Volunteer Reading Help: Anne Loftus Interview

On Thursday 1st July I will be speaking at the House of Commons reception of Volunteer Reading Help, the UK charity which supports children’s literacy development through one-to-one mentoring.


You can find out more about my experiences with the charity here, but today we’re joined by Anne Loftus, who wears two hats as a Volunteer Services Manager and as a Reading Helper in her own right. Anne is based in Kent and was responsible for training me as a Helper way back in the day!


How did you first get involved with VRH?
My involvement with VRH started in November 1993 when I was lucky enough to be taken on as a Volunteer Services Manager in Kent. My role involved recruiting and training volunteers who would then give individual help to children who were struggling with reading and in need of some 1:1 support. It is the best job in the world as you meet such wonderful, caring people who want to give something back to their local community and help children with their reading and confidence.


How long have you been working as a Reading Helper?
I have worked as a VSM for almost 17 years and became a Volunteer Reading Helper myself 4 years ago. I worked with a Looked After Child, Ryan, after school for just over a year and when he moved on to secondary school I worked with his younger brother, Tristan.


What were your first experiences of the programme like?
Although I had been training volunteers for many years it was very different becoming a volunteer myself. Ryan had a lot of problems and could be quite difficult at times. Without the knowledge of the VRH training I think I would have found him very difficult to cope with. Through playing games I was able to calm him down when necessary.


How have things changed at VRH in the intervening years?
The content of the training has not changed very much, although it has been updated regularly. Our volunteers have always been carefully selected; we still interview all volunteers, take up references and run an enhanced CRB check before training. Our main way of working – giving children choices, making the sessions fun and relaxed, putting no pressure on the child – this has not changed since VRH began in 1973.


What is your proudest achievement as a Helper?
My proudest achievement as a VRH Reading Helper is the day Tristan stood on the podium at the House of Commons last year and read his poem “I Like Lambourghinis”! I thought I would burst with pride!! I have worked with Tristan for 3 years now, following him to secondary school last autumn (his choice!) His confidence and reading ability has grown immensely.


How have you developed personally as a result of your involvement with VRH?
Working as a VRH Reading Helper is so rewarding and fulfilling. To see a child’s face light up when they see you and to share the very special time with a child – sometimes just chatting or reading the child a story. My own confidence has grown and meeting such wonderful people is a tonic.


Why should people volunteer their time with VRH?
If a person likes the company of children and enjoys reading, it is the most perfect form of volunteering. Plenty of patience and a sense of humour are quite important too. Just 3 hours per week and you can help to change a child’s life forever. The work is rewarding and great fun too. I truly believe that our volunteers get as much from the sessions as the children.


There will be more on Volunteer Reading Help at this blog in the run-up to the Commons event.
If you’d like to get involved with VRH, or just find out more about their incredible work, go to http://vrh.org.uk/Page.aspx

Star Wars, but with bees

Late last year I entered the New Scientist science fiction competition. My story told of Chilean beekeepers sabotaging New Zealand's honey crop while being chased by wildlife protection robots.


I have to admit that one of the winning stories, about genetically modified burgers, did the whole sci-fi-food-nightmare thing a LOT better.

But I feel quite pleased to discover that just like in my story, where the robots used lidar (like radar, but with lasers) to hunt down Chilean bees by scanning for wingbeats, the latest bug-zapping technology uses lasers to scan for, and identify, insects. See here!

Almost like I was writing proper science fiction!

All of this is on my mind because a swarm of bees is shifting from tree to tree in the back garden, neither settling nor moving on. Sometimes I hear the buzzy vuvuzela horns being blown at the World Cup matches on TV and think that the swarm has invaded the kitchen.

But have you prepared for an attack...by killer BEES?

There will be more science fiction coming to this blog soon when Books and Adventures is joined in July by Professor Mark Brake and Jon Chase the Science Rapper, who are touring the country to promote this year's Summer Reading Challenge.

Until then, you can find out more about the challenge here.

Steve Killick Interview

This week we’re lucky enough to have an interview with Steve Killick. Steve is a storyteller and clinical psychologist whose book Telling Tales, written with Taffy Thomas, is a great practical guide for people interested in education, storytelling and emotional literacy.

You can find out more about Steve and his wide-ranging work here.

What does storytelling do that stories in books can't?

I think what is happening when a story is told and heard is very different than when it is read. When told the teller is able to engage the listeners by their creation of the story, they can bring many aspects of non-verbal communication in, such as tone-of-voice, gesture, facial expression these all provide stimuli for the imagination. Most importantly the storyteller can modulate the delivery depending on how the listeners are reacting. Reading stories are good for us but by telling a story we bring it into the social domain and increase the usefulness of the experience.

One reason for this is that we think in story terms anyway and often socially we are telling each other stories, the everyday kind, what’s happening to us, our successes and achievements. By listening to stories we understand a lot about people, our imagination is stimulated and we can think more flexibly and creatively and we also learn how to tell stories by listening, and that is an important social skill. Reading fiction can help to develop social and cognitive skills in children such as language and empathy. Hearing stories can help children not only become more interested in reading but also it directly develops important interpersonal skills particularly speaking and listening.

How does storytelling benefit us, as children and as adults?

I think storytelling is one of the most beneficial activities human being can engage in but the evidence to support such a claim is limited. We know stories can certainly develop language and other cognitive skills. Stories also just inform us about the world around us, our history (or hi ’story’), they tell us what is socially valued, what’s good, bad, moral and so on. Basically they tell us about life. They are powerful things and can be abused as well. As a psychologist, I am most interested in how stories develop social and emotional skills, to understand feeling, to get in touch with them and learn how to deal with them, they help with motivation and in getting on with others.

For children stories really help us develop the key skills of what we call emotional literacy. For adults they too are very important. Many people are drawn to stories in drama on TV or film or in reading fiction. Keith Oatley, a leading psychologist in the study of emotions, feels that is because they help us attune with emotions. Being involved in a story is like a work-out at the gym for our emotional mind. However, many adults have not had the experience of listening to a good story well told and dismiss it as something for children. They are missing a wonderful experience.

Do you need special training to become a storyteller?

As an art form storytelling is one that is relatively easy to learn. It is a natural capacity and can be developed through practise. It’s not about learning how to do voices or anything like that, more about finding a style that works for you. Much can be learned through listening and watching people tell stories especially skilled and professional tellers. If someone is really interested in storytelling and especially performance storytelling then doing some training is certainly recommended and many storytellers offer training. I think most people can learn the basics of storytelling easily and find ways to use them at home or work. To become a professional storyteller needs a lot of study and isn’t for everyone.

What does "happily ever after" really mean?
Great question. Its major function is to say simply that’s the end of the story – all the issues are now resolved and it is over. Like ‘Once upon a time’ which starts a story, the phrase marks out the boundaries of the story world. It is, of course, symbolic rather than literal. Jon Kabot-Zinn felt its really meaning was almost the opposite to ‘ever after’- rather it refers to happiness in the here and now, the present – and of course the present moment is the eternal moment. I liked that! I also think there is another symbolic meaning in fairy tales for often these stories are about growing up. When the hero or heroine marries and receives untold riches it is really saying they have had an experience which has taken them to maturity and they are now able to live as mature adults. This is why many fairy stories send optimistic messages, even the least favoured smallest child can grow up to succeed.


Do you have an all-time favourite story to hear, or tell?
I don’t know about an all-time favourite but certainly a story that has obsessed me for the last few years is the ancient Indian story of King Vikram and a corpse he is fated to carry. However, his burden is inhabited by a spirit who instructs him in wisdom in living through a series of tantalising riddling stories. I have been tracking down different version of this story for year. I also tell it and am trying to rewrite my own version and I’m always finding new things in it.

Spies and Maltesers

I was mistaken for a spy this week.


I was waiting for a friend in Blackheath, reading a newspaper and trying to keep out of the rain by standing under a tree.


When we finally met up and went for dinner at a restaurant overlooking the heath, our waiter accused me of being a secret agent. Luckily I was able to talk my way out of it and my cover wasn’t blown!


Over on Stories from the Web, mechanimate has written about another spy, Alex Rider – or rather his creator, Anthony Horowitz.


I’ve never read one of the Alex Rider stories, but I’ve been a big fan of another Horowitz book, The Falcon’s Malteser, ever since I read it aged 10. It's part of his series about the Diamond Brothers, hapless private detectives in London.

South Americans, cemeteries, gangsters and chocolate, all with a light honeycomb centre: that's my kind of story!


Check out mechanimate’s post on Anthony Horowitz here.

Shark on the Radio

'Shark with the Mind of a Rabbit', my story for 5-7 year olds which picked up an ABCTales.com prize earlier in the year, is on the radio this coming Saturday.

You can catch it on Abracadabra Radio at 10am, or read the story at ABCTales.com, here.

Playbox Review

Photo by James Blay

Last week I wrote a review of 'The Bloody Chamber', a stage adaptation of Angela Carter's book, devised and performed by the youth theatre company Playbox.

You can find my review at Claire Massey's blog, The Fairytale Cupboard, here.

Outside In

This week’s interview is with Edgardo Zaghini of Outside In, a UK organisation that supports the translation of children’s books from overseas.

What does Outside In do?

Outside In is the UK organisation dedicated to promoting, exploring and celebrating books from around the world, particularly children's books in translation. We are a small organisation with big ideas. We find innovative ways to introduce UK audiences to books, writers and illustrators from around the world, particularly children’s books in translation.

Outside In was established following the success of Outside In: Children’s Books in Translation, written by Deborah Hallford and myself, and published by Milet in 2005 and supported with a grant by the Arts Council of England.

We were officially launched in April 2007 at the International Bologna Children’s Book Fair with help from The Gruffalo’s Axel Scheffler.

We are a small team of freelance children’s book specialists, ensuring minimal overheads so vital funds goes straight to the core activity. The team is supported by a highly skilled and experienced board of trustees and Patrons (who include Axel Scheffler, Wendy Cooling, Sarah Ardizzone and Carla Poesio).

Why is it important for children’s fiction to be translated into English?

At Outside In, we believe that UK audiences have the right to enjoy books from all over the world and that these books should be readily translated into English.

As well as introducing new writing and illustration, exploring these books can help readers to explore and make sense of the world and can increase cross-cultural understanding, respect and dialogue.

Children in the UK have extremely limited access to books from around the world. Under 3% of children’s books published in the UK were originally written in a language other than English, whilst on the continent around 40% of books for children are typically translated from another country.

What is your proudest achievement to date?

It has to be our first project: ‘Reading Round the World’ which was developed with the specific aim of responding to children’s lack of exposure to books from other countries by delivering a programme of innovative, fun and highly interactive events across the UK.

‘Reading Round the World’ events explored books from all over the world, particularly books in translation. They also promoted cross-cultural awareness and understanding and, importantly, did not just introduce children to the books themselves, but also to their creators, by bringing international artists from a range of countries around the world into children’s own classrooms to interact and engage with UK audiences.

Through the programme, classrooms, libraries and public spaces across the UK have welcomed artists from Argentina, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Spain (Catalonia), Sweden, Thailand and the UK. The workshops were fun, highly participative and carefully tailored to meet the specific needs of each audience. The programme has also included a number of events aimed at adult audiences.

‘Reading Round the World’ was funded by the Arts Council of England together with other partnership funding.

Here are some statistics:

• 43 Events - 38 workshops with schools and libraries and five adult events

• Activity reached over 1,000 children, as well as 250 adults through adult events.

• The ages of the children and young people ranged from Year 1 – Year 13 (ages 5 – 18)

• 24 children and young people in foster care

• Children with behavioural problems, learning disabilities and physical disabilities.

• 98.5% of participating children enjoyed their involvement in the programme.

• 89% of children stated that their involvement had made them want to read more books from other countries.

What is your own favourite children’s book in translation?

There are so many excellent books in translation both old and new, but if I have to choose one in particular it has to be Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner with illustrations by Walter Trier and first published in English in 1931. The idea of a young boy’s adventure in a big city like Berlin before the war is both irresistible and highly enjoyable even today after 80 years of its publication.

How can people find out more and get involved?

We work with schools, libraries and other organisations. If you have any ideas or would like to get involved please contact us by email on info@OutsideInWorld.org.uk. You can also find our more about our work by visiting our website www.outsideinworld.org.uk which features more than 600 children’s books that have been translated into English. Here you can also browse or search by continent, country and age group.