It’s been an exciting week: Frank Cottrell-Boyce was appointed as the new Waterstones Children’s Laureate on Tuesday, followed by a new UK government and a new MP for North Herefordshire on Thursday! These changes feel like a breath of fresh air from where I’m standing.
I ‘met’ Frank Cottrell-Boyce in early 2021, when I was teaching a Year 5 class at Ledbury Primary School. The award-winning author freely gave his time to support schools remotely and encourage children in their reading and writing during the pandemic. He generously joined our Year 5 via Zoom. He shared his journey into writing with us and answered the children’s questions about his book, ‘Cosmic’ (which we were reading together as a class). He was inspirational.
The position of Children’s Laureate is sponsored by Waterstones and managed by BookTrust (the UK’s largest reading charity). The role ‘celebrates creativity and storytelling, promotes the vital importance of reading and children’s literature, and champions the right of every child to enjoy a lifetime enriched with books and stories’.
BookTrust‘s mission is to, ‘reach millions of children every year with books, resources and support to get every child reading, regularly and by choice.’ Thorough research supports their vision:
‘Evidence shows that sharing stories and reading together provides children with life-changing benefits that can positively impact their wellbeing, health, creativity and educational attainment.’
‘Research also shows that reading for pleasure in these crucial years has four times the impact on a child’s progress by age 16 than their parent’s education or socioeconomic status.
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/news/news-2023/almost-a-quarter-of-children-from-low-income-families-missing-out-on-the-benefits-of-reading-in-their-first-year/
My heart sang as I listened to their new Children’s Laureate speak this week. His passion for shared reading, his work with BookTrust, and his campaign ‘Reading Rights: Books Build a Brighter Future’ all struck chords with my hopes for the future.
‘I am so proud to be here today, being passed the torch of the Laureateship. Writing and reading have transformed my life – and I write children’s books because I think they help build the apparatus of happiness inside us. I’m privileged to be part of those intimate, crucial, person-forming moments when people share stories with the children in their lives.’
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/news/news-2024/award-winning-author–screenwriter-frank-cottrell-boyce-revealed-as-new-waterstones-childrens-laureate-2024-2026/
I wonder if there’s room for me in Frank’s campaign…
Read with Julia 