Exactly a week ago, I was privileged to launch the Tesco Bank Summer Reading Challenge Scotland (I needed to take a deep breath every time I said that!) in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. In case the title doesn’t make it clear, it’s the libraries’ Summer Reading Challenge, in Scotland, sponsored by Tesco Bank. I was also privileged to also launch the local Summer Reading Challenge in Dundee two days later.
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| Launching the Tesco Bank Summer Reading Challenge Scotland |
This year’s theme is
Mythical Maze. And there couldn’t be a better theme for me – I write
collections of myths and legends, I write
contemporary adventures inspired by old myths, and one of my books even has a
Maze in the title.
So that’s probably why I was asked to launch this year’s theme and challenge in Scotland. (And yes, I know it seems a bit early to all of you south of the border, but we grab summer earlier up here in Scotland, so the schools are already out and the libraries are already challenging kids to read books during the holidays.)
The launches were all positive and smiley. I met kids who had done previous challenges and were keen to do it again (which was great) and I met kids who had never done it before but were keen to give it a go it this year (which was even better.) So I had hoped to post a really cheerful blog for you all about summer and reading, with
these wonderful illustrations by Sarah MacIntyre.
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| With lovely librarian Ruth in Dundee, and a dragon behind us. |
But when I posted pictures of me with posters and books and dragons and kids online last week, someone who had been involved in a campaign that I supported to keep their local library open, a campaign that sadly failed, contacted me to say,
this is lovely, Lari, but what about the kids who don’t have a local library any more? And I didn’t have an answer. Sad face emoticons don’t really do it.
The Summer Reading Challenge brightens up and invigorates libraries all over the country and allows them to run fun family-focussed events. The different themes every year make reading relevant and exciting to lots of different children. Kids get involved, families get involved, authors get involved. It’s a brilliant scheme. Well done the
Reading Agency for organising it, and
Tesco Bank for supporting it in Scotland. But it can’t reach every child, because not every child has access to a library.
And perhaps that’s the real challenge for all of us.
I had intended to write a really cheerful summery sunny post for all you Awfully Big Blog fans, but the shadow over it is that even the best things we do with books can’t and don’t reach everyone. Not until we make sure every single child has access to a library.
So clearly my challenge is to get away from that dragon breathing down my neck and take up my sword again on the subject of library closures.
In the meantime, have a fun summer, losing yourself in mazes and finding new myths!
(Lari is now away polishing her sword…)
Lari Don is an occasional library campaigner, and also the award-winning author of 21 books for all ages, including a teen thriller, fantasy novels for 8 – 12s, picture books, retellings of traditional tales and novellas for reluctant readers.
Lari’s website Lari’s own blog Lari on Twitter Lari on FacebookLari on Tumblr
Neil Gaiman has a truly excellent article in today's Guardian about the importance of reading and libraries. (I found it via a post by PragmaticMom on Facebook). The text is from a speech that Gaiman gave at The Reading Agency, a UK nonprofit "whose mission is to give everyone an equal chance in life by helping people become confident and enthusiastic readers. Because everything changes when we read."
It's a long piece, and so, so quotable. Like this:
Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it's a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it's hard, because someone's in trouble and you have to know how it's all going to end … that's a very real drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going. To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. Once you learn that, you're on the road to reading everything. And reading is key."
And this:
"The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them."
And of course the quote that I included as an image above, which is my very favorite part. And so much more (I haven't even touched upon the part about libraries).
If you care about raising kids who love books, and/or writing books, and/or supporting libraries, go and read Neil Gaiman's lecture. Then share it with other people who either do care about these things, or who should. I would like to see this talk make into a little booklet, and distributed widely. Gaiman is an excellent ambassador for literacy and the love of reading. If only more people would hear his message. Go! Read!
© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. This site is an Amazon affiliate.
As has now been reported widely in the New York Times and Washington media circuit, Jonah Lehrer, the disgraced writer who fabricated Bob Dylan quotes, has now had his book publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, begin running digital adverts through the Google Adwords system, telling booksellers to send back copies of the plagiarized book, “Imagine.” But how can other writers stay clear of a similar fate? One way to ensure you don’t accidentally plagiarize material surrounding the constitution is to keep a clear chronology of events in place (on a piece of paper or iPad for reference) as you unfold your storytelling narrative around famous works of literature, which in this context must include U.S Constitutional materials. Here is a simple Chronology for the early Constitutional days:
DATES & EVENTS CHANGING HISTORY
1754 Benjamin Franklin urges Colonists to unite.
1765 Parliament passes Stamp Act, which taxes Colonists on all printed items.
1770 The Boston Massacre on March 5. Five Colonists are killed.
1773 The Boston Tea Party on December 16.
1774 The First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia in September.
1776 Common Sense by Thomas Paine sold 400,000 copies to three million Colonists. Common Sense swept across the world to introduce the Rights of Man & a Republic.
1776 The Second Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia June 7; Thomas Jefferson submits Declaration of Independence July 2 which is approved July 4 and is publicly read to all America on July 8. 1781 President George Washington’s Farewell Address reminds all Americans how to preserve the new Republic.
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American crime writer Karin Slaughter has written a digital-only short story exclusive to Amazon, with all the proceeds going to benefit libraries.
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The Reading Agency has warned library service cutbacks could cause future problems in its Summer Reading Challenge, as it revealed 97% of library authorities will participate in this year's scheme.
It will be launched on Monday at the House of Commons. The number is up fractionally on 2010 when 95% took part, with support by TescoBank enabling more local authorities in Scotland to take part.
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