Wortley Hall Remembered - 7 July 2011

Some of our partner schools and Fay, one of our Reading Mentors, are involved in a Summer Show of drama, history and music at Wortley Hall on 7 July 2011. Sounds like a great evening out. Download a pdf programme.

Continued Professional Development Opportunity - Supporting Reading Development

one day accredited training course

11 July - Sheffield, Bannerdale Centre

14 July - Huddersfield, Brian Jackson House

An interactive training day for professionals who support children’s literacy:

• Gain an insight into the literacy curriculum
• Understand how children develop reading skills
• Diagnose reading difficulties
• Develop strategies to improve pupils’ reading skills and confidence
• Develop experience and confidence in supporting pupils to become enthusiastic and confident readers
• Analyse reading support practice
• Prepare for NOCN Level 2 accreditation
• Lunch and refreshments provided

Just £195 per person

Please contact 01274 692219 or info@readingmatters.org.uk

Download a poster [pdf] to display on your notice board. 

Book Relief - Community Volunteer Reading Mentors Programme in partnership with the Bideford Learning Community

Reading Matters will be delivering some accredited training and support sessions on 6 and 7 July to prepare Volunteer Reading Mentors to deliver reading sessions in Bideford schools.

It is an exciting new progamme organised by the Book Relief in partnership the Bideford Learning Community.

Full details are available on the Book Relief website. Do take a look, especially if you would like to become a Volunteer Reading Mentor in a Bideford school and really help to improve the reading skills and confidence of young people, and gain some valuable work experience and a national accreditation.

Dr. Seuss says Read Read Read

A wonderful letter with great advice from Dr. Seuss:

Sent in response to a Librarian in Troy, Michigan in 1971. Found with more letters on Jack Cheng's blog.

Reading Mentor Resources at Firth Park Community Arts College

I was at Firth Park Community Arts College last week, placing a new Reading Mentor. We explored all sorts of new resources including many for particularly reluctant or struggling readers. I wanted to share them with you:

• Dark Man series by Peter Lancett - Minimal text and dark pencil illustrations, in particular the use of repetition helps embed word recognition
• Dark Flight series - 'Horror' tales designed to grab the attention of young teenagers with low reading ages
• Right Now! series by Dee Phillips - Very low word counts fiction books for teenagers lower reading ages
• Zig Zag series - Aimed at younger children but still popular at the secondary school
• Barrington Stoke - Barrington Stoke are our go-to publisher, the series above are aimed at young reading ages than Barrington Stoke's traditional audience, but their Solo and Go! series, plus the new Tribe series, will be suitable.

I also learnt that the rather wonderful author, Malorie Blackman, is name checked in the song Written in the Stars by Tinie Tempah. How cool is that!

Peace in the Park Festival Self Help Africa Reading Aloud World Record Attempt

Via the Reading Zone Website, I learnt about a great event at my favourite local festival.

One of the chosen causes at the Peace in the Park Festival on 4 June 2011 in Sheffield is Self Help Africa. At the festival they are going to try and break the World Record for the most adults reading aloud to children.

They will be reading Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book led by story-teller Shona Leigh, and will be attended by adjudicators acting on behalf of the Guinness Book of Records.

I go to the festival most years, it is always great fun. This year sounds especially good!

Reading - Fun Stuff

I haven't posted for a while. So to get back in the swing of things. Here are some fun/silly things about reading I have spotted recently.
Attack of Literacy! T- Shirt
Available now from the rather marvelous Threadless website.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Poptropica Game
Play as Greg and in other games on the Poptropica site!

The Great Dr Seuss Read Aloud Competition
Enter a video, win prizes (or just watch)!

Captain Kirk - should have been a librarian!

Confessions of a Book Fiend
Available as a print from Incidental Comics.

Books = Good | Games = Bad !

An interesting response to a new British Cohort Study by Mark Taylor of Nuffield College, Oxford. The project analysed data from 17,200 people, looking at which activities they did in their spare time for pleasure at age 16 in 1986, responses were checked against the jobs they were doing at the age of 33, in 2003. The resulting headlines show the various interpretation of outcomes:

• Telegraph - Reading as teenager gets you a better job
• BBC Today Programme - The benefits of reading for pleasure
• Daily Mail - Forget music lessons and sports clubs... reading in your teens is the key to a good career
• Express - Bookworm teenagers are most likely to get top jobs
• Guardian - Computer gamers less likely to go to university

It's a timely study as sales of electronic books overtake physical versions in the US, adding further to the hazy divide between spare time activities.

Overall I'd suggest it's a welcome study, but doesn't teach us too much, a passion for reading (in any format) will stand you in good stead.

The Lord of Tears by James Lovegrove

The Lord of Tears by James Lovegrove is the sequel to The Lord of Void which  I reviewed last year. It is book 3 of the 5 book series, The 5 Lords of Pain, in which young Tom Yamada must save the world by defeating five demons.

After a short re-cap the action begins. 18 pages of the first 40 are given over to a epic battle against a host of Shinobi Ghosts. This is one example of some tricky language. It helps describe the Tokyo setting very well,  but words like Konnichiwa, Harajuku and Yoyogi may put off a few struggling and reluctant readers the book is ostensibly aimed at.

Lovegrove obviously knows his stuff, there is a nice reference to Death Note manga, And I think he may have also read some Alex Rider books, Tom has his own mind just like the youthful spy.

We learn a little more about the Yamada family history and meet some interesting family members. Including Mai who blackmails him to let her fight in the contest. Tom is hugely conflicted; he knows he should be preparing for the fight but the sense of normality is such a relief. In the end Tom's 'pride' forces his decision to fight. In battle the Lord of Tears is super quick, Tom can't get near him, and he must use his brain to defeat him.

It's pretty dense, long book for a Barrington Stoke publication, and lots of puzzles are going to need solving in the final two stories. I'm looking forward to seeing how it pans out.

Barrington Stoke Books

I have been reviewing Barrington Stoke books for some time now. It is very rewarding and I don't plan to stop doing the reviews, but I am going to change my approach a little.

Barrington Stoke have been sending me pre-release copies for review. I am going to focus on these, and dip into the back catalogue occasionally. So to get me started I have:

• The Gun by Bali Rai
• Return of the (Un)Teenager by Pete Johnson
• Ninja First Mission by Chris Bradford
• Sterling and the Canary by Andy Stanton
• The Fall by Anthony McGowan
• The Lord of Tears by James Lovegrove (I actually won this one in a Barrington Stoke competition)

I'm really looking forward to checking these books out - hot off the press!