First Story Festival

First Story 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 Kate Fox, 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 Childrens' Laureate Malorie Blackman, Deborah Moggach, Oxford City poet Kate Clanchy, Mark Haddon, Stephen May and Salena Godden to name but some of the wonderful writers who join in to help First Story.
One of their alumni, award-winning poet Azfa Awad, wrote this for Give a Book:
"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."
So now please go back to Give a Book to help us keep this going.

Reading for Pleasure

The BBC news recently reported on a study by The Institute of Education drawing on research by the always admirable National Literacy Trust. 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:
Even 10 minutes a day reading with your child is a major help
Choose a wide variety of books to introduce different types of language and style
Take turns to read aloud to each other. They can learn from your expressive reading and you can check they are not struggling
Ask questions about the book - maybe about what might happen next or a character's motivation
Make sure they understand any new or unusual words or phrases
Enjoy it - "try and lose yourselves in a good story!"
Now you can go back to Give a Book.

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.

Wonderful Line-up for Forward Book of Poetry 2014

The Forward Book of Poetry 2014 - which we are giving copies of to First Story'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.

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.

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.

Winners will be announced on October 1 at the Southbank centre. 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.

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Forward Books of Poetry for First Story's Young Writers' Festival

Give a Book is delighted to be giving copies of the Forward Book of Poetry 2014 to First Story for their Young Writers' Festival this September:

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.

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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.