The second in our new series of Sunday guest blogs by booksellers who work with children’s authors. These guest blogs are designed to show life behind the scenes of a crucial but neglected relationship – the one between a writer and a bookseller. These days, such relationships are more intense and more important, as increasing numbers of authors go on the road to promote children’s books – a goal shared by the booksellers who will contribute to this series. The Bookcase is a ‘small independent bookshop with a big imagination’ situated in the village of Lowdham, eight miles north of Nottingham. The Bookcase’s proprietor is Jane Streeter (second from right), who runs the shop with a friendly team: Louise Haines, Jo Blaney, myself, Marion Turner and Kendall Turner (pictured left to right above).
Three years ago I (as one of the assistants) began a reading group at our local village school. This coincided with our 10th Annual Book Festival. So, to celebrate, I went in once a month until we had read 10 books. The 12 children read each book and then wrote a review, which formed the basis of a display at our book festival. We read all sorts – from contemporary authors to Enid Blyton and Richmal Crompton – and one poetry book. I have used a few different poetry books, but the first was Carol Ann Duffy’s The Hat, which was very timely as I’d handed it out to the children just before she was announced as the Poet Laureate! We’ve also used Gervase Phinn’s There’s an Alien in the Classroom, and others over the three years we’ve been involved in the project.
Each month I went into school so that we could have a discussion, which made the youngsters feel very grown up!
The idea became so popular that I have been approached by other schools, so this year I am working in four schools – always with Year 6 children. The group is aimed at the more able readers. (The thinking behind this is that so much is done to encourage the less able readers: those who are keen readers need some sort of outlet for their enthusiasm.)
This year, I have found a real difference in ability from one school to another. Not only is the reading ability markedly higher in one school, but the children are much more mature. This makes it harder for me to choose appropriate books, so I’m always keen to hear of the experiences of others who work with children of a similar age.
Michael Morpurgo is, of course, unfailingly popular, but I’ve also had real success with Michelle Paver’s Wolf Brother and Morris Gleitzman’s Once. In both cases, several of the children have gone on to read the sequels. We have offered a discount to reading group members who have ordered sequels.
After Christmas I will be discussing David Al
This is the first in our new series of guest blogs by booksellers. These blogs are designed to show life behind the scenes of a crucial but neglected relationship – the one between writers and booksellers. Here Meryl Halls shares news of some exciting initiatives and invites writers to participate in the events such as ‘Strictly Come Bookselling’ during the fifth Independent Booksellers Week, which this year takes place between 30th June and 7th July.
My main responsibilities lie in working with independent booksellers, and over the last five years we have established a thriving Independent Booksellers Forum, which organizes events and campaigns for the 1000+ indie bookshops still operating in the UK and Ireland.
I’ve always been a book-lover, and my earliest and most vivid childhood memories revolve around our annual trips from Scotland to visit family friends in Meldreth, near Cambridge. A trip to Heffers Children’s Bookshop was the highlight of every trip (for me, if not for my brother!). I can hardly put into words the excitement of walking through the door and smelling ‘that’ smell.
As a teenager and student, I worked in the local indie bookshop in my small Scottish home town, though it is now sadly long-closed. Whenever I am home visiting family, one of the biggest pleasures for me, my husband and my two teenage children is to visit the wonderful Main Street Trading Company in St Boswells. So, you could say I have the perfect job – and you’d not be far wrong!
At the BA, our umbrella brand for our indie activity is IndieBound, a marketing campaign begun in the USA, which focuses on the importance of shopping locally, shopping independently and creating a strong community. When we introduced the campaign into the UK, it immediately resonated with UK booksellers and it has provided both the BA and our members with opportunities to start a meaningful conversation with customers about how important their consumer behaviour is in keeping retail areas diverse, bookshops thriving and high streets healthy.
We have migrated our IndieBound messages about community engagement and shopping locally into our more recent ‘Keep Books on the High Street’ campaign, which is currently entering a new phase, and is reaching out to authors for support. You can see more
here.We will be back in touch with SAS members about the campaign, but in the meantime if you are interested in providing us with a quote in support of indie or high street bookselling, or – even better – if you are prepared to record a short spoken piece on the same subject, we would love to hear from you – email us
here. The American BA has just launched a very similar initiative called ‘Why Indies Matter’, and you can see some of your fellow authors talking about indie bookshops on this link to the
US IndieBound site.
The main reason, though, that I’m deligh
Goldsboro Books has revealed it is on track for a record-breaking financial year after moving premises in March.
The 12-year-old independent London bookshop, which specialises in first edition signed copies, said May prevailed as its “best ever” month of sales since it was founded.
The bookshop also announced its turnover is £30,000 more this quarter than in the same financial quarter last year, with co-owner David Headley saying: “With three months left in our financial year, 2011 is proving to be our best year yet.”
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More retailers than last year have signed up to take part in Independent Booksellers Week.
Today (15th June) the Booksellers Association, which is co-ordinating the event, confirmed 262 indies across the UK had agreed to hold events starting from this Saturday until 25th June to help publicise their businesses and form closer links with authors and publishers.
Last year, 251 took part.
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Edmund de Waal, Maggie O’Farrell and Tony Parsons are among the authors
lined up to take part in Independent Booksellers Week. The week of events, in association with the Booksellers Association, will take place between 18-25th June and encourages independent retailers to publicise their businesses and form closer links with authors and publishers.
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We need more people doing this sort of thing! I always feel sorry for the more able readers - all too often left to their own devices. I had a group of more able readers once - took them off to meet one of our local and very well known authors - they reminded me of this years later!
What a terrific idea! Who supplies the books, I wonder - the bookshop or the school?
What an inspiring blog! It's so good to know that booksellers are working with schools in such a proactive way and it sounds as though both you and the children get a great deal of pleasure from it. How fascinating as well that, as an 'outsider', you can see differences in reading ability between schools.
What a brilliant idea Eve and what a great way to introduce children to authors that they may not know about I run a couple of reading clubs in a local primary school.Josh Lacey's Island of Thieves and Ali Sparkes's Frozen in Time went down well. I also did a football theme with Tom Palmer and Helena Pielichaty's books.
The children will love A Boy called M.O.U.S.E.
What a great job you are doing!
This is such a good idea! More strength to your elbow. I love the Bookcase and have very happy memories of my visit there some years back during the Lowdham Festival. Regards to all.
So the children are all reading the same books? Do they ever recommend the books themselves? That might be interesting, to see what they choose.
Sounds a wonderful idea and like others, I agree that more able readers deserve attention as much as the strugglers. Often, inevitably, there isn't much in their school library if they are advanced readers in Year 6.
How about Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh? Lots to discuss there.
Or if they enjoyed Just William then why not read some more contemporary funny authors as a comparison - I've just posted a new ABBA blog with plenty of suggestions! I think The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara
Robinson would be lots of fun and would also be full of ideas for them to discuss.