Last year, my motto was: “Make reading come alive in 2025!”.
The year before that, my motto was: “Has learning to read become a bore and a chore in 2024?”.
I think I’m going to adopt this motto for the year ahead: “Keep reading ’til it sticks in 2026”.
I started this website in January 2020. I wrote my first blog post on Monday 8th January 2020 and gave it the title ‘3 books about belonging’. In the last paragraph, I wrote:
‘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.’
I’ve never used this website to sell anything and I have no plans to start selling anything here in 2026. My paid work as an Education Specialist in Alternative Provision, combined with additional hours working as a cleaner, is enough to cover my bills. I have learned to cut my cloth according to my means.
This website continues to be my ‘quest for clarity of direction’ and it continues to offer me the opportunity to think out loud.
I continue to seek ‘a future where young and old bond through books, where relationships are strengthened through shared reading, where obstacles to literacy are removed, and where reading becomes irresistible’.
Keep reading ’til it sticks in 2026
What do I mean by ‘sticks’?
I’m not talking about testing reading like a stick-to-the-wall spaghetti test for al-dente perfection. I’m not talking about testing at all.
Have you ever been so hooked into reading that you can’t put a book down and – even when you do close its pages – what you’ve read leaves an impression that keeps feeding your thoughts and emotions for days, months, years to come. This is what I mean by ‘sticks’.
As an adult, I stumbled across Ezra Jack Keats’ ‘The Snowy Day’ and, as I leafed through the pages, I was reunited with a picturebook I knew by heart because my mum had shared it with me when I was a child. This is the ‘apparatus for happiness’ Frank Cottrell-Boyce speaks about. This is what I mean by ‘sticks’.
If you’ve had many positive experiences of shared reading, then a library, a bookshop, a bookshelf in a friend’s home, draw you in to search for treasure, like a pirate with a map. Reading has become irresistible to you. This is what I mean by ‘sticks’.
My goal is to build and strengthen relationships in families and communities through shared reading. I’m working for connection, where young and old ‘stick together’ and support each other, sharing thoughts and feelings through shared reading. This is what I mean by ‘sticks’.
One of the books I am currently reading is ‘Square Pegs: Inclusivity, compassion and fitting in – a guide for schools’. Earlier today, I read an excellent chapter by Chris Bagley entitled ‘Show me you know me’. Regular side-by-side, shared reading, with permission to pause and ponder, provides the nutrients needed for this level of relationship to blossom and bloom. This is what I mean by ‘sticks’.
I have not gone back on my decision to keep casting my bread upon the waters:
Julia is a qualified and experienced Every Child a Reader teacher, who is passionate about bringing families and communities together through shared reading. She is seeking clarity of direction for a future where young and old bond through books, where relationships are strengthened, where obstacles to literacy are removed, and where reading becomes irresistible.
Julia lives in Ledbury, Herefordshire with her husband, Sean. Their 3 children have all grown up and left home.
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