tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7743513055919347612024-03-18T08:46:46.868-07:00Give a Book BlogGive a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-64377463764737968952014-02-19T02:34:00.000-08:002014-02-22T09:33:21.432-08:00Booktrust<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The wonderful <a href="http://www.booktrust.org.uk/">Booktrust</a> has just donated this box of gorgeous new books to us. Booktrust has been promoting books, reading and writing for <a href="http://www.booktrust.org.uk/about-us/story-of-booktrust/">more than 90 years</a>. They are the gold standard in this business. Thank you, Booktrust, your gift will be hugely appreciated. Now please go back to <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book.</a><br />
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Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com196tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-90411083477194262792014-02-15T02:55:00.000-08:002014-02-15T02:55:16.692-08:00London Book Swap Day and International Book Giving Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So, for those in London, Saturday 15th February is <a href="http://www.discover.org.uk/whatson/event/london-childrens-book-swap-free-day">London Book Swap Day</a> taking place in 19 venues across London. And yesterday, St Valentine's Day, was <a href="http://bookgivingday.com/">International Book Giving Day</a>. We were delighted to be part of it. Our own Adeela gave these to a local group of toddlers as part of IBGD. She says: "<i>The kids and their parents were really surprised and pleased to receive new books and did spread the word of IBGD!</i>"<br />
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Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com139tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-27862931180363589832014-02-08T02:20:00.000-08:002014-02-08T02:20:18.782-08:00National Libraries Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Today, Saturday February 8th 2014, is <a href="http://www.nationallibrariesday.org.uk/">National Libraries Day</a>. The Children's Laureate, <a href="http://www.malorieblackman.co.uk/">Malorie Blackman</a>, often cited and celebrated in the GAB blog, has written rousingly today in The Guardian about her own use of libraries when a child as a home from home, on the importance of libraries for everyone as story-telling hubs, resource, book repository and so much more. She writes: "<i>As far as I am concerned every day should be National Libraries Day." </i>Here at GAB we second that. Our Magic Breakfast Book Clubs hook up with the local library so that the love of books and reading born in the book clubs spills over into the world outside. Every member of our Book Clubs gets their own special library card. <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book.</a></div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com79tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-76617537465520802452014-02-05T09:18:00.001-08:002014-02-05T09:18:31.302-08:00International Book Giving Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Friday 14th February is not only St Valentine's Day, celebrated by birds, poets and lovers since <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parlement_of_Foules">Chaucer</a>'s time and maybe even before that; it's also <a href="http://bookgivingday.com/blog/">International Book Giving Day</a>, the day dedicated to getting new, used and borrowed books in the hands of as many children as possible. GAB's own Adeela has written <a href="http://bookgivingday.com/2014/02/05/give-a-book-because-reading-matters/">a blog</a> for them about our work and everything you can do to help. So please do go back to <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a> and do just that.</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com72tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-75075713694968196902014-01-21T06:26:00.000-08:002014-01-21T06:26:11.858-08:00Shared reading groups at The Reader Org<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Our friends <a href="http://www.thereader.org.uk/">The Reader Org</a> have sent us word and pictures of the Kensal Book Break group reading <i>The Painted Veil</i> by Somerset Maugham, sharing their personal responses to the book as they read it together, over a cup of tea and biscuits.<br />
“This book has got everything; gossip, history, romance. A gripping story so far, can’t wait to find out what happens next.”<br />
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In all of their shared reading groups they read aloud together from the same text, often taking several months to read a whole book as they share the experience of the story unfolding week by week. They tell us: "<i>It's brilliant for us to have these sets of several copies of the same book which we can keep for as long as it takes us to read the whole book, and will be read by other groups in future.</i>"<br />
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You can find all their weekly shared reading groups here: http://www.thereader.org.uk/reading-with-us.aspx.<br />
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Now please go back to <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book </a>and help us carry on doing this.</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com50tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-31016728678275775632013-12-23T05:19:00.001-08:002013-12-23T05:19:45.177-08:00Books for children at Christmas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here's a cheering and inspiring story for Christmas--Juliet is a one-woman Give a Book who collects new books and gives them to 16 or more venues---including hospitals and children's hospices. She also set up a thriving phone box library in her home village. She told us "St Thomas's are collecting from me later this week for their general wards, and the Evelina children’s department, and then Great Ormond Street next week....so that all children incarcerated over the Christmas period get a gift from Father Christmas`s literary pile!?"<br />
So why not <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a> for Christmas to someone who really needs one.</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com43tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-28964651441752476482013-12-20T07:58:00.002-08:002013-12-20T07:58:33.959-08:00Thank you<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The excellent and generous <a href="http://www.portobellopress.co.uk/">Portobello Press</a> have kindly donated lovely new fliers to <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a> for Christmas. Huge thanks from all of us for this support.</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com51tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-65182471250102982802013-12-17T14:24:00.000-08:002013-12-17T14:24:28.814-08:00Michael Morpurgo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Wonderful news that <a href="http://www.michaelmorpurgo.com/">Michael Morpurgo</a> has just been announced as the new president of <a href="http://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-blogs/news/246/">Booktrust</a>.<br />
Christmas cheer indeed. </div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-32541697412605882922013-12-12T02:12:00.000-08:002013-12-12T02:12:05.781-08:00Tales with Teddy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The wonderful <a href="http://www.thereader.org.uk/">Reader Org</a> has just started a children's reading project at White City Community Centre. <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book </a>was delighted to give the books for this and we've just had this lovely thank you.<br />
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Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-1575776434603484672013-12-08T07:39:00.002-08:002013-12-08T07:39:39.642-08:00Living the story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.michaelmorpurgo.com/">Michael Morpurgo</a> has again written affectingly about the importance of reading time for children. In an wonderful article in The Times on Saturday 7th December he reminisces about his own childhood and being read to by his mother and grandmother and through them acquiring the love of stories. In his ideal world every child would have that special reading time both at school and at home. And every child would have books of their own to love, cherish and return to for life. He lists 8 books that he'd love every child to have:<br />
<i>The Tiger who came to Tea</i> by Judith Kerr; <i>Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel </i>by Victoria Lee Burton; <i>The Elephant's Child</i> by Rudyard Kipling (which was his choice for our GAB Book of the Month back in August 2011); <i>Charlotte's Web</i> by E.B.White; <i>The Iron Man</i> by Ted Hughes; <i>The Emperor's New Clothes</i> by Hans Christian Anderson; <i>The Selfish Giant</i> by Oscar Wilde; <i>The Man who planted Trees</i> by Jean Giono.<br />
1 in 3 homes in the UK have no books at all. The single strongest indicator of future success in a child is whether or not there are books in the home. So why not <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a> to someone who really needs one this Christmas?</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com68tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-45034014408766797372013-12-02T05:16:00.003-08:002013-12-02T05:16:56.523-08:00Thank you<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We've just heard that <a href="http://www.discountbannerprinting.co.uk/">Discount Banner Printing</a> is going to support <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a> with free printing of leaflets. They generously do this for several charities. So a huge thank you to them for this gift to us. We greatly appreciate it.</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-81568837498438890872013-11-28T06:21:00.001-08:002013-11-28T06:21:56.291-08:00Poetry inside<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Great Poetry Slam at Pentonville the other day--powerful poetry and song from the heart. <a href="http://www.writersinprisonnetwork.org/WHAT%20WE%20DO%202010-11.pdf">Dorigen Hammond </a>of Writers in Prison had elicited great work. The judges-- who performed too-- were the brilliant <a href="http://chrispreddie.wix.com/makedreamsareality">Chris Preddie</a> and <a href="http://joelletaylordotorg.wordpress.com/">Joelle Taylor</a>. The winner the extraordinary Chanel. Coincides with the publication of <i><a href="http://www.insidetime.org/">Inside Poetry: Voices from Prison Volume 5</a> </i>and as Rachel Billington, the editor, writes "Their voices fly with their message over barbed wire and high walls to freedom."<br />
<a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a> is pleased to have given dictionaries for prizes and to be there.</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-16419506578020562312013-11-25T02:29:00.000-08:002013-11-25T02:29:10.370-08:00Bring back story time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The former children's laureate, Michael Morpurgo, has called on the Government to reinstate story time in all schools, saying children need time in the day for reading and quiet contemplation. His words were reported in <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/10468670/Michael-Morpurgo-Bring-back-story-time-in-every-school.html">The Telegraph today</a> and were spoken at the opening of the wonderful Brackenbury Primary School Library. At this <a href="http://www.brackenbury.lbhf.sch.uk/pdfs/newsletters/newsletter%20071113.pdf">school in West London a bunch of mums</a> got together to raise money and build a superb new library where there had been none. <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a> is delighted to have been able to help put books on their shelves in this excellent project and congratulate them on their achievement.</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-91997534470859727522013-11-10T08:44:00.002-08:002013-11-10T08:44:53.415-08:00Thanks from Avondale School<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We love to hear how it's going so thank you Avondale Primary School for this lovely card. And thanks to all who support <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a> to make it possible.<br /></div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-40093148850973989032013-10-29T11:51:00.002-07:002013-10-29T11:51:51.176-07:00George Heriot's School<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.george-heriots.com/">George Heriot's School</a> in Edinburgh has a fine literary magazine called <i>Ink</i>. It's entirely edited and written by the pupils. They made a particularly lovely first issue and donated the proceeds to <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a>. This came out of the blue, out of cyberspace, and we were and are delighted by this generosity. Thank you, all, at George Heriot's for thinking of us. It means a lot to us. And your magazine looks great.<br />
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Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-89690806165664864042013-10-22T05:43:00.002-07:002013-10-22T05:43:44.594-07:00Martina Cole urges prisons to join Six Book Challenge adult literacy drive<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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International bestselling author <a href="http://www.martinacole.co.uk/">Martina Cole</a> has called on all prisons and young offender institutions (YOIs) across the UK to sign up for <a href="http://www.readingagency.org.uk)">The Reading Agency’s</a> annual, nationwide Six Book Challenge to increase literacy skills among prisoners and help reduce reoffending rates. She was speaking at a special event – held yesterday at the Free Word Centre, The Reading Agency’s central London home – for prisons already running the scheme. (The Reading Agency is an independent charity whose mission is to give everyone an equal chance in life, by helping people become confident and enthusiastic readers.)<br />
Launched in 2008 by The Reading Agency, the Six Book Challenge is increasingly recognised as a key intervention using reading for pleasure to help tackle this country’s continuing skills deficit. As recently highlighted by an <a href="http://skills.oecd.org/skillsoutlook.html.">OECD study</a> England’s 16- to 24-year-olds rank 22nd out of the 24 countries taking part for literacy skills (see ‘Notes to editors’).However, ninety per cent of survey respondents say that they are more confident about reading after taking part in the Six Book Challenge, which invites them to pick six reads of their choice and complete a reading diary in order to get a certificate.<br />
Martina Cole, rated by prison library staff as the most widely read author in prisons, is the ambassador for the 2014 Six Book Challenge. She said: “I meet a lot of prisoners who really struggle with literacy but they’re prepared to give my books a go. What I like about the Six Book Challenge is that it’s encouraging people to read who wouldn’t otherwise do so.I’m really happy to be supporting it." She added: "Next year I will do a Six Book Challenge tour and visit lots of participating prisons.”<br />
Over 100 prisons now run the Six Book Challenge with around 7000 prisoners taking part this year. However this is still under 10% of the UK’s prison population of 93,000, half of which have poor literacy skills. The Reading Agency aims to reach at least 10% of offenders and extend use of the Six Book Challenge to all 150 prisons, YOIs and secure units in the UK by 2015.<br />
"Low literacy blights the chance for far too many prisoners to turn their lives around. But we’ve seen the Six Book Challenge make a difference to their attitude to reading and learning and help them make a new start in preparation for release,” said Genevieve Clarke, adult literacy specialist at The Reading Agency. “We’re determined to extend it to all prisons and deepen its impact where it is already used. Martina Cole’s support in promoting the scheme to prisoners and prison staff will definitely help us to achieve this.”<br />
As ambassador for the 2014 Six Book Challenge Martina Cole will be visiting prisons to talk about the scheme. She has already spoken at an event at HMP Lewes in Sussex on 3 October to mark its success in the Prison Libraries’ Group Prison Library of the Year competition, and on 15 October she visited HMP Swaleside in Kent as their ‘prize’ for winning the 2013 Six Book Challenge draw for participating prisons.<br />
Twenty prisons received special awards from The Reading Agency this year for the number of prisoners they supported for the 2013 Six Book Challenge, including HMP Pentonville in London which has achieved 236 completers.<br />
“Seven out of ten of our prisoners say they have a learning or literacy problem,” said Nick Walmsley, regimes manager at HMP Pentonville. “We are convinced that doing the Six Book Challenge encourages them to come into our library and use the facilities and get back into education. And we all believe that not only does it assist prisoners whilst they are in prison, but that when they leave, it has a positive effect on an ex-prisoner’s ability to remain an ex-prisoner, and not re-offend.”<br />
"I love the Six Book Challenge,” said keynote speaker Gabrielle Lee, governor, HMYOI Deerbolt in County Durham, which won a silver award for 115 young offenders completing the Six Book Challenge. “It takes real courage to attempt something like this when you've not had success at school. Getting prisoners to start the Challenge can also be the time when they realise they may need some help in other areas of their life. If we get their trust through the Challenge it can lead on to looking at ways they can make other changes."<br />
The Reading Agency’s Six Book Challenge in prisons is supported with funding from the City of London Corporation’s charity City Bridge Trust, the Bromley Trust and <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a> which has donated dictionaries to Six Book Challenge completers.<br />
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Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-37795446453782683782013-10-19T09:33:00.001-07:002013-10-19T09:33:15.510-07:00Reading for Pleasure<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.neilgaiman.com/">Neil Gaiman</a> gave the <a href="http://readingagency.org.uk/news/media/neil-gaiman-delivers-our-second-annual-lecture.html">second annual lecture for The Reading Agency</a> the other day. Miranda McKearney OBE, Founding Director of The Reading Agency said: "Tonight is part of an urgent debate about how to build a nation of readers and library users. Who better than the extraordinary Neil Gaiman to help us think through new solutions to the fact that for a wealthy country, with free education, we have a shocking literacy problem?"<br />
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Gaiman said: "I'm going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, is one of the most important things one can do. I'm going to make an impassioned plea for people to understand what libraries and librarians are, and to preserve both of these things."<br />
He then spoke about 'the power of fiction to transform our understanding of the world and turn us into citizens': "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."<br />
He cited research by America's private prison industry, showing why reading fiction is so important: "I was once in New York, and I listened to a talk about the building of private prisons - a huge growth industry in America. The prison industry needs to plan its future growth - how many cells are they going to need? How many prisoners are there going to be, 15 years from now? And they found they could predict it very easily, using a pretty simple algorithm, based about asking what percentage of ten and eleven year olds couldn't read. And certainly couldn't read for pleasure. It's not one to one: you can't say that a literate society has no criminality. But there are very real correlations. And I think some of those correlations, the simplest, come from something very simple. Literate people read fiction."<br />
Now please go back to <a href="http://www.giveabook.org/">Give a Book</a>.<br />
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Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-77358929364900178182013-10-06T09:02:00.000-07:002013-10-06T09:02:04.912-07:00The culture of reading<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Recently Viv Bird, dynamic CEO of the wonderful <a href="http://www.booktrust.org.uk/">Booktrust</a> spoke out about the need to change the culture of reading. She announced the new Booktrust Best Book Awards and spoke of the goal to '<i>see children pestering their parents for Malorie Blackman’s latest book alongside their pleas for One Direction tickets.' </i>Like the Children's Laureate we all want '<i>to get more children reading more.'</i><br />
Then there has been the great news that Waterstones raised £75,000 for the <a href="http://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-blogs/news/219/">Children's Reading Fund</a>.<br />
And a report came out that reading levels amongst 7 year olds have risen significantly. However, a survey showed that fewer than 1 in 3 older children read books outside school and many think it 'uncool' to be seen with a book.<br />
Research from the <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/i-know-how-youre-feeling-i-read-chekhov/?_r=0">New School for Social Research in New York</a> showed that people who read literary fiction perform better in social interactions. David Kidd, a psychologist, is quoted as saying that "<i>literary fiction really involves the reader in a certain type of social interaction. What a great author of literary fiction does is scaffold our theory of mind---pulling us into a situation where we have to use our capacity to understand people to its fullest extent.</i>"<br />
In other words, have a little Chekhov to get through your day. And then please do go back to <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a>.</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-60236965521259380502013-09-21T06:46:00.000-07:002013-09-21T06:46:24.648-07:00Night Walks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The extraordinary <a href="https://culturecrawl.maggiescentres.org/">Maggie's Culture Crawl</a> took place last night. Hundreds of walkers assembled in the early autumn evening sunshine in Victoria Embankment Gardens. The walk kicked off with music, a rousing warm up, and the fabulous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Walter">Dame Harriet Walter</a> and husband <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0666848/">Guy Paul</a> reading selections from Dickens' <i>Night Walks</i> to see them off into the night. Later, actors <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Glover">Jamie Glover</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/LivingstoneHaz">Harry Livingstone</a>, <a href="http://sewhitehouse/">Sarah Whitehouse</a>, and GAB's own the wonderful <a href="https://twitter.com/helenmumby">Helen Mumby</a> read poems from Josephine Hart's anthology <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Catching-Life-Throat-Read-Poetry/dp/1844083926">Catching Life by the Throat</a> </i>in the exotic surroundings of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Walkers came, stopped to listen, were gripped and then walked on to taste Fortnum & Mason's tea before walking away into the night.<br />
At the end of the 15 mile walk every walker was given a copy of <i>Night Walks</i> as a memento by Give a Book, who gratefully acknowledge the generous help of <a href="http://www.penguin.co.uk/">Penguin</a> in doing this. It was all in aid of the excellent Maggie's Centres whose new centre opens in Aberdeen on Monday. And GAB was pleased to be part of it. Onwards. And please go on to <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a> so that we can keep this going.</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-78766160402566987342013-09-19T12:19:00.002-07:002013-09-19T12:19:39.015-07:00First Story Festival<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.firststory.org.uk/">First Story</a> held their annual Festival today: around 700 kids from all over the country turned up in Oxford to spend the day talking to writers and writing. Their enthusiasm was infectious. At the end a handful of them, beautifully orchestrated by poet <a href="http://katefox.co.uk/">Kate Fox</a>, stood up before the crowd and read from the work they'd done during the day: the talent was prodigious. They were warmly supported by amongst others, the <a href="http://www.malorieblackman.co.uk/">Childrens' Laureate Malorie Blackman</a>, <a href="http://www.deborahmoggach.com/">Deborah Moggach</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Clanchy">Oxford City poet Kate Clanchy</a>, <a href="http://markhaddon.com/">Mark Haddon</a>, <a href="http://www.sdmay.com/index.htm">Stephen May</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salena_Godden">Salena Godden</a> to name but some of the wonderful writers who join in to help First Story.<br />
One of their alumni, award-winning poet <a href="http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10376741.Azfa_is_well_versed_in_skills_of_the_poet/">Azfa Awad</a>, wrote this for Give a Book:<br />
"I really enjoyed the 'Staying Alive Trilogy' and was inspired by many of the poems. The fact that someone was generous enough to donate the anthologies is incredible and the fun and inspiration we had from the anthology was priceless."<br />
So now please go back to <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book</a> to help us keep this going.</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-49930586912181150312013-09-18T09:48:00.002-07:002013-09-18T09:48:43.969-07:00Reading for Pleasure<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-24116088">BBC news</a> recently reported on a study by <a href="http://www.ioe.ac.uk/newsEvents/89938.html">The Institute of Education</a> drawing on research by the always admirable <a href="http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/">National Literacy Trust</a>. It's about the importance of children reading for pleasure --even maths scores improve, for example, as well as vocabulary and overall educational level. They urge parents to read with their children. Even 10 minutes a day makes a real difference. And they included the following tips for parents:<br />
<i>Even 10 minutes a day reading with your child is a major help</i><br />
<i>Choose a wide variety of books to introduce different types of language and style</i><br />
<i>Take turns to read aloud to each other. They can learn from your expressive reading and you can check they are not struggling</i><br />
<i>Ask questions about the book - maybe about what might happen next or a character's motivation</i><br />
<i>Make sure they understand any new or unusual words or phrases</i><br />
<i>Enjoy it - "try and lose yourselves in a good story!"</i><br />
Now you can go back to<a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/"> Give a Book</a>.</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-79094886005813293642013-09-04T07:29:00.001-07:002013-09-04T07:29:25.428-07:00Books for Family Days in Prisons<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We've had more lovely feedback passed on to us by <a href="http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/Prison-Reading-Groups/About/">Prison Reading Groups</a>--thank you for that. It's so nice that we reproduce it here:<br />
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<i>The [books] were delivered the day before our family day, just in time. In the end as we had 2 adult ed tutors who had delivered the <u>Hungry Caterpillar</u> we set aside a quiet area and put the books on low tables surrounded by soft chairs and allowed the children in their own time to "find" this area. When a child showed an interest then either a parent or tutor went over to assist with reading if necessary.</i><br />
<i>When the child had looked at several books they were allowed to choose a book to take home and at that point they were given the book bag, notepad and if appropriate, pencil and pen.</i><br />
<i>When [the facilitator] spoke to the families the feedback was ... fulsome and they expressed absolute delight and amazement that any one would give their child a book bag with a choice of book too.</i><br />
The facilitator added that [she]<i> was delighted to have been given the opportunity to see the children choose books and sit and read them when there were so many other activities available. As some-one who has been involved in education from community-university it strengthens my belief that books are still the most important avenue through which young children can acquire information, develop interests, learn the art of reading for pleasure a pursuit which can be done with others or on your own.</i><br />
<i>Many thanks for the books.</i><br />
And many thanks to all who generously support<a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/"> Give a Book</a> for making this possible.</div>
Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-91439372761943889782013-08-21T14:25:00.003-07:002013-08-21T14:54:04.743-07:00Wonderful Line-up for Forward Book of Poetry 2014 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <a href="http://www.faber.co.uk/catalog/the-forward-book-of-poetry-2014/9780571304974">Forward Book of Poetry 2014</a> - which we are giving copies of to <a href="http://www.firststory.org.uk/">First Story'</a>s Young Writers' Festival next month - promises to be an exciting collection. Jeanette
Winterson, chair of the 2013 judging panel, has described the anthology as “a genuine
showcase of the scope and depth of poetry now”. She and her fellow judges –
Paul Farley, David Mills, Sheenagh Pugh and Samuel West – each read 162 poetry
collections and 159 single poems before settling on the ones they loved best.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The poets shortlisted for the £10,000 Forward Prize for Best Collection - Rebecca Goss, Glyn Maxwell,
Sinead Morrissey, Jacob Polley and Michael Symmons Roberts - will all be featured in the book.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Other poets shortlisted this year are Steve Ely, Adam White, Emily Berry, Marianne Burton, Dan O'Brien and Hannah Lowe, all for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection. The shortlist for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem includes Rosie Shepperd, C. J. Allen, Hugo Williams, Patience Agbabi and Nick MacKinnon.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Winners will be announced on October 1 at the Southbank centre. </span>Other poets who will have work in the collection are Danny
Abse, Simon Armitage, Gillian Clarke, Clive James, Luke Kennard, Mark Halliday,
Medbh McGuckian, Maurice Riordan, Anne Stevenson, George Szirtes, Clare
Trevien, Jean Sprackland and CK Williams.</span></div>
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Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-69024852584059790612013-08-18T09:41:00.000-07:002013-08-18T09:50:58.283-07:00Forward Books of Poetry for First Story's Young Writers' Festival <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Give a Book is delighted to be giving copies of the <a href="http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/">Forward Book of Poetry 2014</a> to <a href="http://www.firststory.org.uk/">First Story</a> for their Young Writers' Festival this September:<br />
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The festival will be held on 19 September, when hundreds of school children will gather to attend workshops on creative writing and hear writers talk about their work. The festival forms the launchpad for First Story's programme of workshops and events to encourage young people to write creatively, which take place throughout the school year.</div>
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Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774351305591934761.post-80356709209247359472013-08-09T02:29:00.001-07:002013-08-09T02:29:31.989-07:00Family Days with Bags of Books<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Give a Book has just started giving our gorgeous GAB BAGs to prisons for their Family Days. The bags contain books, pencils and pads for the visiting children. <a href="http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/Prison-Reading-Groups/About/">PRG</a> have sent us this report:<br />
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<i>The first Family Day at HMP Wandsworth was clearly a brilliant success and both books and bags were a triumph.</i><br />
<i>As it happens, one of the fathers who was there is also in the reading group and added his thanks in person. He said his own five-year-old was too excited to sit still but that there were lots who spent a long time sitting with their dads and reading together. And he thought having the book and the bag to take home would really help the children remember the day and the enjoyment of being together.</i><br />
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Here are some of the other comments received :-<br />
"<i>My daughter loved the book, it's one she'd read at school so she was very pleased"</i><br />
<i>"the gift [of a book] was a wonderful surprise"</i><br />
<i>"It was wonderful for my son to have something to remember the day by"</i><br />
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<i>"the bag is great; I'll use it to take my art work home"</i><br />
<i>"my wife says my son is writing notes for me in the pad he received on the family day, thank-you"</i><br />
<i>"thank-you very much, my children loved it"</i><br />
<i>"the whole day was a fantastic opportunity to bond with my family, the bag of goodies was an added bonus"</i><br />
<i>"It was wonderful to sit and read the book to my daughter during the visit, it helped us to re-bond and helped us escape our environment for a while</i>"<br />
So thanks to PRG and HMP Wandsworth for sending this feedback which we love to get and thanks to everyone <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/gift-aid.html">who helps Give a Book</a> do what we love to do. Now please go back to <a href="http://www.giveabook.org.uk/">Give a Book.</a><br />
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Give a Bookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539144131743980367noreply@blogger.com74