Opinion

Anita Robinson: We should encourage children to embrace the joy of reading

<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;; ">I&rsquo;ve never lost the childhood joy of a new book</span>
I’ve never lost the childhood joy of a new book I’ve never lost the childhood joy of a new book

What makes a reader? Good teachers who break the difficult code of turning symbols on a page into sense, stories and enjoyment; interested and engaged parents, exemplars by reading themselves – and time.

As an ex Early Years teacher I would say that, wouldn’t I? Yes, I’m back on my old hobby horse. The importance of reading, the joy of reading and the belief that the child who reads fluently and loves to read, can more or less educate himself.

I’m looking in horrified incredulity at a recently published Top Twenty list of the most popular books in SECONDARY schools – among them ten ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ titles, five David Walliams and the first Harry Potter. These are stories written for the 7 plus market that present no challenge, intellectually or otherwise, to adolescent readers. One wonders if, in the turbulence of early teens, it’s comfortable familiarity they’re seeking, or just choosing through incompetence an easy read. Still, better they read anything than nothing at all. Admittedly, the argument could be made that my generation saturated themselves in Enid Blyton, but by the time we’d reached double figures we’d moved on.

The world’s divided into people who read books and people who don’t and since the age of literacy dawned, readers have been in the ascendant. Those statistics are changing. I confess since I retired, I’ve fallen into the vegetative habit of watching afternoon television – mostly programmes on home improvement. My current favourite is ‘Best House in Town’, where ‘neighbours’ are invited to critique the home-owners’ taste. Many of the properties are designer-wise technologically and decoratively state-of-the-art, but have few or no books. Children’s and teenager’s bedrooms in particular are stuffed with toys, electronic playthings and gadgetry but mostly bare of books. With busy working parents I wonder how long the ‘bedtime story’ routine lasts nowadays. Is it done by CD? Or at all?

I was fortunate to inherit a store of books from much older siblings in an era when there was less child-oriented writing. By the age of eleven I’d got through Pollyanna, Heidi, What Katy Did, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Little Women and Jane Eyre, Irish folktales, Hans Christian Andersen’s and Grimm’s fairytales (many of them grim indeed) all since filleted, cosmeticised, made anodyne and politically correct by Disney and the Thought Police.

Also, I went to a country primary school whose top class ranged in age from ten to fourteen. Among other things we read ‘The 39 Steps’, ‘The Master of Ballintrae’, ‘Lorna Doone’, ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ and Irish and English poetry. In holidays I haunted the library, arguing with the formidable library ladies who believed it impossible to read two ‘Malory Towers’ in twenty-four hours.

And so I grew in wisdom, age and lack of grace until the glorious day I was grudgingly escorted to ‘Historical Fiction’ and found my literary nirvana. Today, libraries are doing their best to encourage reading readiness with Rhythm and Rhyme sessions for parents and pre-schoolers and storytelling for school-age children. I agree with my friend Liz Weir the storyteller, that “children should be storied to death”.

There’s been a veritable explosion of award-winning, child-friendly writing and illustration for Early Years since the mid-sixties, many of which are regarded as modern classics. I still buy children’s books, though I’ve no longer professional use for them and pass them on to the deserving young. I’ve replaced many of the lost gems of my own childhood, long out of print. It’s taken years and proved expensive, but worth every sentimental penny to have them in my possession again.

To foster in the young the ability to open the door of a book, enter and get lost in it, sharing the trials, tribulations and triumphs of its characters is the best of all gifts. I’ve never lost the childhood joy of a new book – the scent of it, the crisp pages, (you can keep your kindles!) the urgency of wanting to read it all at once without the tiresomely necessary interruptions for meals or sleep. It’s a pleasure that never palls……