Tales from the deep

From punk fathers to mums in denial, Jo Klaces finds anthologies to please a range of secondary students

In the Frame: 13 short stories. Edited by Rowena Edlin-White. Five Leaves. £6.99.

You're the Best!stories about friendship. Selected by Belinda Hollyer. Kingfisher. £6.99.

Shining On:in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust In association with CosmoGirl! Piccadilly Press. £5.99.

Like Father Like Son? 12 stories about boys and their dads. Edited by Tony Bradman. Kingfisher. £6.99.

Like Mother like Daughter? 12 stories about girls and their mums. Selected by Bel Mooney. Kingfisher. £6.99.

Replete with issues (relationships, children growing up and contrasting starkly with often sadly immaturing adults), short enough to be read for homework, dense enough to be provocative, each of these books offers a crackling and chewy selection of opportunities to get students reading and talking.

The stories in In the Frame are by writers living and working in the East Midlands, and explore that no-man's land between childhood and becoming an adult. They offer interesting enough phenomena for class discussion before a word is read.

There is a terrific range of stories here, ranging from a futuristic expose of the bleak consequences of so-called joyriding ("Drive" by Chris d'Lacey) to the soothing and surprising "Newts" by Pauline Chandler which reaches back a few years and weaves still darkness, sweet innocence and family drama in a surprising dark pond. Some well-known authors are represented: David Belbin, whose edgy prose prickles and disturbs, and Berlie Doherty, whose extract from a longer work, "Strawberry Wine", whets the appetite.

One of the many good things about this collection is that the cover is gender-neutral, welcoming both boys and girls to stories featuring heroes and heroines.

You're the Best! is aimed at younger readers and plonks itself squarely in the girly camp, but there are some lovely, issue-rich stories. "Annie and Me" by Libby Gleeson looks at a child's unlikely response to her friend's serious illness: she builds a wall covered in shells. In "Toad", by F Thomas, weirdness and character are vindicated over shallow conformity, a theme picked up in several of the stories. Jamila Gavin's "The Gardener's Daughter", set in India, adds cultural diversity to the collection, whilst the letters in "Dear Meena" by Angela Kanter are both touching and funny, hinting at tragedy and heartache behind the antics being reported. Again, any one of these stories, besides providing a good read, could stimulate at least a week's worth of interesting work in class.

Shining On, a collection of stories being sold in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, is aimed at older teen girls with themes including edgy love, feckless parents and blindness both real and metaphorical. There are some great authors here, including Melvin Burgess, with a sexy and provocative story in the familiar groove of adults and their lies, affairs and inadequacies, behaving much worse than their children. I loved Anne Fine's "Getting the Message" about a gay boy coming out to his less than thrilled parents. It's good to see this topic being tackled, and Anne Fine hints at the role books can take in helping children to explain things when their own words might fail them. However, this is not an entirely successful tactic with the hero's mother as she dumps the proffered Telling your Parents: a teenager's guide in the bin: "If you're planning on making me live the bloody book I'll be damned if I'll dust it." Meg Rosoff's story also hisses with maternal resentment as a successful career woman abandons her family. It's witty, but raises serious questions about roles and responsibilities within families and the wider world. Great cause, great stories, but why does the cover so firmly suggest "girls only" when there is much for boys to ponder?

The collection Like Father Like Son? should be on every school library shelf for Tony Bradman's honest, confiding and moving introduction alone, which opens up the debate that takes place on the ensuing pages. The stories range from the punk father in the band called Bucket of Snot, who is having difficulty maturing as gracefully as his son would wish, to the gentle "Physician" who pokes language into archaic and, for his son, embarrassing shapes. "Twenty Crows" has a wildly imaginative child talking to his dead father and in so doing somehow healing a whole community. This is a pulsing collection for nine to 14-year-olds, full of unusual takes on fatherhood and coming gently to the conclusion that your dad doesn't have to be the best dad, just your best dad.

The sister volume is Like Mother Like Daughter? edited by Bel Mooney. This is a much more domestic selection, and I am not sure that boys would get as much from reading these stories as girls would from the Bradman collection.

However, there are stories from good writers and some meaty issues: death, dislocation, friendships and arguments, which all look at the sometimes soft, and sometimes jagged underbelly of mother-daughter relationships.

Jo Klaces is director of the National Literacy Association

Date Added : 5th October 2006   -  Web Link

PRESS RELEASE
Key Stage 3 SATs – let children enjoy reading again.

This year’s Key Stage 3 English test results suggest a startling decline in reading and writing. It is unlikely to indicate a general decline in ability; it is clearly a reduction in pupils’ interest. The Literacy Strategy’s emphasis on point scoring has drained the life out of reading and writing in school. It is time to bring back the pleasure in reading and opportunities to write freely and imaginatively.

For further comment from the National Literacy Association on this subject contact our Education Officer, Anne Barnes on 0207 727 2533 or mobile 07971 985 792

Date Added : 5th October 2006   -  Web Link

Caribbean Children's Literature Development Project

We have been promised £10,000 from the Foyle foundation towards the development of a Library of Caribbean Children's literature, which is housed in our office. We intend to publicise the library's existence and develop it as an internet resource, so that the public can browse the titles and see what resources are available.We will also ensure that new titles are added as they are published. We are also going to run a series of related events on the theme of Caribbean Children's Literature,including readings and debate. We'll keep you posted as we get to work on both projects.Please do contact us if you want to know more or have any ideas.

Updated 5/10/06

Date Added : 10th July 2006

Funding

As you can see from our news and projects we have a great deal of work to do. Many children are still leaving school without adequate literacy skills and although we have been successful in achieving funding for specific projects in Kirklees and for Caribbean Children's Literature Development, we could do so much more with adequate core funding.If you feel you can help us to locate such funds please do get in touch; we'd be delighted to hear from you .

Date Added : 10th July 2006

Funding for new project to support looked after children in Kirklees

We have recently heard that we have secured part funding from the KPMG Foundation to support the literacy of looked after children in Kirklees who under achieve at Key Stages 2/3.The project will aim to help children improve their literacy skills by:

Providing targeted intervention based on reading recovery principles for those most at risk

Offering follow up reading support from trained volunteers

Improving long term access to books for children and carers

Providing opportunities and encouragement for young people and their carers to read for pleasure.

We are delighted that the KPMG Foundation has offered funding towards this project and will keep you posted as the project unfolds -in fact it will migrate from the News section of the site to Projects as soon as the work begins.

Updated 5/10/06

Date Added : 25th May 2006

Times - Tuesday 23rd May 2006

Help carers to aid children.

THE spread of ability of children in care is typical of the normal spread of ability at the primary level, according to Ofsted (Disruption harms pupils in care, May 16). So why are more than half of looked- after children leaving school with no GCSEs and only 9 per cent achieving 5 GCSEs (or equivalent) compared with 54 per cent of all children? Numbers of GCSEs may seem a useful measurement of care, but really reveal only the tip of a huge and lonely iceberg. The more revealing statistic is the number of times children are moved from one home to another. Such an unsettled adolescence can often leave little impetus to learn to read and study and be successful in school exams. There are various schemes for helping faltering young readers, but no scheme or system will be accessible to children in care unless carers are given more help in supporting them, and more help in working with teachers. Carers are doing vital work, but they are often doing it in a vacuum. Learning is something which must be done at home as well as school. It is not just Time to Care; it is Time to Care for Carers.

Jo Klaces, Director, National Literacy Association

Date Added : 25th May 2006   -  Web Link

The NLA Awards

We were delighted that Professor David Crystal could join us this year to give out the awards. He gave a personal insight into each of the Winners and was very enthusiastic about the rich potential of each one for the classroom and pleasurable individual contemplation.

It was fantastic that so many publishers could be there to receive their awards and brilliant that two authors, Bob Cattell (Butter- Finger) from London and Aubrey Flegg from Ireland (The Cinnamon Tree) could be there to receive their awards in person.

Michelle Paver, author of Spirit Walker was overseas on a book tour, but she kindly sent a message of support:

‘I just wanted to say a big thank-you to the NLA for giving Spirit Walker this award. Books are a lifeline, and the NLA’s motto is one which I wholeheartedly endorse. I’m all for anything which helps children realise just how much fun they can get out of reading.’

This year’s Recommended Resources are (alphabetically by title):

A Kick in the Head:an everyday guide to poetic formsselected by Paul B Janecko, illustrated by Chris Rashcka published by Walker Books - lively enough to kick start the muse in even the most poetically challenged.

Body by Richard Walker published by Dorling Kindersley – students at KS2 and 3 will find this utterly engrossing.

Dickens His Work and His World by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Robert Ingpen published by Walker Books – don’t be fooled by this book’s quiet exterior, this is a wonderful resource for teachers to use to help students learn about Dickens and his world.

Once by Morris Gleitzman published by Puffin – a Holocaust novel that is passionate, sensitive and somehow witty and uplifting as well.

Oscar and the Frog; Oscar and the Moth;(and the Bat and the Cricket), all by Geoff Waring published by Walker Books – picture books that make complicated scientific principles simple, fantastic resources for the primary classroom.

Spirit Walker by Michelle Paver published by Orion – a book for young people to lose themselves in

The Little Red Hen and the Grains of WheatRe-told by L.R.Hen and illustrated by Jago published by Mantra Lingua – available in 32 dual language editions. The sumptuous illustrations with their determined and joyful multicultural appeal make this a very special text.

Wolves by Emily Gravett published by Macmillan – look out for the menu from the Burrowed Wok Carrotonese Take Away , and keep a copy for the staff room

Highly Recommended

Babymouse: Queen of the World; Our Hero by Jennifer L.Holm and Matthew Holm published by Collins Children’s Books (Harper) - Great to see good graphic stories for girls. Very pink, but that may entice reluctant girl readers.

Butter-Finger by Bob Cattell and John Agard, illustrated by Pam Smy published by Frances Lincoln - A fantastic mix of cricket, poetry, prose and music set in the Caribbean. It should engage all young readers, especially sports fans.

The Cinnamon Tree by Aubrey Flegg published by O’ Brien Publishing - A timely re-issue of a wonderful story, which moves between Africa and Ireland with its young heroine. Unputdownable.

Tales of Wisdom and Wonder CD retold and narrated by Hugh Lupton published by Barefoot Books - A wonderful telling of stories from all over the world, just sit back and listen with the whole class.

Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce published by Macmillan - Wistful, funny, intelligent and a great story, this book will help more young readers to gain that all important reading stamina.

Inspirational Role Play Garden Centre by Neil Griffiths from an idea by Bobbie Neate published by Neate Publishing - A great teacher resource for foundation and KS1, including two CDs, one of songs and the other downloadable resources.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline published by Walker Books - Fantastical illustrations enhance the strangeness of this novel. Strikingly original, yet accessible.

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin published by Bloomsbury - A demanding novel full of ideas. Fantastic for discussion and kick-starting creative writing.
We are biased, but we think that this year’s Guide is great and all that all the resources that are in it are fantastic and we are very grateful to the publishers for sharing them with us. If you want your own copy you can order it via our website www.nla.org.uk. The Guide is free but we do make a small charge to cover post packing and handling. We look forward to hearing from you …

Date Added : 3rd May 2006

Chat beats smack
Jo Klaces reads novels about boys who find it's better to talk than to fight Aunt Gawgon and the Amazing Invisible Boy; By Lloyd Alexander Usborne £4.99

Date Added : 6th May 2005   -  Web Link

Something To Prove
Jo Klaces explores action-packed teenage fiction about boys with tough challenges to face The Boy Who Haunted Himself By Terry Deary Usborne £4.99

Date Added : 4th February 2005   -  Web Link