Books for Family Days in Prisons

We've had more lovely feedback passed on to us by Prison Reading Groups--thank you for that. It's so nice that we reproduce it here:

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 Hungry Caterpillar 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.
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.
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.
The facilitator added that [she] 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.
Many thanks for the books.
And many thanks to all who generously support Give a Book for making this possible.

Family Days with Bags of Books

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. PRG have sent us this report:

The first Family Day at HMP Wandsworth was clearly a brilliant success and both books and bags were a triumph.
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.

Here are some of the other comments received :-
"My daughter loved the book, it's one she'd read at school so she was very pleased"
"the gift [of a book] was a wonderful surprise"
"It was wonderful for my son to have something to remember the day by"

"the bag is great; I'll use it to take my art work home"
"my wife says my son is writing notes for me in the pad he received on the family day, thank-you"
"thank-you very much, my children loved it"
"the whole day was a fantastic opportunity to bond with my family, the bag of goodies was an added bonus"
"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"
So thanks to PRG and HMP Wandsworth for sending this feedback which we love to get and thanks to everyone who helps Give a Book do what we love to do. Now please go back to Give a Book.

What Books Can Do Behind Bars

Click here to read a full report about the wonderful work of Prison Reading Groups. We're proud to be able to help them-- thanks to all of you who make Give a Book possible.

Reading Groups and feeling good

The pleasures and power of Reading Groups are amongst many good things celebrated by The Reading Agency. Their Reading Groups for All describes again and again the sheer value of reading-- to cheer you up,  to challenge, to inspire and share. Give a Book gives books to Prison Reading Groups, to Maggie's Centres,  Age UK and anywhere else where reading makes a difference. We can only do it with your help, for which our heartfelt thanks. 

More news from inside...Chibundu Onuzo at a prison reading group.

Chibundu  Onuzo’s  The Spider King’s Daughter is a first novel of degrading poverty and fabulous wealth, laced with vigorous dialect, and set in her native Nigeria. Readers at an HMP were lucky to have an author visit from Chibundu Onuzo recently, organised by the Librarian. Support from Give a Book provided 25 copies of the novel for readers throughout the prison.
This was a lively and enjoyable event, with a large group of readers who had really engaged with the novel, and found its story of the relationship between a street hawker and a millionaire’s daughter fascinating and absorbing. It’s a novel which opens your eyes to the extremes of Nigerian society, from the Louboutins and swimming pool lifestyle of the super-rich to the subsistence level existence of the very poor.  There are fascinating glimpses of West African life – the food vendor who keeps pieces of fried meat in a secret compartment of her bra for favoured clients, the wealthy teenagers who are confident their fathers will pay someone clever to sit their entrance exams for Yale.
As well as facing really in-depth questions (at one time she said to one questioner, `You know this novel better than I do!’)  Chibundu Onuzo read several hilarious extracts featuring the `pidgin’ which makes this novel so distinctive. For those familiar with it – quite a few in the audience -  this sense of a known place was what made the novel such an enjoyable read; others, like me, found some of the dialogue strange at first. But it’s Chibundu Onuzo’s skill at dialogue which makes The Spider King’s Daughter so rich. And I learned quite a lot: that women in Nigeria are called `Aunty’; older women would be `Ma’; you never address your parents by their first names.  Conversation on topics like this went on long after the formal question and answer session was over, and Chibundu Onuzo stayed for a long time chatting with the audience.
All the book group members and other readers at the prison are really grateful to Chibundu for her visit and for providing such a lively afternoon.
The reading group is part of the Prison Reading Groups (PRG) project. Now please go back to Give a Book.

We need a new Language for Mental Health

The wonderful Reader Organisation is calling for a new language to talk about mental health, with senior health professionals, readers and writers discussing the idea in the opening session of the charity’s annual conference, ‘Shared Reading for Healthy Communities’ at the British Library on 16th May 2013.

Unlike the growing number of ‘Books on Prescription’ and ‘Bibliotherapy’ schemes, The Reader Organisation, which is commissioned by health services across the UK, has chosen not to limit the description of its model as ‘therapy’. Literature exists to address the human condition.

Jane Davis, The Reader Organisation’s founder and director, says:

“Those medical words – prescription, therapy – which at first glance carry a medical imprimatur of seriousness, have largely come from the pharmaceutical and psychotherapeutic industries, and actually point to a re-positioning of the inner life as a problem to be solved by experts, by others.”
 Working with health, library, education, adult social care services and other bodies, The Reader Organisation provided 92,400 unique shared reading experiences in 2012. The personalised model, which enables even non-readers to join in as everything is read aloud in the group, is now backed up with strong qualitative and quantitative evidence from researchers.

At the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust in Liverpool, patients are currently taking part in a shared reading group as part of a chronic pain research project, the initial findings of which will be revealed at the conference.
Dr Andrew Jones, consultant in anaesthesia and pain medicine, at the hospital, says:

“Early indications are showing that the reading group is making a difference to people in our hospital but there is something intangible, a deeper impact beyond that, which we can’t measure using existing qualitative research methods.”

The conference will also explore how the benefits of the shared reading model extends beyond the traditional definition of ‘health’, addressing issues of reoffending, isolation, community cohesion, and reading for pleasure with young people.

A group member at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, said:

“The reading group has boosted my self-esteem and given me more self-confidence when I have discussions with staff and in general; it has encouraged me to read more in my spare-time, which has released a lot of stress off my shoulders as I have been suffering from depression.”

“Great literature connects people. There’s nothing more ancient, nor more deeply healing than that”, states Jane Davis.
“But we increasingly feel the pressure to talk about our work in medicalised terms - intervention, service, outcomes – terms which limit the power of what humanly it is that is making the difference. I want to find a new language, so that people don’t have to say, ‘I’m sick’, when they’re suffering the human condition.”

For more information on the ‘Shared Reading for Health Communities’ conference visit:  www.thereader.org.uk/conference

For more information, please contact Lizzie Cain, Communications Assistant: lizziecain@thereader.org.uk / 0151 207 7228

Members of the Give a Book team will be there. Why not join us? Now go back to Give a Book.

More news from inside...

The Prison Reading Groups that we give books to choose their titles. Here are accounts of 3 groups: we’re delighted to get feedback so thank you, PRG for sending them in. Biggest thanks go to everyone who gives to GIVE A BOOK so that this can continue to happen.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
In general this book was a hit, and has tempted our members to read the two sequels.

Is this a serious political satire or pure entertainment?

One member thought the parallels with 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!' were striking, especially when prizes or presents are parachuted down to the various 'contestants'.

Another felt that the story had a worryingly serious side to it:
• ‘a sadly apt indictment of the human need for blood sport…the monitoring described in this book is eerily within reach’
On the other hand we all agreed that Katniss was mostly concerned with winning, rather than subverting the system politically – making this book, on the whole, a light read.

The process of meeting challenges and trying to overcome them is a constant theme here. Does the story make it easy for us to relate to this?
• 'the ongoing arrival of challenges and the determination to overcome them is an inspirational element’
• ‘this story could help us to stand up to oppression’
I was concerned that, as readers, we were being asked to accept that the rules could be changed so drastically and purely for dramatic effect. But another member  thought that this was expressly to show the privileges of a draconian regime.

How much do we care about Katniss and Peeta's relationship? Do we want to find out what happens next?

We discussed the conceit of the main characters having to perform in front of millions of viewers and how that affects our perception of them and their 'true' feelings for each other. This didn't seem to deter other members:
• ‘I had to read the other two books very quickly in order to find out’
• ‘I couldn't help but get emotionally involved’

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Like most groups on the out, the men at this HMP are keen to read the books people are talking about. So it was no surprise when they chose Yann Martell’s Life of Pi, the Man Booker winner and now a blockbuster film.

The story recounts the terrifying adventures of an Indian teenager who is trapped on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a 450-lb Bengal tiger.

Our discussion was lively, alert and full of surprises. The first member who spoke put us all on our mettle:
• ‘I thought it was pretty absurd – 227 days on a 26-ft lifeboat: pah! - until I got to the final section and realised what the ‘real story’ was and what the tiger actually meant. It all made sense then and now I think it’s brilliant’
Others were frankly gobsmacked by his explanation:
• ‘This has turned the book upside down for me’
• ‘It’s really blown my mind’
From here, the speculation began. If Pi’s ‘real story’ is the one hinted at the end, is the account of the tiger a lie or a way of getting at the deep meaning of what happened? One member had made a note of something said early on in the book and thought it might be at the heart of what the novel is doing. He gave us the page reference, then read it out:
‘That’s what fiction is about, isn’t it, the selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out its essence.’
Another member talked about being new to prison and finding it a tough experience. For him the book was a real help:
• ‘When I was reading it, I was in India, on the Pacific Ocean, in Canada – and not in here’
At the same time, he also commented on points of contact:
• ‘Of course they’re different, but I found analogies -  between Pi’s fear of the tiger and what it feels like when you first come into prison’
We finished up the session by reading Blake’s 'Tyger': The verdict:
• ‘What a scorcher!’

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor:
 a very mixed response. Many hated it, which made for a good discussion. One member was very concerned by the decision of the pregnant girl not to tell the father of her child, and the rest agreed with him (I argued that she was letting the chap off the hook, but they didn’t agree). The highlights were the comparison which one man made with photography, and how it can make the ordinary extraordinary through e.g. juxtaposition: a perfect analogy for this book. Also, the pastiche sent in by absentee member – done with a lovely witty touch.

Now go back to Give a Book

Here, they don't have to be prisoners...

There was an interesting account by Ros Coward in The Guardian 15th January 2013 of one of the Prison Reading Groups. We quote from it below.
'The reading group in Wandsworth jail offers offenders a welcome escape from their restricted lives
Wandsworth prison is an ominous place with its dark brickwork, iconic gates and perimeter walls topped by billowing rolls of barbed wire. The prison library, however, looks a bit like a comfy community library.
I'm here at the invitation of academics Jenny Hartley and Sarah Turvey who have been running volunteer reading groups in Wandsworth and other prisons for the last 13 years. Recent policy has prioritised vocational qualifications for prisoners. But Turvey sees the groups as equally vital. "The majority of prisoners have had negative experiences of school and are wary of formal education in prison," she says. "We're helping prisoners develop skills they need before they can even think about qualifications."
Tonight, Turvey and Niamh Fahey, the assistant librarian, are running a group for 14 high-security prisoners. Fahey unlocks them from the individual cells they have been in since 5pm the previous evening. They bring with them their book of the week, Stephen Kelman's Pigeon English.
Turvey invites responses from the group. John, older and educated, gives a precis. "The book is depressing," he says. "This kid comes to England to find a quieter life but ends up in worse turmoil."
Stephen, a slight young man, says he found it compelling and redolent of the Damilola Taylor case. "The descriptions of the estate made me laugh. They were just like where I live. But it wasn't always easy to tell who was speaking."
This theme is taken up by an exceptionally well-spoken young man. Although he had "never experienced the world of gangs", he found the way the boy had to hide behind a tough facade illuminating. But he disliked the "false naivety" of the protagonist. A bespectacled middle-aged man concurs. "I couldn't work the boy out. He was integrated well enough to have picked up the slang, but at other moments he seems totally naive, as if he's just off the boat." Pause. "If you'll forgive the expression."
A discussion breaks out about the use of patois in the book. "I'm from up north," says one, "and I found it excluding." "Well, I'm from the north too," says John, a Geordie, "but I didn't have so much difficulty. That's because I've had several black cellmates." Paul, who is black, says he could identify with how people got caught up in these gangs but wasn't engaged by the book. "Personally, I didn't like it, " says Omar, "even though it was about someone struggling to fit in. I couldn't follow the narrative. It was more like a series of short stories."
I look round the group, wondering how they had ended up here. "It's something we never ask ourselves," says Turvey. "For one hour in these groups they don't have to be prisoners, they can be readers."
A theme emerges. They are fed up with what they call "boy books", especially those connected to news stories. "The Damilola case was tragic," says John, "but we've reached saturation point with all these plays and books. Maybe it's just because we're in prison, but it seems to get thrown in your face."
Peter agrees. "Books like these don't take you out of yourself," he says. "It's the whole business of books these days, they are so lightweight. I think the authors are running out of ideas. So many are based on historical fact rather than what you'd imagine an author should take inspiration from. If they were to write about a couple of people who went into the woods and had a Socratic dialogue, that wouldn't be so popular. They are only interested in what's in the news. But for this to get on the Booker shortlist! I mean, compare this with Midnight's Children, how could you ever put them in the same category?"
The rest of the group listens respectfully. "One of our only rules," says Sarah, "is they should wait their turn. But it's never enforced because it never arises. They always listen to each other's opinion."
Peter says he keeps coming "because it's an opportunity to talk about something other than crime or sport or whatever you talk about in the cell, which tends to be very matter-of-fact. Fabio Capello [former England football manager] says you only need 200 words to get by in English football. Well, you only need 100 in prison."
"You're right," says Stephen, "all the conversations in prison are just banal. No one has a standpoint. Here, you can have an argument and hear other people's point of view."
"It's lovely to see people relax," says Fahey, the librarian, who says it is her favourite part of the job. "The prison is full of tension. But there's never any friction here. That's quite special. It's an oasis."
The skills that emerge in reading groups, says Hartley, are respect for others' opinions, learning to express oneself, and overcoming aggression. "Listening to each other's opinions," says Hartley, "is about learning you can disagree but remain friends. All sorts of arguments come out from a book or character. That's what literature is for."
Turvey and Hartley hope more prison authorities will recognise the value of their groups in promoting those all-important "soft skills". But their motivation clearly goes deeper. "I love it," says Hartley. "It gives me such a buzz. This is something which matters to them, so it matters to me."'
Give a Book is delighted to be supporting these groups. Now go back to the Give a Book Home Page.

Report from Prison Reading Group

We're delighted that we'll be getting regular reports from the Prison Reading Groups that we're supporting.  Here's the first, from HMP Bullingdon on George Orwell's 1984.
"The main character is Winston Smith, a civil servant who lives alone in a world where Big Brother – the state – rigidly controls everything: the laws, the media, everything. Every room in every building has a telescreen that can simultaneously transmit and receive. And nothing, not even a wink, is ever missed.
Winston’s job at the Ministry of Truth requires him to falsify historical documents on orders from BB. When the Ministry of Plenty decides to reduce the chocolate ration from 30g to 25g per week, Winston has to alter the old records and newspaper articles to make it look like the original ration was only ever 20g. Now the Ministry can claim it has INCREASED the allowance!
Winston is plagued by the lies but knows that even if anybody else felt as he does, they could never show it. Dissent is not tolerated by BB, and people are sometimes removed and never seen again.
Citizens are expected to love BB and are required to attend a regular ‘Two Minute Hate’, a message from the revolutionary leader broadcast to an audience over a giant telescreen. It includes shots of the enemy of the moment and people are encouraged to boo and hiss at the screen. Strangely, even Winston feels the urge to join in.
But it’s here too that Winston meets Julia, the girl he falls in love with, and O’Brien, who reveals himself as an enemy to BB. He also gives Winston a copy of ‘the book’, which denounces the power politics of the state.
Both love and the book turn out to be powerful and dangerous and Winston pays a heavy price.
This strange and exciting new life comes crashing down on Winston when the Thought Police smash their way into the secret room and drag him behind the impenetrable walls of the Ministry of Love for interrogation. It’s here that he is forced to face his greatest fear: ROOM 101
The book is thought-provoking. It’s also many different things to different people. It’s a love story, but also a story of betrayal on so many levels. It raises questions of freedom, political ideology and the duty of both the state and its citizens.
They say that every man has a breaking point. Does Winston live or die? Does he get the girl? Who wins? I’m not going to tell you that. But if it were me: would I roll over? Would I be a sheep? Or would I die fighting? The answer is: BAA!
But maybe that’s just me...the power of the state is scary.
Some members thought they’d read it before but then realised it was just because so much of the book is so familiar – Big Brother, Room 101, the power of surveillance. In any case it created a lively debate:
• This book becomes more relevant with each passing year • I’m young and when I read it on my own it didn’t seem relevant to me. I didn’t get past page 20. But listening to you lot talking, I’m keen to try it again.
• Was Julia (the girl) an agent provocateur or did she really love Winston? • Does this book warn us against communism?
And the one that summed it up for our group: • This book is a modern classic and a must read!"
The Bullingdon group is part of the Prison Reading Groups project. And this report also appeared in Inside Time January 2013.
Thanks for sending it. We love to hear from you.
Now go back to Give a Book.

News from inside

We're very pleased that we'll be getting regular feedback from the Prison Reading Groups that we support. Here's a report from a women's prison: "Our first feedback is on Michelle Paver’s Dark Matter. Everyone got very enthusiastic about this story of creepy goings-on during an expedition to the arctic in the 1930s. Paver gets the atmosphere so powerfully; partly, we thought, because the voice of the narrator is so convincing. Then there are the specific details – such as what they eat and even the plates they eat it off –which all help to take you into this extraordinary world. Very scary!"
Thanks so much for writing in. We love to hear more about where the books are going.  Now return to Give a Book.

God bless Reading Groups

“It’s hard to train for freedom in a cage” is just one of the memorable quotes to be found in the Oxford History of the Prison edited by Norvall Morris and David Rothman.
Memories of what it is to be free recede as your sentence progresses, as you are forced to accept the rhythm of prison life. Of shower, facility time, work, servery, work, servery, association, bang up. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.
As fellow prisoners will confirm the key to maintaining sanity inside a cell lies between your ears. “They can lock up your body but not your mind” is an oft heard phrase.
For most the staple in cell diet of TV, inane adverts, music and ‘news’ from the ‘real’ world,  along with, if you’re lucky, conversation with a really good pad mate will see you through bang up.
But for some this is not enough. Suddenly cast in to a regime bearing some comparison to that found in a monastery. Often forced to confront their own demons. It is no great surprise that some prisoners discover religious faith when they least expect it and some rediscover the pleasures of reading. An activity so often sidelined, certainly in my case, by the daily pressures of life on the outside.
Through my time at HMP the inspiring attitude of staff within the Library and the teachers within Education has not only kept me sane. It has also wrought changes upon me for the better.
In this context the monthly Reading Group requires special mention. The regular opportunity to sit down comfortably in a relaxed forum amongst my peers….To share opinions on books that I might not otherwise have read and even, on occasion, have the opportunity to converse with their author. Not forgetting coffee and sometimes cake or biscuits! This is a precious activity with long term benefits extending well beyond the time it occupies.
Before coming to prison it wouldn’t have crossed my mind to seek out membership of a local reading Group. Neither would I have realised the riches to be gained from seeing books through the minds of others and challenging my own preconceptions.
But now I have resolved to set aside at least an hour each day to reading and freeing my mind. I shall also, upon release, be seeking membership of a local reading group. It will be interesting to see how it compares.
Now go back to Give a Book

more about Prison Reading Groups

We have had an account of one of the Prison Reading Groups, see below, sent by one of the facilitators. We're really excited that we're going to be helping in this enterprise.
"Exceptionally, we read two books for this month: Athol Fugard's Tsotsi and Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. For very different reasons, both discussions were fascinating. Tsotsi is about a cold, empty young killer in South Africa who has a baby dumped on him and gradually discovers the capacity to recognise and feel for another. Sounds corny but is actually very powerful and generated such interesting responses about empathy, crime and choice. .....
The group was very split over JLS: some thought it banal tosh but staunchly defended as 'moving and inspirational' by others, [some] of whom said they were going to send it out to their children. I love that idea of wider circulation and book afterlife."
And so do we. Thanks for writing and telling us about it. Now back to Give a Book.

Prison Reading Groups

We're delighted to announce that we now give books to Prison Reading Groups through the excellent organisation based at the University of Roehampton. We will be hearing more from them as this goes along. Some of the Give a Book team sat in on one of their groups and were really impressed. It's a great new collaboration which we look forward to. There are regular features about their work in the magazine Inside Time which we'll link to as well. Now go back to Give a Book.