I was lucky enough to grow up with parents who although weren’t great readers themselves, read to me every single night. They inspired my love of reading to this very day and this blog written during the week of World Book Day 2019 is a little story of my reading journey…

It began with a huge collection of ladybird books. I still have all of my originals in the loft- Peter and Jane, The Princess and the Pea, The Musicians of Bremen (how dark) Rumplestiltskin, Puss in Boots and many many more. My favourite book at this time was a book called The Teddy Bears Picnic which was a Berenstain Bears book (I still have this too) and my poor dad had to read this over and over and over again. After this came James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then I discovered one of my favourite writers of all time- Enid Blyton and I just didn’t have enough books to keep me occupied. 

One of my most vivid memories of this time was visiting Fenwick’s in Newcastle every other Saturday and being lucky enough each visit to get a new book. I still remember being sat on the carpet in the toy department and reading the blurbs and smelling the covers (I have no idea why) and still to this day my ritual is the same. Be caught by the cover, feel the smoothness of the book, read the blurb and smell the spine (don’t judge me!) It was during this period that I worked my way through books such as Mr Meddle’s Muddles, Naughty Amelia Jane and my favourite book ever- The Magic Faraway Tree. For me, the beauty of books and reading is the ability to get lost in a completely different, magical land and how I often wished I could end up in some of the lands of Moon Face and Co. I was lucky enough to read some of the original manuscripts of The Magic Faraway Tree at Seven Stories in Newcastle and I feel I should apologise now to any of my ex sixth formers reading this who I subjected to a reading of the book on the floor of Seven Stories! My love affair with Enid Blyton continued with The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, Mallory Towers, St Clare’s, The Five Find Outers and so, so many more (all of which I still have) There’s no greater book thrill than seeing students today picking up an Enid Blyton.

So many books prompt so many memories. I discovered Catherine Cookson from my nanna’s huge collection and every Sunday that I visited her, she let me bring a new one home. I moved on to Virginia Andrews and remember being mesmerised by the stories of the children in the attic (I still have these too) A few years ago a student used to bring these to silent reading sessions in English, so it was great to see another generation of readers finding pleasure in books that I’d read over 20 years ago.

My next memories are the books of my A Level and degree- Dickens- Bleak House, Hardy, Defoe, Shakespeare, Shelley, Flaubert and many many more.

Then came the Harry Potter stage and I vividly remember waiting for the postman as a twenty something year old to deliver the latest instalment. I wouldn’t leave the house until I’d finished the entire book in one sitting. It felt like losing a really close friend when I came to the end of that last one. Her Strike books written under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith are equally as brilliant. 

If it isn’t apparent from what I’ve said so far, I LOVE books. I can’t get enough of them, I panic when I haven’t got a shelf of new ones to read and my favourite conversations are always with students who are passionate about reading. I truly believe in the power of every child being a reader and that journey begins with a person who can find a way in with a certain child and a certain book. 

My journey continues even today when I don’t have as much time to read.. I am a voracious reader whenever I get the chance to devour books and I remember once going on holiday for 3 weeks, reading 17 books and having to get my mam to bring out more when she flew out to meet me. My husband loved me as I insisted on taking them all home to add to my bookshelves. Needless to say we were over on our baggage allowance.

So what do I read today? Well I do try to read a lot of YA fiction so I can recommend them to my students and I always try to share what I read as recommendations to others. My first love has always been and will always be fiction, but I do like the occasional non fiction autobiography or true crime (Think Trueman Capote- In Cold Blood) My favourites of the last few years are too numerous to mention but I’ve really enjoyed the Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafon and in particular Shadow of the Wind. Khaled Hosseini is another favourite and I’m lucky enough to teach The Kite Runner. But actually, it doesn’t really matter- I’m happy as long as I’ve got a book in my hand. When people ask me why it’s important to read, I can feel myself get really emotional about the power of reading. Reading has made me who I am today, it’s opened up a myriad of new worlds and it’s given me a passion and enthusiasm for learning. It’s developed my own written style, developed my own vocabulary and inspired a curiosity to learn. I only hope that over the years in my role as a teacher, I might have inspired a few others to become a reader. This purpose will never change.

So to conclude….Although these days it’s a little more difficult with a two year old to keep me entertained, already I hope my love of reading has rubbed off on her. She has mountains of books and each night she sits on either my knee or my husband’s, looks up to us, says “book book” and we read to her. At the end of every story she kisses the front cover of the book goodnight. Isn’t it just magical what a book can do?