PRESENTER: The children’s book festival is coming up again soon and here to tell us all about it is the festival’s organiser, Jenny Morgan. So tell us what we can expect this year, Jenny.
JENNY: Well, as usual we’ve got five days of action-packed exciting events for children, with writers coming from all over the country getting involved. Just to give you an idea of what’s on offer in the workshops, first of all, there’s a very special event called Superheroes. This is a chance for deaf children to share their reading experiences with author Madeleine Gordon, who is herself hearing impaired.'Just do it' is a practical workshop led by the well-known illustrator Mark Keane. He’ll take participants on a magical journey to faraway lands with an opportunity for aspiring actors to do some role play. ‘Count on me’ is an inspiring and entertaining look at the issues of friendship for 13-14-year-olds. It looks at some of the friendships described in popular books and asks participants to compare these with their own experiences. ‘Speak up’ is part of a series of workshops on the subject of mental health. This is a creative writing workshop encouraging children to describe situations where young people experience loneliness. A recent survey revealed that children can be lonely even when they’re at home with their families. 'Jump for joy’, as many of you will know, is the heart-warming, best-selling story by Nina Karan about a young girl’s trip to visit her relatives in India. It recently received the gold medal at the Waterford Awards. Nina will get children to celebrate the word ‘joy’ by writing a poem. ‘Sticks and stones' is the beautifully illustrated picture book for young readers about a community who organise an African-Caribbean festival to help local children learn about their Jamaican roots. This will be a musical event where children will have the chance to play steel drums. This is bound to be very popular, so please book as soon as possible.
PRESENTER: Thanks Jenny. That all sounds really interesting. I’m just wondering if you have a favourite book you could recommend for our readers?
JENNY: It's hard to choose, but Alive and Kicking is definitely worth mentioning. You won’t
have heard of the writer as it’s her first book - which is really impressive. It's basically the teenage diary of a boy from Somalia who comes to live in the UK. It deals with the serious issue of immigration and all the challenges the boy has to face at school and with the language barrier, etc. Usually, books like this are quite sad, but this one actually made me cry with laughter. On each page, there are simple but hilarious black and white stick drawings of the boy with his friends and teachers. At the end of each diary entry, there are new English words the boy learns each day, which may help develop some children’s vocabulary.
PRESENTER: I think my kids would enjoy that. What about any advice for parents on how to encourage their children to read more?
JENNY: Well, this is something I get asked about a lot. There are so many distractions for kids these days that it can be hard to find time for reading. One thing I’d say is to make time to sit down with your child and share books with them. A lot of parents give up reading aloud to their children as soon as they learn to read independently, but this is a mistake. It’s good to read more advanced books to them as it helps to develop their vocabulary. If you don’t have time for this, then let them listen to audio books. Often, they’ll want to read books they’ve listened to for themselves. I think it’s a good idea to make a mental note of the type of books your child is reading - often they just read the same genre all the time, which can get a bit boring. You can introduce new authors and genres to them. Librarians should be able to help you with this.
PRESENTER: Well Jenny, I think that’s really useful. . . . |
