Saturday 20 June 2015

The Rights of the Reader - Joan Lennon


I need to come clean:  I've not read the book - just the poster.*  And, to begin with, it was the art that drew my attention (big Quentin Blake fan - but then, it would be hard not to be!)  But when I got past the pictures, I was intrigued by the text.  It has a gentleness to it - a quiet acknowledgement of how different we all are - of how there isn't one correct way to do things.  I would probably have titled it something like The "It's Okay" of the Reader - which is of course rubbish - but Daniel Pennac means what he says.  

Rights.

The full book is now on my reading list (are there pictures?) but in the meantime, what are your thoughts on the Rights of the Reader?

Is there anything you would like to add?
Is there anything you would like to take away?
Is there anything you would like to modify?


* I got this jpg of it here - a librarian's blog - thank you Melliber!

Joan Lennon's website.
Joan Lennon's blog.
And a shiny new website for Joan Lennon's YA novel Silver Skin.

8 comments:

madwippitt said...

oh, this poster is perfect! And there's a book of it too? Another to add to my wobbly pile ...

Linda said...

I created a silly 'opposite' version of it with a Chatterbooks group which had us all giggling helplessly but which did (probably) transmit some notions of library etiquette to my very lively young readers. The right to tell people the ending before they get there, the right to use a sardine as a bookmark . . .

Linda said...

Hmmm . . . you know, I think I may have the beginnings of an idea for a story there. Thanks, Joan!

Ann Turnbull said...

I reviewed this book on Awfully Big Reviews in April 2012. (Put 'Daniel Pennac' in the ABR search box to find the review). It's a wonderful book.

Linda, I love your Chatterbooks group version!

Joan Lennon said...

If the poster hadn't already convinced me, Ann's excellent review would! If, like me, you missed it first time round, go look now! Thanks for flagging this, Ann!

And Linda, you should SO write that book! (In my family, the legend/slander was that I'd used a strip of bacon as a bookmark ...)

Katherine Roberts said...

Apparently, my mum tried number 7 when she was a student, cycled into a parked car and fell off her bike... the book survived, but possibly not one to try with a Kindle?

Susan Price said...

Yeah, I was once so into a book that I read it walking along a street and fell over a cast-iron 'A@ sign.
My mother always supported the 'Right to read anything.' She encouraged us to read comics, newspapers, magazines, any kind of book, age appropriate or not.
And I'm right behind The Right Not To Finish A Book. Off to read Ann's review now...

Lydia Syson said...

Completely agree - a really wonderful book that is absolutely worth reading and beautifully translated by Sarah Ardizzone (possibly Adams then) which I've used at school events. It was recommended to me a year or so ago when I was bemoaning the fact that my two youngest children were off to secondary school and I would probably never read aloud to them again. Part of the book is about the fact that even teenagers like being read aloud to. And I'm still reading aloud to my 12 year olds - not quite as often as I used to - and crossing fingers that they will still enjoy it for a few years to come.