Judge a book by it's cover - well kind of

Never judge a book by its cover. That’s what we were all told growing up. But we do. We all do, at least to some degree. The internet is awash with different book shops or bloggers painstakingly wrapping books up in brown paper (some even then tying it up with string) and writing some teasing adjectives on the front. The idea being that readers should pick a book purely based on its content rather than its colours or design. I can see why they do it, the mystery and excitement about not knowing what you’re getting for example. However I don’t think that we should be so quick to disregard the wonderful covers, well thought out and crafted blurbs and the often beautiful designs of the books that we see on our shelves today. They are integral to our understanding of a text and are a first taste of what's to come and they should be treated with such reverence.  

Let’s take a look at some.

Wonder by R.J.Palacio

Now I would argue that this cover dramatically increased my interest and intrigue and made me want to read the book. The wonderful design is quirky, different and genuinely did make me wonder. Now that is not to say that I wouldn’t have picked up a book about a young boy with a facial disfigurement entering school for the first time but the bright colour blue standing in contrast against the child like drawing made me pick it up. The clever missive at the top ‘you can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.’ Gives a perfect hint at the tone of the book and certainly pushed it higher up my to be read pile.

Brightstorm by Vashti Hardy

As a child I would’ve picked this book up in a heartbeat and spent just as long perusing the glorious cover and map enclosed on the half dust jacket as I would’ve done flicking through the pages. Perhaps more if I am being brutally honest. This is a glorious cover; it feels sturdy, has gold lining that reflects and glints in the light and has an air ship! An actual air ship! Set against a city of houses similar to our own I genuinely think this is one of my favourite covers and it would be a travesty to cover it up. The images whet the appetite, they draw the reader into the world they long to enter and for me, and they made me feel like I belonged there.

Harry Potter by J.K.Rowling

I have to include a Potter and for me this is one of the best. More importantly with a series like this however is that children hunt for these books, they want this particular book, the next in the series, another step along the path. Hiding these covers does them a disservice. Yes you could add some teasing words, magic, mystery, friends. However that could be a whole host of books and yes I do know that’s almost the point. I am old enough to remember the Harry Potter buzz, in fact I was a child during peak Potter-mania and the cover reveal was one of the key components of this. It was part of the excitement of each year just like the Coca Cola advert being shown in the build up to Christmas. The image of the burning phoenix rising from the flames is iconic, matched perfectly with the deep yellow and Griffindor red, the cover screams read me. And of course tens of millions did. 

When I teach reading we spend at least one lesson simply discussing the cover of a book. The value in it is immeasurable. The need for that discussion and the total reliance on inference skills has led to some of the best book talk I have experienced as a teacher. Valuing this talk and valuing the covers that we are so often treated to is a facet of reading that I worry is merely given a passing nod at the moment. Picture books artwork is heralded and rightly so, so can we please show some love to the humble book cover. 

Here are some of my other favourites. What are yours?

Where have all the parents gone?

Creative and imaginative plot - check.
Absent or ill parent or parents - check.
Guardian with almost omnipotent power - check.
Child or children with little regard for rules, safety or society - check.

From Treasure Island to Harry Potter this basic structure has driven a huge proportion of our most loved children’s books. It has melted into every genre and has become the stand out literary device, especially in books that are targeted at Key Stage 2 and above. It’s easy to see why, Blyton’s Famous Five masterpieces for example were essentially the same story over and over. By changing the setting, the villain and the mystery, Blyton could retain the same independence of her central characters. Parents have sent them out the house, parents are away working etc. Fast forward half a century and as the world has got smaller and children are more aware of threats or at least perceived threats, this has shifted to deceased parents, jailed parents or even parents with terminal or critical illnesses.

Let me be clear, this is not a criticism of such writing. I have championed many of the books that do this and will continue to. Rather this is a recognition of how hard it is to create an original idea in a much saturated structure. So why the appeal? Magical Thinking is a psychological theory in which a person believes that their own thoughts, feelings, wishes or desires can influence the external world. This is partly why I believe this absent parent, knowledgable guardian structure works so well. Magical Thinking is particularly prevalent in children, the idea that there small decisions can have a huge impact on a myriad of events. Their superstitions can impact their world, think not letting your foot dangle over the bed in case the monster grabs it. However in much of the literature they read this is the case (not the monster, the mind set).

 

Now it is true that Harry Potter (apologies for the HP example but 99% of people know it) doesn’t just rely on his ‘Magical Mind’ - no pun intended. Rather he actively goes out and engages with indeed alters his environment. He creates the changes, he makes the waves. However this is not the case for our children. Many of our children engage in pretend play. This allows them to take on the roles of the characters they read about and attribute their own actions to perceived results. Admittedly this fades as children get older and indeed there is a sphere of psychology that aligns the Magical Thinking in adults with mental illness.

However, there is still the internalising of what you would do, how you would react in a characters position. Undoubtedly the draw of books structured in this way - which when you think about it, is many of them - is the freedom the child is granted. Worth noting that applications to boarding schools rocketed after the release of Potter. Freedom that provides the reader with escapism from their own perhaps perceived tyrannical parents. Yet they don’t need to be fully free they still want security, step in the all knowing guardian. Whether that is Zeus in Who Let the Gods Out? Harriet Culpepper in Brightstorm, the stag in The Last Wild or indeed the treadmill of characters in Harry Potter that seek to protect him until they each shuffle off and he is left alone; it is worth noting however he is 17 and essentially an adult at this point. Indeed a character like Magpie from Sky Chasers whilst not appearing to have a guardian clearly does, when push comes to shove she needs the Montgolfier brothers to get her out of a tight spot she simply wouldn’t have been able to without them, they feed her, dress her and protect her. But also give her the freedom to essentially do what she wants. A child’s dream no?

Furthermore it is naturally to be expected that children want to read about children. Adults tend to read about adults. However if there was a clear and coherent trend in adult literature focussed on, abandoned, deceased, ill or dead children, we would perhaps find it a little unnerving. So what does that mean for us educators?

Well firstly it can be a challenge. I looked at my bookshelf searching for something to give a child with severe attachment disorder that struggles to separate emotions, it was hard. I know this is an extreme case but I’m regularly contacted by tweeters who need books that don’t have a dead, absent or ill parent. These are a much harder find than you would think. We must know our books well, better than ever, I would argue. We must be conscious of the fact that there is every chance a 9 year old has never come into contact with death. The book you hand them may be the first time the pain and raw absence is portrayed in a way they can imagine. That is a responsibility if we think about that for amount, we as educators may be the person to introduce a child to the idea of death. If we want our children to be comfortable to discuss their emotions, if we are going to drive mental health to the forefront then we must acknowledge that many of our books may make for hard reading for our children. We must be prepared to have those discussions and teach our children that it’s ok to feel for characters in a book, to be immersed but to also recognise that if reading something makes them uncomfortable it’s ok to walk away from it, come back to it later or indeed to not.

A child is still in the throws of Magical Thinking and it is much harder for them to see the lines between reality and fiction than it is for adults. I salute authors and their wonderful books. I am not criticising here or negating the talent that it takes to write such material. I just wonder if there’s another or an additional way and what the current trends mean for the teachers in our classrooms and parents in our homes.

The Runes Unriddled

'Alva was running. Running so fast the wind whistled in her ears and the braids in her bright red hair lashed against her face. She was like a wolf . . .

Author Dr Janina Ramirez has many accomplishments, a medievalist and cultural historian she is currently a course director at Oxford University and is a regular on BBC history programmes. Here however, is her first foray into the world of children's literature. Supported by wonderful, insightful and historically accurate illustrations by David Wyatt this is sure to be a staple of many bookshelves for years to come.

Ramirez has woven a tale that would rival the very norns that she writes about in Riddle in the Runes. Set in snow swept Kilsgard our main character, the headstrong Alva, is thrown into a world of mystery and intrigue when her family are woken in the dead of night. Her Uncle Magnus, is a close adviser of the village Jarl and his expertise and logic are needed when two strangers appear and rumours of treasure begin to swirl like the snowflakes that blanket this story. However Alva is a keen investigator herself and with the able assistance of her wolf Fenrir she endeavours to help her uncle unwind the web that is becoming more tangled with each passing moment. The mystery threatens to destabilise Kilsgard and it is imperative that Alva and Magnus solve the puzzle that has appeared before them. Through their investigations they begin to realise that the intriguing plot seems to have been delivered to them by Alva's own father, long missing since venturing overseas with a Viking party. Will Alva and Magnus solve the puzzle in time? Will they understand what the runes are trying to tell them? Will Alva ever see her Father again? The Gods only know.

This is a very intriguing story, the characters and plot reveal new details with each chapter and the language, design, illustrations and action lends the book to perfectly sit upon the bookshelves of Years 3 and 4. There is the right amount of Norse subject knowledge woven into this to make it perfect for any classes using Vikings as a topic next year, shorter daylight hours, myths and legends, village structure, trading and raiding are all hinted at without any becoming a focus. With gentle nods to the Norse gods throughout the reader isn’t overwhelmed with the intricacies of Scandinavian customs. An explanation of runes, a Viking glossary and a hint at Alva’s next adventure are all included at the back of the book and lend themselves hugely to being used in class for your own adaptation. If Ramirez didn’t do that on purpose then it is a great coincidence. Whilst older children will still find undeniable enjoyment in the pages of Riddle in the Runes the book itself seems to scream out to the 7, 8 and 9 year olds out there.

I devoured this book, my own passion for Viking history did mean I was a little nervous to open the bright yellow cover however I was more than pleasantly surprised. Whilst shying away from the obvious stereotypes of Viking culture the story is very much that a Viking tale, a sage worthy of sharing round fires in dark winters or between parent and child at bed time. Enjoy.

Check Your Grammar!

Grammar, editing and proof-reading. One area of English teaching that I have always struggled to make engaging, fun, exciting and if I am being honest, truly useful. That’s not to say the skill isn’t. It certainly is, I just worry that my teaching of it isn’t as effective as my teaching of creative writing for example. Whilst scrolling TwitterEd the other evening I stumbled upon a Secondary English teacher who was using dictation from classic authors to give his children a bank of writing styles and a wealth of good sentence structure etc. And I had a light bulb moment so to speak. Couldn’t I do a similar thing to improve my classes editing and proof reading skills. So I had a go.

Now I will be honest I am lucky that I work in a school that I am trusted to roll the dice on a new idea and see what happens and this could’ve flopped. In fact it did. A couple of times. This in itself was brilliant. My class and I sat down and discussed together how we could make this better and this is what happened.

Idea 1: I read out a piece of text and insisted the children used no grammar at all, no full stops or capital letters. Nothing. They were then given ten lives (another idea pinched from the unknown twitter guru). With ten minutes to use they had to go through and using purple pens add in where they felt punctuation was needed. Upon completion of this, I read through the text telling them where the grammar should be. For every incorrect or missed piece they lost a life. This worked, to a degree. It was too abstract, my slower writers struggled to keep up and it was too difficult to see what were intended corrections and where children had written in ones they had got wrong.

Idea 2: Same thing however now children were to write on every other line. This left a space for them to then write their own corrected version above. This made it clearer to follow and easier for them to check their own work. I also typed up the text onto the IWB and revealed it line by line so they only had one line to consider at a time. Furthermore, I highlighted exactly where the punctuation should’ve been used. Better but we still needed to make subsequent corrections clearer.

Idea 3: Same as above however now when we went through the answers the children added in anything they missed using coloured pencil. This was I can see how much of the editing they have got right and what particular punctuation features they missed.

And without being arrogant, it was great. Genuinely one of the best grammar lessons I have ever taught for the following reasons;

1.    I was able to introduce my whole class to extracts of Sky Chasers by Emma Carroll, Brightstorm by Vashti Hardy and The Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkien in an hour lesson

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2.     We were able to analyse for every single piece of grammar why it was there, why it was needed and what its job was. In one instance a child said ‘it needs a comma because it is two adjectives next to each other’. However in this example the second adjective was in fact acting as a noun. A brilliant teaching point it would’ve taken me much longer to have picked up in other ways.

3.     The element of competitiveness (the lives) makes them close read the entire passage. On occasion I threw in a curve ball by telling them how many corrections they should be making and they reacted with fervor.  

4.    I have a list of specific grammar points that when children are proof reading their own work I can point to and say, you struggled with these issues last time so take a closer look.

5.    It was a real wake up call to some of my children who view themselves as the ‘better’ writers. Many struggled and I genuinely think that they will take the editing and proof reading process more seriously in future.

All of this was done in an hour but it only took that long because we were discussing how to improve the process. It could easily be done in 20 minute sessions. I genuinely feel it will improve my class’ ability to proof read their extended writing no end.

A Peculiar Tale

Gritty Victorian London has always been one of my favourite places. Weird I know. But I love it. The suspense, the darkness, the suspicion and intrigue. It is perfect for a wonderful mystery story and this is exactly what The Peculiars offers up. 

Our story begins locked in a cage at the end of a wind swept pier with a young girl named Sheba. However, Sheba isn’t a ‘normal’ girl. She is part wolf and her thick hair and slanted eyes draw in paying punters who come to look at her and her friend, a two headed sheep! 

Rescued from her cage and sold to a side show in London, Sheba is thrown in with a Samurai woman, a giant of a man and a crowd of other misfits that make up The Peculiars. When one of Sheba’s visitors goes missing upon the banks of The Thames a story begins to unravel that leads to The Great Expedition and trouble! 

I adored this story, it’s fast paced and a quick and easy read but is full of wonderful characterisation and setting description. It’s easy to see how author Kieran Larwood also brought us the wonders of Podkin! 

If you’ve not read this, do! Simple as that. And if you’re studying the Victorians I would argue it’s unmissable. The writing opportunities are so vast it makes my head hurt.