The folly of youth By Steve Way

 

I was recently reading a compilation of articles by former school inspector Gervase Phinn, which included many examples of the innocent but hilarious sayings of some of the primary school children he had come across. It made me think about a time when I caused my primary school head teacher to fall backwards, helplessly laughing as a result of something I said. I would be interested to know if you remember naively and unintentionally causing merriment for the teachers or adults around you. (I note that Mr Hayden was crouching down on the grass in front of us, where we were all sitting, so he came to no harm – it was more of a backwards roll than a fall.)

There are usually more disadvantages than advantages in having a surname that begins with a letter towards the end of the alphabet. Perhaps if I’d had less time to stew on my conundrum, I might not have uttered such nonsense… perhaps.

“I need you to remind me what colour your house is,” Mr Hayden had said. Mr Hayden was often responsible for teaching us maths, so I thought we were doing some kind of a survey. Only very rarely at our school did we split into one of four ‘houses’ of different colours, mainly only sports day in fact (which at the time was only a few weeks away hence, as it turned out, the Head’s question.)

Of course, right from the start, I had got the wrong end of the stick but I had an added dilemma. My parents, well in this case my dad, had recently repainted the outside of the house. Naturally, I had no say in the matter but even at my tender age I didn’t like the nondescript boring colour they had chosen. Not being one of the standard primary colours I wasn’t sure how to describe it.

While I was struggling with this dilemma, I became vaguely aware of two things. One was that my classmates seemed to live in houses that were painted in only a narrow range of colours, all of them primary and that at least one of them appeared to have got the colour of their house wrong. One lad who lived in the same road as us answered ‘red’ but I was certain that each day on my way to school I passed a blue coloured garage and front door.

Another corner of my fevered brain was struggling with the idea that Mr Hayden had asked to be ‘reminded’ of the colour of our houses. He was a conscientious teacher, one of the best in fact, but I couldn’t quite fathom why at any time he needed to know what the colour of our house happened to be.

Eventually, it was my turn to answer. I thought I had at last found a solution to my primary quandary. I’d decided upon a way of describing the new colour my parents had used.

“Well… it’s a sort of coffee colour…” I said warily, still wondering how Mr Hayden would be able to incorporate this unusual shade into his survey.

It was as Mr Hayden was falling backwards helplessly and my classmates were either laughing at me or looking at me wondering what planet I was actually inhabiting at this moment (I think they often wondered that) that the penny dropped. Finally I understood why Paul, or whatever his name was, said his 'house' was red when it was definitely painted blue.

Of course by then it was too late.

My answer, if you're at all interested was supposed to be yellow.

Though I sometimes wonder if I should have been able to represent ‘a sort of coffee colour’ house all of my own.

BOOKSELLER SUNDAYS: What greater pleasure? – Eve Griffiths at The Bookcase, Lowdham

The second in our new series of Sunday guest blogs by booksellers who work with children’s authors. These guest blogs are designed to show life behind the scenes of a crucial but neglected relationship – the one between a writer and a bookseller. These days, such relationships are more intense and more important, as increasing numbers of authors go on the road to promote children’s books – a goal shared by the booksellers who will contribute to this series.

The Bookcase is a ‘small independent bookshop with a big imagination’ situated in the village of Lowdham, eight miles north of Nottingham. The Bookcase’s proprietor is Jane Streeter (second from right), who runs the shop with a friendly team: Louise Haines, Jo Blaney, myself, Marion Turner and Kendall Turner (pictured left to right above).

Three years ago I (as one of the assistants) began a reading group at our local village school. This coincided with our 10th Annual Book Festival. So, to celebrate, I went in once a month until we had read 10 books. The 12 children read each book and then wrote a review, which formed the basis of a display at our book festival. We read all sorts – from contemporary authors to Enid Blyton and Richmal Crompton – and one poetry book. I have used a few different poetry books, but the first was Carol Ann Duffy’s The Hat, which was very timely as I’d handed it out to the children just before she was announced as the Poet Laureate! We’ve also used Gervase Phinn’s There’s an Alien in the Classroom, and others over the three years we’ve been involved in the project.


Each month I went into school so that we could have a discussion, which made the youngsters feel very grown up!


The idea became so popular that I have been approached by other schools, so this year I am working in four schools – always with Year 6 children. The group is aimed at the more able readers. (The thinking behind this is that so much is done to encourage the less able readers: those who are keen readers need some sort of outlet for their enthusiasm.)


This year, I have found a real difference in ability from one school to another. Not only is the reading ability markedly higher in one school, but the children are much more mature. This makes it harder for me to choose appropriate books, so I’m always keen to hear of the experiences of others who work with children of a similar age.


Michael Morpurgo is, of course, unfailingly popular, but I’ve also had real success with Michelle Paver’s Wolf Brother and Morris Gleitzman’s Once. In both cases, several of the children have gone on to read the sequels. We have offered a discount to reading group members who have ordered sequels.


After Christmas I will be discussing David Almond’s Skellig with two schools and Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones with our most able readers and Once with the fourth group.

After reading your blog, I have ordered a copy of Penny Dolan’s A Boy Called M O U S E to consider as one of next half-term’s books. With four schools to visit, I see each group once only per half-term, now. I really enjoy having one poetry book to discuss, and each member is expected to read aloud a poem of their choice. There is always one group member – usually a boy – who chooses the shortest in the book, so they then have to read a poem of my choosing!


One of the greatest joys I have experienced is a group of reading enthusiasts clamouring to tell you how much they have enjoyed a book. What greater pleasure can there be than to have introduced children to a book they love and an author they want to read again!

Please let me know of any really popular choices!

Eve Griffiths, The Bookcase

The Bookcase’s website: http://www.thebookcase.co.uk/

Watch out for Independent Booksellers Week a campaign celebrating independents on the high street, which this year takes place between 30th June and 7th July.