No.226the children’s book magazine online September 2017 Authorgraph interview: Sally Nicholls How to write poetry with Joseph Coelho Learning through picture books Interview with Philip Reeve www.booksforkeeps.co.uk CONTENTS guest editorial 2 Guest editorial: Well-known children’s Fiona says ‘The Striker Boy campaign gives me Remembering Jonny Zucker author Jonny Zucker, hope and comfort that his death wasn’t in vain, that ___________________________________with Strikerboy took his own life last even in death Jonny can still inspire thousands of 3 Mary Roche on the ways year after struggling with children all over the world through his words.’ picture books open up the depression for twenty One in four people live with a mental health problem world for children _________________________________________ years. 2Simple are and every year it is the biggest killer of men under 50. 6 Two Children Tell: republishing a special The Striker Boy campaign is raising awareness of a tribute to Peter Spier and edition of his most mental health issues in adults and children. 2Simple relational reasoning _________________________________________ popular novel, Striker have designed a range of free teacher resources 8 How to write poetry: in Boy ZKLFK ZDV ÀUVW packs for schools, including an ‘emotional resilience advance of National Poetry Day, published 2010. All of resource’ to help primary school teachers promote inspiration from Joseph Coelho the proceeds of this book _________________________________________ positive mental health. 10 Windows into Illustration: will go directly to Jonny’s The republished Striker Boy will be available from Francesca Sanna winner of the family and the mental amazon.co.uk for £6.99 and £1.40 from every copy 2017 Klaus Flugge Prize health charity, Mind. _________________________________________ sold will be donated to Mind, a registered charity Jonny was a primary school teacher before he 12 Authorgraph: Sally Nicholls in England and Wales (no. 219830). Jonny was interviewed by Michelle Pauli became a children’s book author. He committed his supported by the charity in his life and therefore the _________________________________________ life to getting kids reading. He and his wife, Fiona family decided to work with them. 14 Ten of the Best historical Starr, had three young sons. novels chosen by Tony Bradman Mind’s Chief Executive, Paul Farmer, said: “We’re _________________________________________ delighted to have been chosen as the charity partner 16 Pam Dix, chair of Ibby UK for Striker Boy by the Zucker family. Their support reports on BIB, the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava 2017 will mean that Mind can continue providing vital _________________________________________ services, like our Infoline, so people can make their 18 Philip Reeve interviewed own choices and access the treatment and support by Philip Womack _________________________________________ that is right for them. This partnership will help us 21 I Wish I’d Written… to make sure no one has to face a mental health A.F. Harrold chooses _________________________________________ problem alone.” 21 Reviewers and reviews In the lead up to publication, Fiona says: “the buzz Under 5s (Pre-School/ is contagious. People are offering football contacts, Nursery/Infant) + New Talent school and library events, promotions through the 5-8 (Infant/Junior) media – we have even had the offer of a musical! If 8-10 (Junior/Middle) 10-14 (Middle/Secondary) anyone has any ideas of how to make Striker Boy happen on a grand scale to continue the joy of Jonny + Editor’s Choice Fiona says: “My best friend and my husband, 14+ (Secondary/Adult) and raise awareness of mental health and suicide, _________________________________________ amazing dad, son, brother, uncle, witty, intelligent then do get in touch.” 32 Classics in Short No. 125 and generally inspirational human being, took his You can buy the Children of the New Forest own life at the end of November 2016. If you didn’t _________________________________________ special edition of know Jonny you may be thinking, ‘well she would say COVER STORY Striker Boy through that wouldn’t she? She is his wife’, but you don’t This issue’s cover illustration is from the strikerboy. Things A Bright Girl Can Do KDYHWRORRNIDUWRÀQGRXWWKDWWKLVLVWKHWUXWKIRUDOO com website, by Sally Nicholls. who came across him… He had the capacity to make Amazon and some Thanks to Andersen Press for their everyone feel as if they were special. If only he knew bookshops. help with this September cover. how special he was.” During his life Jonny wrote hundreds of books including the Striker Boy series, the Max Flash series, the Monster Swap series, Venus Spring Stunt Girl, Dan and the Mudman, One Girl Two Decks, Mystical Magic and many more titles for both children and adults. Books for Keeps Books for Keeps is available online at September 2017 No.226 www.booksforkeeps.co.uk A regular BfK Newsletter can also be sent by email. ISSN 0143-909X To sign up for the Newsletter, go to www.booksforkeeps.co.uk © Books for Keeps CIC 2016 DQGIROORZWKH1HZVOHWWHUOLQN,IDQ\GLIÀFXOW\LVH[SHULHQFHG Editor: Ferelith Hordon email addresses can also be sent to Assistant Editor: Ruth Williams [email protected]* Editorial assistant Grace Hebditch Managing Editor: Andrea Reece Email: [email protected] Design: Louise Millar Editorial correspondence should be sent Website: www.booksforkeeps.co.uk to Books for Keeps, *Email addresses will be used by Books for Keeps only for c/o The Big Green Bookshop, the purpose of emailing the Newsletter and will not be Unit 1, Brampton Park Road, disclosed to third parties. Wood Green, London N22 6BG 2 Books for Keeps No.226 September 2017 Using Picturebooks in the Classroom In an article primarily for teachers but full of are lucky, but many do not, so schools can play a huge role in mitigating this deficit. It follows then that classrooms need to be useful suggestions for librarians and parents resourced with good reading material to cater for diverse readers. too, Mary Roche explores the unique ability of For several decades of my teaching career I engaged children in discussion around picturebooks, using an approach I called ‘Critical picturebooks to open up the world to children. Thinking and Book Talk’ (Roche 2010). Much of my research is described and explained in Developing Children’s Critical Irrespective of our age or experience, books can provide us with Thinking through Picturebooks (Roche 2015). Throughout solace, escapism, information and inspiration. Michael Rosen asserts that book I argue that picturebooks can be useful at all levels of that they form our earliest experiences and can influence our future education: they should not be relegated to the junior classes. success as learners: Sophisticated picturebooks are far more than mere illustrated texts. ‘A book-oriented home environment, we argue, endows Good picturebooks are a marriage of image and text and there is children with tools that are directly useful in learning at no redundant line or word as author and illustrator narrate together. school: vocabulary, information, comprehension skills, Good picturebooks provide gaps for the reader to fill, in text and imagination, broad horizons of history and geography, images alike. They never reveal all. They call on high levels of familiarity with good writing, understanding of the comprehension and meaning making via the images and pictures importance of evidence in argument and many others.’ and they are sufficiently open-ended so that each of us can bring our (michaelrosenblog.blogspot.ie/2012). own prior knowledge to the process of making sense. Shared, they Along with such cognitive benefits, books can also be sources of can provide food for thought long after the reading event itself has empathy, healing and support. finished. I argue throughout my book that picturebooks can provide much needed opportunities for thinking, talking and criticality to …reading books can be good for your mental health and pre-literate and literate children. They are of immense value in the your relationships with others… A 2011 study …showed home, but arguably even more valuable in school where they can that, when people read about an experience, they display help teachers address that deficit in being read to and talked with, stimulation within the same neurological regions as when that is experienced by many children. they go through that experience themselves. We draw on the same brain networks when we’re reading stories and when In classrooms, picturebooks lend themselves easily to cross- we’re trying to guess at another person’s feelings. http://www. curricular topics. For example, the following books all relate to the newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/can-reading- topic of relationships: Watt’s Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend; make-you-happier Yates’ Frank and Teddy Make Friends; Hills’ Duck, Duck Goose; Jeffers’ The Way Back Home; Gravett’s Wolf Won’t Bite; Willis’ We all need to be made to think and feel as we read. We need to have Mole’s Sunrise; Cave and Riddell’s Something Else; Fox and Vivas’ our knowledge extended, our horizons broadened, our experiences Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge; On Sudden Hill by Sarah expanded, our empathy built and our vocabulary developed. We can and Davies: textless books like Lehman’s The Red Book, Becker’s do all of that alone, certainly, but discussing books together engages The Journey, Tan’s The Arrival, and The Rules of Summer. us at a much higher-level