REMEMBERING A SERIOUS GAME By Penny Dolan

The academic year might be over but schools are, behind the gates, still working.
Computers & IT systems need attention, Classrooms, corridors and spaces must be cleaned, cupboards tidied, stationery re-ordered, art & craft materials topped up and library stock and book-boxes sorted out for the year ahead. All the essential practical tasks.

And the ‘niggly’ tidying has to happen too: all those random items that need to be stored, shifted or even 'moved onwards'. A bags of spare socks, mostly odd? Coloured pages magazines, with the best images removed? Tangled sports day ribbons or unwanted certificates? Irrelevant stickers? Unclaimed papier-mache sculptures? A child's gift too sentimental to take home? Oh well . . .

Old material can have an emotional weight that persists, like the old printed paper file that has been getting one last long look this week. Time for tidying over the summer here, too. Inside is a generous collection of my own particularly 'favourite poems', as once used on primary school visits. At the back, among my 'poetry info' crib sheets, was a wonderfully inspirational quote.

 The words came from the poet Pie Corbett, who has been a teacher, headteacher, lecturer & Ofsted Inspector, as well as a vocal critic of the government’s approach to testing in schools. His popular ‘Talk for Writing’ teacher training programmes influenced many schools and teachers, and he is the author of over two hundred books.

The quote I collected came from one of his earliest books: ‘Catapults & Kingfishers: Teaching Poetry In Primary Schools' which was a useful ‘how to’ book, full of ideas, poetic forms that children can enjoy and language games, and one that I worked with many times. What was clear was that, though Pie enjoyed the fun that went with writing poetry as an activity, he was also very sure about what he wanted children to experience during creative writing sessions. He did not want rote teaching or to see his advice become dull prescription. Nor did he want a silly sentimental approach. He wanted the children to feel they could play with language, that words were theirs to own and use.

What Pie Corbett wrote was this:

A SERIOUS GAME

“It is never easy to say what it is that creates an atmosphere where children write creatively, (where there is) an enjoyment of what each individual has to offer, a love of words, a rich and exciting use of language, an encouraging attitude so that children start to change their self-image, to feel that they can do it. Above all it is probably the ability of the teacher to turn the whole activity into a serious game. A game that is both fun and fulfilling. This will go a long way towards developing a love of writing and enhancing our children’s lives with a clearer expression of the true nature of themselves and their world.”

When I found this quote, printed ready for some long-ago INSET sessions, I paused in my tidying, sorting and shredding and thought for a while.

A SERIOUS GAME?

Words needed not only for the children? Maybe a reminder to me that, even in this summer’s exhausting heat, writing can be more than a trudge. A hint of playfulness, a touch of the serious game might make a more useful approach to my own writing projects. Think on't, Penny. A game of words, but a serious game indeed.

Meanwhile: Researching this post led me to Children'sPoetrySummit.com, a current, useful site about UK poetry for children, but which is linked to the work of Pie Corbett and Brian Moses and writing in schools. https://childrenspoetrysummit.com/

In particular, I'd recommend finding the page Fire Lit Eyes: Running a School Writing Club by Brian Moses for a powerful but nostalgic description of how they worked with children in schools back, as they say, 'in the day'. Seriously!

Penny Dolan 

July 2026

Getting to Try Sheena Wilkinson

Last Friday I was honoured to give a keynote address at the Literary Association of Ireland’s conference in Dublin. The theme of the conference was ‘Engaging Literacy Learners in Diverse Settings’ and the delegates were teachers, children’s literature specialists, educationalists and others. 

As someone who had been a very keen child writer, then an English teacher, and more recently a professional writer much of whose income is earned through teaching creative writing in diverse settings, I was keen to address this topic. I had planned something light-hearted, a bit of a romp through my own development as a writer. It’s a familiar enough story – bright kid, not-so-bright council estate, encouraging parents and teachers and – crucially – a great local library.  It’s a happy story, mostly. Sure, I lost confidence in my late teens and twenties, and only got back to writing in my thirties, but I don’t regret that. By the time I was ready for publication in terms of craft, I had plenty to write about. 

But my talk made me sad. Not for me – I came out of it fine. Not for the children fortunate enough to be taught by the conference delegates, who were prepared to give up a precious weekend to consider their subject with depth and creativity. But for many others. For the kids who don’t have access to a local library or even a school library. For the teachers so burdened by admin and assessment and the need to tick the right boxes that they don’t feel able to prioritise creativity in the classroom, despite creativity – using the imagination, asking ‘what if?’, dreaming -- being the bedrock of so much learning.

Some years ago, when I was a secondary school English teacher myself, I surveyed colleagues in a variety of secondary schools for an article in NAWE’s journal Writing in Education. https://www.nawe.co.uk/DB/wie-editions/articles/where-are-they-coming-from.html  The vast majority admitted to feeling underconfident when it came to teaching creative writing. Most had not themselves written creatively since GCSE days, having studied English Literature only for A level and at university. Every year I give a short creative writing workshop to PGCE English students: two hours out of a year-long course. (It used to be three.) The students seem to enjoy the chance to write, but it’s a hard sell to make them see it as important. They think it’s a bit of a jolly, not to be confused with real work. And they are always more concerned about how they can use the skills and insights in the classroom than recognising their intrinsic value for them. 

 For nine years I ran a cross-community inter-schools creative writing network in Belfast. I loved it. I worked with some great young writers, and was delighted when a partnership with Arvon allowed me to take them on six wonderful Arvon residentials as well as our monthly workshops. We produced anthologies most years. It was the sort of opportunity I would have adored as a teenage writer. But this year I gave up the network, with a little regret but quite a lot of relief. It was getting harder and harder to reach young writers. I had a few great teacher allies who did wonderful work in encouraging pupils to come along, and those who did come loved it, but every year the numbers dwindled as older pupils left school and were not replaced. 

Why? I think – it came to me as I was preparing my talk for the conference – that secondary school children are getting less and less encouragement to write creatively at school. By the time I left teaching six years ago, creative writing was something to be ‘done’ as a module and then ticked off. I remember being told to ask pupils to write about their own experience rather than letting them make up stories ‘because they’re so bad at it.’ Well, of course they are, if that’s our attitude!  Was I that wonderful inspirational teacher who broke the mould? I’d like to say I was but I know that my own creativity and courage was eroded by years of this. 

It’s not all doom and gloom of course. I do writing residencies in schools which recognise the value of creative writing, often funded by Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools scheme. I meet with committed, creative teachers. But increasingly these initiatives are in primary schools, not secondaries 'because we don't have time for that',  and usually when I am delivering the workshop the class teacher is marking, or on the computer. Understandable given their workload, but it reinforces the idea that creative writing isn’t really important, or something you would do as part of normal life, or continue to do as an adult. 

There will always be young people who love to write, but people can’t develop their talents in a system which doesn’t let them breathe and learn and make mistakes and experiment. When I was in second year at grammar school we wrote creatively every week or so. We had a list of twenty or so titles at the back of our English exercise books and could choose any we liked. One of the titles was ‘A Chapter of a Novel’. I wrote a new first chapter every time. Lovely Mrs Leathart, our gentle, cultured teacher, read and commented on every one. (Only now do I appreciate how much marking she must have had!) She never asked why I never went on to Chapter 2. She must have noticed that my chapters were heavily influenced by what I was reading – K.M. Peyton, Maeve Binchy, even a short-lived flirtation with science fiction (though, in retrospect that was mostly about David Bowie) – but she took everything at face value and encouraged me to keep writing. Not all the class liked writing as much as I did, of course, but the point was that they got to try. I’m not sure how much their sons and daughters are getting to try.

Encouraging reading - Hilary Hawkes

“Apparently our kids aren’t reading the ‘right kind of books,’” huffed my friend at our last catch-up.  Then she let out a knowing chuckle – the sort of knowing chuckle you could only make about kids not reading the right kind of books if you taught English to Year nines and were a parent to teenagers. She’s both.

Being a writer, bookaholica and lover of all things books I was keen to know more. An article my friend had read had bewailed the fact that, in its author's opinion, so many children’s books these days just 'aren’t challenging enough'. 

Too many teenagers stick to books aimed at younger readers and so don’t (according to this article) progress to the kinds of books that would develop their reading and literary tastes. They must be encouraged to put back the Harry Potter and select Anna Karenina instead.

This all slightly reminded me of a teacher I disliked at my primary school many years (ok, decades) ago who made scathing remarks about Enid Blyton. Enid Blyton was, at that time, one of my favourite authors. Then there was the book brigade at a primary school my children attended at one time who had a list of “banned books” – J.K Rowling and Roald Dahl were on it. But not in our house they weren’t.

When it comes to teenagers, many would say the fact that they are reading at all, especially older ones,  is wonderful and something to be celebrated. It's certainly true that not all children grow up in book filled homes or see their parents absorbed in the classics. Some homes have no bookshelves let alone rows of classics or Booker Prize winning titles.

The feat for many parents and teachers is to first of all get their children reading for pleasure at all and then, the real challenge, to keep them reading through adolescence. I don’t personally think that future book lovers and book buyers will evolve from a generation forced to read books they didn't want to read and didn't enjoy.

My own three children loved books. Two of them, as young people in their twenties now, still devour novels. Thinking back I can see that their enjoyment of books came about as the result of being allowed to choose what they wanted to read: on our library visits, from the classroom bookshelves, or in bookshops as they spent birthday or Christmas gift vouchers. Never was their like for reading due to being force fed a list of books they didn’t, well,  like. There were lists at secondary school, of course – texts that needed to be studied for exams. On the whole, though, they were ready for them and even enjoyed most of them. This is most definitely not the case for all teenagers though, and for all sorts of reasons.

Experts do love to tell us what we ought to be doing and, when it comes to books, what children ought to be reading. I really dislike this kind of over the top "book policing". Maybe the real experts are the parents and teachers who already know the obstacles to helping kids develop a reading habit that might turn into a lifelong love for books. Like my Year Nine teacher friend, I’m all for suggesting other books that youngsters might not come across. The kind of guidance good parents, teachers or librarians can give, based on young people's interests, needs and reading abilities is helpful. But making them feel the books and authors they enjoy are somehow “not good enough” is very different and unwise. This is especially true for children who, for all sorts of reasons, genuinely find reading a struggle.

Our family run children’s project recently sent lots of lovely new books to children on the other side of the world. A boxful went via Book Aid International This isn’t because children there aren't reading the right kinds of books – it’s because they don’t have books at all. The schools, libraries and education systems in those places, in their baby stages, are desperate for them. And publishers, authors and projects are sending them.  I mention this because I think Book Aid International and their beneficiaries have good priorities and aims for books which the "book police" have lost sight of.

I think we can help young readers everywhere by encouraging them to select the books they want to read and enjoy reading.  Because books are supposed to be fun and mind expanding. Not tolerated. And once the habit and joy in reading is established all sorts of possibilities open up. As Book Aid International would say, books can change lives.

Anyway, what do you think? If we want to encourage young people's reading should we force them on to a list of "right" books? Do you as an author, parent or teacher have any experience of the effects of such lists?

Hilary Hawkes

www.hilaryhawkes.co.uk

Strawberry Jam Books

The power of shared stories - Lari Don

I received an email from a teacher at the end of last week which took my breath away. The email itself was a fairly mundane reply to queries about the school timetable and class sizes - we’re organising an author visit – but the PS was astounding. Here it is:

 PS - We've just had a very interesting class discussion on the morality of Yann's possession spell in First Aid for Fairies. One of the children made a connection with Trump's new torture agenda (our news article of the week) - who knew a book written almost a decade ago could be so topical?

To clarify, this is a class of primary age children, reading one of my adventure novels (First Aid For Fairies And Other Fabled Beasts, published in 2008), then the pupils, and their clearly superb teacher, bounced off it to discuss morality, ethics and world affairs.

I didn’t write that scene with any huge political goal in mind. Actually, this was my first novel, so I wrote it with no idea of whether anyone would ever read it, let alone discuss it. Honestly, I wrote it to discover how dark I could go with a children’s story, how flawed I could make a character and still care about him, how far I could stretch the magic that I was just learning to play with.

I didn’t write it to prompt discussions about right wing conservatism, abuse of power and the ethics of information gathering.

I am astounded, amazed, impressed and humbled that these primary age children were prompted by my words to think, to discuss, to make connections, and to discover their own opinions…

But perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. This is after all what books and stories are for. This is what shared reading, and discussing stories together, should be for. Not specifically for dissecting the flaws of Donald Trump’s presidency (though, please go ahead and do that…) but for giving us shared vocabulary, and shared experiences within the safe environment of a story, so we can explore other issues together.

Stories help us think. Shared stories help us think together.

At this point I should probably explain: Yann is a centaur. In the relevant scene, this half-horse half-human from Greek myth (who is also a fairly grumpy Scottish pre-teen) uses dark magic to compel a weasel to spy for him, causing the weasel obvious pain and distress. The scene is set in tunnels under Edinburgh, which are being used by a minotaur as his temporary Scottish labyrinth, and the centaur’s use of dark magic is witnessed by his own friends – a selkie, a fairy, a phoenix and a token human girl - causing them to question his use and abuse of power.

As you can probably tell, First Aid For Fairies is a fantasy. It’s not set in contemporary real-life America, or the Middle East, or Guantanamo Bay. It’s a fantasy. And the fact that this wonderful teacher used this scene to encourage her pupils to talk about ethics and link them to current global concerns, proves something that I’ve always believed. Fantasy and fairy tales – stories set in magical worlds safely distant from our day-to-day lives – are very strong tools to allow us to examine our real world.

So, the power of class novels to prompt discussion, the power of fantasy to give us a new way to look at reality - this PS gave me pause to think about both of those issues. But the main reason this PS took my breath away was because it reminded me of the awesome responsibility of writing for children.

I don’t write stories with messages, I write stories with ambushes, chases and magic spells. But I also choose to write about characters and situations that allow me to explore questions which fascinate and concern me. I write because I want readers to enjoy the stories I imagine, I don’t write with the intention of teaching moral lessons (never, ever!) But I am incredibly moved and impressed if my books prompt young readers to explore their own questions.

It’s a privilege, an honour and a huge responsibility writing for kids, and it’s important to be reminded of that regularly. It’s also a very heavy weight to carry. But I suspect if we didn’t recognise the size of the responsibility, and occasionally stagger under its weight, we shouldn’t be doing it…

So, having almost recovered from this email, I’m now very much looking forward to meeting this thoughtful and wonderful class, and their amazing teacher, in a few weeks’ time.

But first, I’m off to explore questions of identity and choice, lightly disguised as a trilogy about shapeshifters… 

Lari Don is the award-winning author of more than 20 books for all ages, including fantasy novels for 8 – 12s, picture books, retellings of traditional tales, a teen thriller and novellas for reluctant readers. 

Lari’s website 

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Joy To The World – Ruth Hatfield

I was stuck between two subjects this month, but it really is nearly Christmas (please don’t shoot!), so I’m going to go for the happier subject, and make it brief.

On the 17^th of November (coincidentally - shameless plug alert - the publication date for my new book), I was invited to Thurston Community College in Suffolk to help launch their latest Reading Challenge. I was vaguely aware that things like this went on in schools, but it was a superb reminder of how much the enthusiasm and drive of schools matters in all our lives. The staff at Thurston think that emphasising the unique pleasure of reading is the best way to persuade students to read, and to that end have even appointed a ‘Reading Tsar’, Mr Harrison, who organises the Reading Challenge (other staff are involved, too, but unfortunately I didn’t get any of their surnames in the bustle). 

There were readings – some from me and some from a few talented students, and talk and tea and biscuits and book sales and book passports, but the highlight for me was being given the opportunity to stand up in front of an audience of interested children and parents and tell them how much I love reading, and how important I think it is.

When I was preparing for the visit, in spite of the fact that I can bore on for England about how much I, personally, love books, I had to think long and hard to explain the reasons why, exactly, I consider reading so important. Despite the fact that I write every day, it wasn’t easy to find the words for something I feel so deeply. But in the end I boiled it down to this:

Reading is the best way to join the universal, vital quest to understand human nature. When you open a book, you are opening yourself up to the possibility of trying to understand someone else’s ideas. It’s incredibly important, right now, when there’s so much rubbish spoken in the media and over the internet about how the opinions of a majority are the only ones that count and everybody else should just shut up because their opinions are worthless. This isn’t the way to a peaceful world.

We need hope and faith not only in ourselves but in our fellow humans, and to that end, it’s so important that we try to listen to other people’s ideas. Books are the biggest, most detailed, oldest, newest resource we’ve got to help us understand each other. All human life is in books – people have been writing for thousands of years, they’re writing today, and they’ll be writing on and on into the future.

I so believe it’s true. If we watch the world as it whizzes by, it often feels like we’re just being shouted at. If we read, we have autonomy, and time to think and analyse. Reading is how the past talks to us, authentically, in its own voice, and how the murky future sometimes flashes ominously before us.

Reading is great.

And being invited into a school and asked to say that out loud? Such a massive privilege. 

The Book of Storms - picture by Nicolas Delort

Markets, Institutions and Children's Books: Is there a problem? - Emma Barnes

This post is by way of being a Part 2. In Part 1 I wrote about how different kinds of books  reach a reader's hands in different ways. I used the example of my own favourite childhood reads to show that while some books make their way to the reader directly through the “market” (in my case this was often through the medium of DL's Book Exchange, a bookshop in Edinburgh), others may rely on “non-market” institutions – libraries, schools, prize committees – to champion them, and to allow them to reach what may often be much more of a slow-build or niche readership.
I argued that both the commercial mass market and the non-market institutions had a role to play in championing different kinds of books, and allowing a real variety for all tastes and all readers.
I summarised the advantages and disadvantages of both as follows:

Good Things About the Market

• Not snobbish – if a child likes it, and parents prepared to buy it, they will publish it.
• Interested in all age groups and tastes – all “markets” in fact.
• Respects “genre” books – school stories, humour, ponies, mysteries etc
• Want books to be attractive and so compete with other entertainment/consumer goods.

Bad Things About Market

• Publicity potential, celebrity tie-ins, “hooks”, “high concept”, current fashions, may all end up more important than inherent quality.
• “Quieter” books, experimental books, unusual protagonists, niche interests etc may all get overlooked.
• Responds to purchasing power – which means some groups of readers will be neglected.

Good Things About Non-Market Institutions

• Don't just have to think about profit
• May be more likely to reward innovation, experiment or pure literary quality
• Can allow children to discover more 'educational” or worthy themes, or pursue minority interests by providing slow-burn, non-glitzy books
• May help to include groups with low purchasing power

Bad Things About the Non-Market Institutions

• May be overly “worthy” or snobbish – eg about genre books, overtly “commerical” titles – or inversely snobbish (eg the 1970s backlash against “elitist” titles)
• Has its own fads and fashions
• Adult-led – danger of losing touch with child readers
• May have objectives which may come before pure quality or enjoyment.

Where are we now? 

It's often said that we live in a new “Golden Age” of children's books. But I think as a writer, a parent and a children's book lover, there are reasons for concern.

On one level, the market is doing its bit – there are an enormous quantity of books out there: 10,000 new titles for children are published every year in the UK. Most of them are available at the click of a button from Amazon – often very cheaply). There's also evidence at the moment that children's book sales are performing more strongly than other kinds of book.  But many of use know all too well that many kids are not coming into contact with this richness. Bookshops have been closing at a frightening rate. The choice in supermarkets is extremely narrow. (Many of those 10,000 titles surely never appear in a shop at all.) Inevitably, publishers are finding it hard to bring new books to the attention of the book-buying public (the decline in newspaper review space does not help) and to build up new authors: hence the growth in celebrity authors who can garner their own publicity. As for Amazon and co – well, if you don't already know what you want, the millions of titles available at the click of a button really doesn't do you a lot of good.

Meanwhile in schools libraries and librarians often do not exist. School Library Services – which provide vital support and expertise to individual schools – are closing fast. Public libraries have been targeted for closures and cutbacks. (There were 600 fewer libraries in the UK in 2014 than 2004, and 500 of these had closed since 2010. Source: CIPFA public library statistics.) The role of libraries is being squeezed in more subtle ways than simple closures also. For example, for cost reasons librarians often have to rely on private companies to choose their stock – and may have little time to read, assess and choose books. Teachers may also find it hard to choose and recommend books for their pupils's general reading, given that they are given little training in children's literature or time to keep up with new titles.

All this means that the non-market infrastructure is being eroded. The informed discussion about children's books – what's out there, what works and what doesn't – diminishes. That informed discussion doesn't always get it right, but as a counterweight and a complement to the purely commercial, it's important that it exists. These days I doubt very much that anybody would worry about some librarians who decided to go on a vendetta against a popular author such as Enid Blyton. (Thank goodness for that.) But the flip side is that librarians and teachers may no longer have the confidence or the clout to make any impact on market trends.

In Part 1 I referred to the life story of Kaye Webbe, and how the Puffin imprint she ran flourished in an environment of expanding library services and thriving independent bookstores. That environment is very different now.(In this respect the UK situation seems very different than the USA, where both school and public libraries are still vital and powerful shapers of which children's books succeed.) All this is why even an interested adult, whether teacher or parent, can end up struggling to find the books they need or want for their child, and can feel dependent on a limited choice of bestsellers, celebrity-authored books, or old favourites from childhood. Its frustrating knowing there are so many new books out there, and not being able to identify the ones you really want to buy and read. And certain kinds of books – the more “worthy” or "niche" kind, which maybe need a place on a library shelf where the right child will eventually happen upon them – may be overlooked. 

 Am I being too gloomy here? I hope so. Please let me know what you think...
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Emma's Wild Thing series for 8+ about the naughtiest little sister ever. (Cover - Jamie Littler)
"Hilarious and heart-warming" The Scotsman

 Wolfie is a story of wolves, magic and snowy woods...
(Cover: Emma Chichester Clark)
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