Judging a book – X Factor style
HALLOWEEN may be well passed but students at one Birmingham school are knee-deep in vampires and ghouls as they read their way through a pile of books.
Young people at Holyhead School in Handsworth are preparing to take part in a Birmingham-wide books competition in which they read a choice of 14 titles and gradually vote them off in an X Factor-style contest.
It is the sixth year Birmingham Schools Libraries Service has held its KS3 competition, with previous winners including Justin Somper’s Vampirates and Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Schools across the city receive free copies of all the titles and pupils are encouraged to read them, discuss them and post comments on a council-run website before eliminating them one by one.
At Holyhead, it has become an annual event and many of the pupils taking part this year were also involved in the previous competition which saw Alan Gibbons’ Scared to Death taking first place.
Mo Noble, open learning centre manager at the school, is responsible for organising the competition at Holyhead and has been hard at work creating displays of this year’s titles.
“It is a really good way of extending the young people’s reading,” she says. “They are picking books up and reading them which they may not have chosen to read otherwise.”
At Holyhead School the reading discussions form part of the English class led by English teacher Veronica Anthrobus.
“We tend to pick one a week and have a reading session and discussion,” she says. “The pupils can then do their blogs which they really enjoy.
“It has really extended their reading but also given them a lot of confidence in expressing their views. Some of them stand up in class and talk about why they like or don’t like a particular book.”
Veronica has one golden rule for all of those taking part.
“They have to read the first chapter and then blog on it,” she says. “If they really don’t like it they don’t have to continue but they do need to be able to say why.”
And some of the pupils have received surprising feedback on their blog entries. Birmingham Libraries Services arranges a celebration where some of the authors are invited to talk to the children – and they have commented on the young people’s views.
“Two of our pupils have had blog entries read out at these events,” says Veronica. “One of the authors Michaela Morgan said that she was sitting in her flat feeling a bit down then she read one of the blogs from one of our pupils and it really cheered her up. It was lovely as the pupil was able to go and introduce herself and get the book signed.”
