Reading at home is important. Evidence of the effects of reading and a general culture of reading by the time children reach adolescence is good for personal development, intellectual growth, literacy and even numeracy.
A culture of reading is more likely to open doors to success in society. Being an educated person these days means being a global citizen: someone who knows at least a little about cultures, stories and histories other than one’s own. Research has shown that the mere presence of 80 books or more, at home, is likely to predict better social growth and development for a young child. This is because having books at home suggests a family culture of role-modelling reading by parents, which in turn suggests that the child is exposed to articulate, informed ideas within the family home. In other words, a culture of reading at home is something that can be very socially empowering for children.
It is particularly good for children to see their parents reading and for parents to read to their children. Bedtime stories or specific daily reading times are excellent ways to improve vocabulary and grammar, and the ensuing discussion as a family is also a positive bonding activity.
It can be difficult to find the time to read since the world we are living in is so fast-moving and there are many sources of information around us, distracting our attention, but if you only plan to read a few books aloud to your children this year, which books should you choose?
The following titles are all stories that focus on an area of diversity in our society, and although many of our children will be perfectly capable of reading them to themselves, maybe some of these would also make great reading aloud and discussion opportunities instead?
Me, my Dad and the end of the Rainbow – Benjamin Dean
Things aren’t going great for Archie Albright. His dad’s acting weird, his mum too, and all he wants is for everything to go back to normal, to the three months before when his parents were happy and still lived together. When Archie sees a colourful, crumpled flyer fall out of Dad’s pocket, he thinks he may have found the answer. Only problem? The answer might just lie at the end of the rainbow, an adventure away.
The boy who made everyone laugh – Helen Rutter
Billy Plimpton is an eleven-year-old boy with a big dream. He wants to be a stand-up comedian when he grows up: delivering pinpoint punch-lines and having audiences hang on his every hilarious word. A tough career for anyone, but surely impossible for Billy, who has a stammer. How will he find his voice, if his voice won’t let him speak?
Can you see me? – Libby Scott
Tally is eleven years old and she’s just like her friends. Well, sometimes she is. If she tries really hard to be. Because there’s something that makes Tally not the same as her friends. Something she can’t cover up, no matter how hard she tries: Tally is autistic. Tally’s autism means there are things that bother her even though she wishes they didn’t. It means that some people misunderstand her and feel frustrated by her.
The boy at the back of the class – Onjali Rauf
Told with heart and humour, this story is a child’s perspective on the refugee crisis, highlighting the importance of friendship and kindness in a world that doesn’t always make sense.
Being Miss Nobody – Tamsin Winter
Rosalind hates her new secondary school. She’s the weird girl who doesn’t talk – she is mute. The Mute-ant. And it’s easy to pick on someone who can’t fight back. So Rosalind starts a blog – Miss Nobody; a place to speak up, a place where she has a voice. But there’s a problem… Is Miss Nobody becoming a bully herself?
Black brother, black brother – J P Rhodes
A powerful coming-of-age story about two brothers – one who presents as white, the other as black – and the ways they are forced to navigate a world that doesn’t treat them equally. Donte wishes he were invisible. As one of the few black boys at his school, he feels as if he is constantly swimming in whiteness. Most of the students don’t look like him. They don’t like him either. Dubbed the ‘Black Brother’, Donte’s teachers and classmates make it clear they wish he were more like his lighter skinned brother, Trey.
Speechless – Kate Darbishire
She can’t walk. She can’t even talk. But she has so much to tell you… Eleven-year-old Harriet has Cerebral Palsy. At her new Secondary School, she is bullied and ridiculed every day and she doesn’t know how to make friends. Charlotte tries – but how do you talk to someone who won’t talk back?
Windrush Child – Benjamin Zephaniah
Leonard is shocked when he arrives with his mother in the port of Southampton. His father is a stranger to him, it’s cold and even the Jamaican food doesn’t taste the same as it did back home in Maroon Town. But his parents have brought him here to try to make a better life, so Leonard does his best not to complain, to make new friends, to do well at school – even when people hurt him with their words and with their fists. How can a boy so far from home learn to enjoy his new life when so many things count against him?
Mrs Emmett, Librarian
