An imaginative initiative that offers early KS3 children the chance to choose and own a book from a carefully curated selection
It has to be the Holy Grail of the literary world – getting 11- to 13-year-olds into reading. Yet I don’t think the difficulty of doing so comes down to lack of choice. Enter any major bookshop and you’ll be faced with an almost overwhelming range of ‘young adult’ titles.
No, the challenge, I suspect, is getting the right books in front of the right children at the right time. And this is where Bookbuzz can be a real boon for secondary school libraries.
Managed by BookTrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity, Bookbuzz is an imaginative initiative that works on multiple levels.
First and foremost, it’s a scheme intended to get younger secondary students reading, building on or reinstilling a love of books that would hopefully have been nurtured through primary school. It also helps to smooth the transition from KS2 to KS3 by fostering a sense of communal interest in books that can draw pupils together.
At the core of Bookbuzz is a carefully curated collection of age appropriate titles. And to the cynics among you, no, said selection is not based around those publishers with the loudest marketing departments.
Instead, it’s the result of a panel of librarians, teachers and other relevant experts whittling a longlist of over 300 nominated titles down to a final 16.
And as you’d hope, the final selection spans fiction and non-fiction and reflects admirable diversity, so that there really is something for everyone.
As part of the launch pack, schools signing up to the scheme will receive two copies of each book, plus a host of other goodies such as bookmarks and posters to generate interest in the scheme.
They’ll also gain access to videos that provide brief introductions to each book, along with a host of other online resources.
“The final selection has something for everyone”
Once they’ve seen what’s on offer, each pupil is then allowed to order one book from the list to keep. This is important, since personal book ownership really matters. I’ve personally held on to a number of books from my childhood – not least because they were chosen by me, and belonged to me.
Schools already part of the scheme report that it has helped to boost reader engagement and build bonds between new pupils during that crucial transition phase.
Furthermore, with the price of admission set at only £3.45 per head, that makes each pupil’s personal copy almost as cheap as a politician’s remaindered memoirs, while at the same time providing a very welcome boost to their school library’s stock. Now, that’s what I call a happy ending…
