3 books about belonging

At 49 years of age, I’ve yet to find a sense of belonging in the world of work.

I trained as a primary school teacher, qualifying with a B.Ed honours degree from the College of St Mark and St John, Plymouth in 1992. Since then I have taught in a wide range of settings, including a Romanian-speaking state school in Moldova, Eastern Europe; a multicultural primary school in Hackney, East London; and a small village school on the Gloucestershire border, serving a local Roma Gypsy community.

I qualified as an Every Child a Reader teacher in 2011, but the funding dried up a year later. I had a go at running my own literacy intervention business for six years, which ground to a stuttering halt in April, 2019. I began a two term contract working for the Herefordshire Hospital Teaching Team at the end of April, 2019. When I started the role, I had high hopes it would be my happy-ever-after job and the temporary contract would be extended. Neither materialised.

It is now January and the new school term has begun. I have stepped into 2020 unemployed, but not without hope.

On Monday morning, after saying hello to Lindsay at Ledbury Books and Maps – and making use of Walker Books buy-one-get-one-free offer (there are birthdays coming up…), I was in Ledbury Library as soon as it opened. The underfloor heating gave me a warm welcome and I headed straight for the picture book section.

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Jemmy Button

The first book to catch my eye was Jennifer Uman and Valerio Vidali’s ‘Jemmy Button’: a beautifully written, cleverly illustrated read about a boy from the islands of Tierra del Fuego, South America.

Based on a true story from the early 1800s, the book tells the tale of how Orundellico was taken from his family (in exchange for a pearl button – hence his new name) as part of Captain Robert Fitzroy’s ideas about spreading ‘civilisation’.

In 1832, Fitzroy and Jemmy Button returned to Tierra del Fuego with Charles Darwin.

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The Day War Came

Nicola Davies’ poem was first published on the Guardian newspaper’s website – and came from an account of a refugee child being refused a place at school because there was no chair for her. As a result, an empty chair came to symbolise ‘those children who had lost everything and had nowhere to go – and no chance of an education’.

The book is sensitively illustrated by Rebecca Cobb.

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KING OF THE SKY

This is an old favourite of mine, which I have read with children many times.

The child narrator has moved from Italy’s ‘sunlight, fountains and the vanilla smell of ice cream from my granny’s shop.’ to a town where, ‘It rained and rained and rained. Little houses huddled on the humpbacked hills. Chimneys smoked and metal towers clanked. The streets smelled of mutton soup and coal dust and no one spoke my language.’ Nicola Davies’ words are rich in feeling and perfectly complemented by Laura Carlin’s illustrations.

Mr Evans and his pigeons provide a lifeline of friendship for the young boy. As he trains, races and waits for the return of his new pigeon, ‘King of the Sky’, the pigeon’s journey reflects the boy’s own.

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It seems somehow poignant that these books caught my attention on Monday. Although I have not found my place in the education system, I have not lost my enjoyment of teaching children. Ledbury is my home. I believe my qualifications, skills and experience are valuable and I am looking for a way to use them for the benefit of my community.