Leo, by David Yelland (Penguin)
• When I was Joe, by Keren David (Frances Lincoln
  Children’s Books)
• Zellah Green, by Vanessa Curtis (Egmont)

I am personally really pleased to see Them and Us by Bali Rai on the list because it is Barrington Stoke book, just like those I have been reviewing this year.

Barrington Stoke have been doing very well on the awards front recently. The Story of Matthew Buzzington by Andy Stanton has been shortlisted for both the Leeds Book Award and the Leicester Junior Book Award. And Night Hunger by Alan Gibbons was voted best Short Novel in the Hackney School Short Novels Awards.

YoungMinds Book Award 2010

I used to work for a fantastic charity called YoungMinds. Whilst I was there in 2003 we started a Book Award, for novels that raise awareness and create understanding of mental health needs of children and young people. It is a super idea, and, despite me moving on, it is obviously going from strength to strength.

YoungMinds are looking for young people to review the 12 books on the long list for the 2010 award. I am sure this is something our Reading Leaders (or any young person) might be interested in getting involved with. If you are under 25 and would like to get involved, there is more information on the YoungMinds website.

Competition Time

I have spotted a few competitions to try:

Bounce into Books

We have just missed the week long Bounce into Books festival (in particular I missed Tommy Donbavand at my local library), but there is still time to enter their competition. They are looking for the most peculiar facts about your neighbourhood to be included in a new book Yorkshire: A Very Peculiar History. Sounds like fun, closing date is 28 March 2010.

Harriet Goodwin

Next, do you like the idea of appearing as a character in a book, well author Harriet Goodwin is offering the chance to be in her next book, The Extraordinary Legacy of Elvira Phoenix. A great opportunity, closing date is 31 March 2010

Sheffield Libraries Readers Card

Finally, and this is more for older readers, Sheffield Libraries' new reader’s card scheme lets you get free coffee, but also the opportunity to win prizes. It is a pilot scheme running up until 18 April 2010, which I presume is the closing date.

Summer Festivals in Sheffield and Rotherham

Reading Matters are not formally involved in these festivals, but I am sure we will be represented at some of the many excellent events taking place in Sheffield and Rotherham in the next few months.

Sheffield Children's Festival 2009
13 June to 4 July
Some things that caught my eye were the Poetry Wall at Banks Street Arts, a performance of the BFG and associated fun day at the Lyceum, and the many theatre performances by pupils from Sheffield schools.

Showcomotion
Sheffield Young People's Film Festival
25 June to 9 July
I particularly like the look of the Dreams 2012 programme on 27 June at the Showroom Cinema.

Rotherham Children's Book Festival 2009
27 June to 4 July
I don't know where to start with this lot, so many good things; Family Fun Days across Rotherham on 27 June, Story Teller Ben Haggarty at Wickersly Library on 29 June 7.30pm-9.30pm, Shonaleigh at the Central Library on 2 July 6pm-7pm, and finish up with a Storywalk in Clifton Park on 4 July 2pm-3pm.

I can't wait.

Booktalk

I have just been reading about Booktalk on the excellent, Write Away blog. It is not something I had heard about before, but is included in the DWSF National Strategies training and is worth exploring.

Booktalk encourages us to encourage children to talk about the books they have read. The intention is to improve their understanding and appreciation of what they have read, and develop their own writing as a result. Exploring this topic means dealing with a fair amount of jargon but there are some simple ideas underpinning the scheme; simply asking questions about what a young person has read, for example:

• Tell me what you thought/felt about...
• Which parts of the book stay in your mind most vividly?
  
• Have you read any other books like this?

Using such methods will help a child think about what they have read, engage with it, develop ideas and hopefully appreciation and enthusiasm. I recommend the Attachments and Resources on the National Strategies page on Booktalk, the page itself is a little impenetrable.

Michael Rosen's underpants

A good day today. I placed a new volunteer at All Saints school and I think she is going to fit in really well. I had a meeting at Fir Vale school with lots of interesting ideas for community reading projects. But (and no disrespect to All Saints or Fir Vale) the winner is Newfield school, where I was invited to celebrate the opening of their new building to see the wonderful Michael Rosen perform. Louise the Librarian at Newfield had organised the day had got a great audience together; Newfield students and hangers-on like me, but the the room was mainly full of children from local primary schools who got so much out of their visit, and I bet a lot of them are looking forward to their seconadry education a whole lot more after today.
Michael Rosen is such as personable guy, no one could take their eyes off him. Having said that, my favourite bit was a story which included some underpants that ended up on a ceiling light, and as Michael pointed at the ceiling half the children looked up and I am sure many of them saw the underpants! There was no great theme or message to the performance just a lot of super stories and poems and confirmation that we are all writers to some degree. Plus I got my book signed, actually 4-mont old Rose got her book signed!

I might be breaking some copyrights here, but I wanted to share the poem that we all performed together, I think it's great and helps reaffirm why I do what I do at Reading Matters.

Words Are Ours by Michael Rosen

In the beginning was the word
and the word is ours

The names of places,
the names of flowers,
the names of names,
words are ours.

Page turners
for early learners

How to boil an egg
or mend a leg

Words are ours

Wall-charts
Love hearts

Sports reports
Short retorts

Jam-jar labels
Timetables

Words are ours

Following the instructions
for furniture constructions

Ancient mythologies
Online anthologies

Who she wrote for
Who to vote for

Joke collections
Results of elections

Words are ours

The tale’s got you gripped
Have you learned your script?

The method of an experiment
Ingredients for merriment

W8n 4ur txt
Re: whts nxt

Print media
Wikipedia

Words are ours

Subtitles on TV
Details on your CV

Book of great speeches
Guide to the best beaches

Looking for chapters
on velociraptors

Words are ours

The mystery of history
The history of mystery

The views of news
The news of views

Words to explain
the words for pain.

Doing geography
Autobiography

What to do in pay-phones
Goodbyes on gravestones

Words are ours

from www.readingforlife.org.uk

Days and Weeks

There seem to be no end of celebratory days, weeks, months and years, and I can never keep up. We seem to be in the middle of a whole batch at the moment, it is of course National Year of Reading, but there are a lot of other things going on at the moment:

• Thursday (9/10/2008) was National Poetry Day, there are some great resources on the site, the winners Foyle Young Poets of the year award was announced, and there is still time to enter the Children’s Poetry Competition.
  
• 6-12 October 2008 is Children's Book Week, if nothing else you should check-out the fantastic downloadable poster, but the Cover Design Competition is worth a look too.
  

[Thanks Write Away and Guardian Mortar Board] 

Book Week at Newfield

Today (6/10/08) I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with a group of pupils, a local author, a councillor, school staff and governors at Newfield school.

As part of the school’s book week, Louise Taylor, the Learning Resource Centre Manager, had arranged for the author Malcolm Rose (www.malcolmrose.co.uk) to talk about his work and inspire the pupils to create some stories of their own. She was kind enough to ask me along and I was really glad she did. It was my first visit to a school as the Reading Matters Project Manager, and what a great start. Everyone especially the pupils and Malcolm were so enthusiastic, it was great to be a part of, although the ‘dark’ theme certainly produced some unsettling results.

Newfield is the middle of a massive construction project and the new school building is looking impressive. Louise is already working wonders in the current library, including working with the Reading Matters volunteers, so who knows what she’ll achieve in the new state-of-the-art resource centre?

To my shame, I haven’t read any of Malcolm’s books, but I am certainly going to. It is just a question of where to start – more than books in about 20 years, that’s some going. Kiss of Death has just been added to the booked up scheme (worth a look if you work in a school and fancy some free books - www.bookedup.org.uk) so I reckon that’s worth a look, the Lawless and Tilley books are set in Sheffield so that would be good, but the pupils seemed to be going for books from the Traces series – I’ll see what they’ve got in my local library. You can see Malcolm in person at the Off The Shelf, I’d recommend it).