http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22751782
Great interview with new Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman.
(BBC News – 4th June 2013)
Including:
Why do you think it is important for parents and teachers to read with kids for 10 minutes a day?
“I remember when I was at school we would have a 10-minute storytelling session where we’d all sit on the floor cross-legged and the teacher would read. It became something we all really looked forward to.
That was part of the reason I grew to love stories.
The other reason was my love of libraries. What I would like to do is make sure every primary school child has a library card so, where parents don’t get their children library cards, we’ll see if we can get schools to step in and make sure that every child has one.
It seems interesting to me in this country that libraries in prisons are mandatory, but libraries in schools are optional. I think that’s a bit bizarre.
I really want to bang the drum for public libraries because we wouldn’t be having this conversation now if it hadn’t been for my local library.
We had a few non-fiction books at home, but my dad was of the opinion that fiction was a complete and utter waste of time because it wasn’t real – so what was the point of reading it?
And so as a consequence, I lived down at my local library. I think he was absolutely wrong because I learnt more about people and relating and communicating with other people through fiction books than I ever did though non-fiction.”
CILIP School Library Group Scotland 