Friday, March 15, 2013

Learning to Read

If you were fortunate, you will have essentially picked up reading by osmosis like I did. I was a voracious reader and, as a result, found writing, spelling and communication easy and accessible. My two eldest sons picked up reading in much the same way and are still great readers at nineteen and sixteen. Up until recently, I hadn’t believed adults who despaired of getting their kids to read. “Surely everyone picks up reading eventually,” I would scoff, “if only given the right books.”

This was until my third child arrived, nine years ago, as bonny and bright a baby as you could possibly imagine. He was slow to speak and even at three years old was still using baby talk, which I put down to being the youngest and most adored child and never really having to articulate his needs. In Prep, his teacher approached me halfway through the year with concerns about his level of literacy. I refused to listen. “He’s in Prep, for goodness sakes!” I would tell my friends. “He should be playing with sand and water not sitting at a desk! Everyone learns to read at different ages, he’ll pick it up eventually.”

But he didn’t. Despite both his parents being writers, having read to him every night from the day he was born and growing up in a household of books, my son just couldn’t seem to pick up reading. By the middle of grade two his confidence plummeted. He began saying he was stupid and hated school. Every subject required reading and so he found he was good at nothing. Even maths, which he had previously managed easily, now consisted of written problems, not numerical. Eventually I was forced to admit that we were going to have to do something. My hands-off, let him take his own time approach was obviously not working. 

So, we started looking for help. Kumon, SPELD, computer programs, tutors, therapists, doctors. You name it, we tried it. Our son inched forward, but ever so slowly. But what was most frustrating was that while his classmates were discovering the joys of Tashi, Andy Griffiths and Harry Potter, my son was stuck with school readers that were so mind-numbingly dull that even I had sit on my hands to prevent myself from gouging my eyes out! 

At around this time, I was approached by a publisher to begin a new series for early readers. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. She mentioned that her research had shown that there was a lack of good material around for young children learning to read. I could have kissed her. We agreed we needed to focus on strong characters and exciting storylines to give struggling readers the incentive they needed to keep turning the pages. We decided we wanted them to feel real. There were a lot of stories around at the time featuring princesses and fairies, spies and pirates, but little that reflected kids’ own lives. 

That afternoon, I went home and pulled out all my old Dr Suess books. My son had declared he had outgrown them because “picture books were for babies”. He was desperate to be seen reading novels like his friends were. So, the challenge as I saw it, was to write something that looked like a short novel but was almost as easy to read as The Cat In The Hat

In case you’re unfamiliar with the story behind The Cat In The Hat, in 1954, a magazine published an article on illiteracy, which suggested that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. A publisher, William Spaulding, compiled a list of 348 words he felt were important for first-graders to recognize and asked Theodor Seuss Geisel (aka Dr Suess) to write a book using only those words. Nine months later, using only 236 of these words, Geisel handed him the manuscript for The Cat In The Hat. It retained all the imagination of Geisel’s earlier books but could be read by early readers. 

The next set of books I dusted off were my childhood copies of Richard Scarry. I studied these books carefully to work out what had so appealed to me and decided it was Scarry’s unusual use of second person. “Doesn’t Lowly Worm look lovely in his hat?” he would write and I remember answering “Yes!” and being quite thrilled that my opinion had been sought. Looking through these books as an adult I realized this was an incredibly simple yet effective way of connecting with my young reader.

The last series I drew upon for inspiration were the Milly Molly Mandy books begun by Joyce Lankester Brisley in the 1920s. I couldn’t find my old copies but remembered them as being very simple stories about the life of a young girl. They contained no wizards or dragons, or even family tragedies to contend with, yet I still remember finding them utterly gripping. So, inspired by Seuss, Scarry and Lankester Brisley, I decided my stories would begin in second person, contain the language of a school reader and stick to the simplest day to day occurrences of a six to eight year old. Simple? Ha!

Over the next few weeks I wrote two stories using these limitations and tested them out on my son. He listened, which was a rarity at that time, and when he fidgeted or seemed to lose track of the story, I made notes in the columns to trim back or change the wording. I figured if I could keep my son interested I could keep any kid interested. After much to-ing and fro-ing with my publisher, paring back the text and cutting sentences even shorter, we arrived at our prototype: Billie B Brown, The Soccer Star. The character was feisty and tom-boyish and her best friend was a boy, which I hoped meant that even though the series was initially aimed at girls, boys might want to read them, too. An illustrator was found who, though living in New Zealand, had been born in Japan, and her slightly Manga-style illustrations gave the books a contemporary feeling I couldn’t have achieved had I illustrated them myself. We then worked on the second book, Billie B Brown, The Bad Butterfly, and had both ready to launch at the beginning of 2010.

The series grew from six books, to twelve, to twenty, with a spin-off series for boys. Three years down the track, my publishers informed me that the Billie B Brown series had sold its millionth copy. Obviously, this news is thrilling, but I wanted to tell you about something else that has been even more rewarding for me.

Every book signing I meet these parents. I recognise them straight away. Their faces are full of emotion and they are usually pushing a very shy and awkward young child ahead of them. “Tell her,” they whisper. “Tell her!” And they gently prod their beloved offspring to speak to me. The child, now even more uncomfortable, clams up even further, forcing their desperate parent to blurt out on their behalf, “My child hated reading before she found your books. She couldn’t read a thing and now she won’t put them down! I can’t tell you how grateful I am you wrote this series. I can’t tell you what it means to see her reading.”

I want to tell them, “I know. I really and truly know. I am you and I totally understand what you have been through and what you’re going through. I couldn’t feel more honoured and privileged to have been a small part of something that will offer your child a lifetime of joy and respect and ease.” But all I can manage is a simple “Thank you!” because I am trying not to mess up the spelling of their kid’s name in the book and there’s a queue of a hundred restless kids behind them and almost as many equally emotional parents. 

It’s so hard to see your kid struggle and miss out on all the things you were able to take for granted. Sometimes I feel so sad that my son will never know Charlotte or Mr Tumnus or Mowgli or the BFG as intimately as I did at his age. It’s hard to know that he will always struggle with reading even though every single night we still sit beside him and force him to read about the lifecycle of a slug or the way steam trains work and other things that frankly bore me to tears. He is getting there, slowly, slowly, and I can’t tell you how much I have come to appreciate comics over the last few years, being the sole thing he will read for pleasure. 

But the best thing, the thing that is the most rewarding of all, is that these days, when I go into his classroom, my son says proudly, “That’s my mum, she writes the Billie B Brown books and I help her!” and his friends look at him with the respect of kids who truly love books. And I feel comforted by the thought that one day he might love them, too.

This article appeared in the March 2013 issue of The Victorian Writer 

13 comments:

  1. Sally, I LOVE LOVE LOVE you! This article brought tears to my eyes. I am lucky to have kids who love to read as much as my husband and myself, but you can take some of the credit for this. My son loves your Hey Jack! books and is very excited when I bring a new one home (so keep writing please). I have boycotted home readers because I believe they will kill my child's love of reading - I too would rather stick pins in my eyes than have to go through those boring fact books one more night! My daughter enjoyed your Billie B Brown books as a young reader and we loan out her books to other friends, who love them just as much. There is so much satisfaction for them in finishing a chapter or a whole book in one evening. Thank you from my family, and I am sure many families all over Australia and the world.

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    1. Thank you for your truly lovely comment, Kymmy. I honestly feel like I have the best job in the world.

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  2. Sally, I read your article and it brought tears to my eyes. I had no idea of the depth of research that you had gone into to create these books and you have my greatest respect. I only hope you books appear on the shelves in the UK soon. love.........Margaret

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    1. Thank you Margaret. That would be amazing if they reached the UK. They have recently been released in the US, so fingers crossed! x

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  3. Same here, Sally. Your article brought tears to my eyes. What a brilliant writer you are.

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    1. Oh thank you! I am thrilled to be receiving all these lovely comments - especially for something that means so much to me.

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  4. You're such a brilliant woman.

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  5. Oh, I loved reading the "back story" here! I think Kira shared my email to her with you as my daughter began loving reading after Billie B came in her life! I am so thankful for your dedication to writing quality, age-apropriate books for the beginner reader! I can't wait to have more titles available this summer in the US!

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    1. Thank you, Heather. Yes, I did receive your email via Kira. That's great to hear your daughter is enjoying the series and I'm very excited to hear they are finding readers in the US. I think I have been very lucky to have been picked up by Kane Miller over there as they seem to be doing a tremendous job.

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  6. Two months ago my 7yr old was plodding along with her readers, way behind the level of her year 2 schoolmates. By chance we discovered Billy B books at a friends' place and were immediately offered the books for loan. I took just one saying it would take my daughter ages to read it. We took it home and it was read within the hour. I was so gobsmacked I went straight out and bought her her own books. Apparently you are visiting her school this week, Castle Cove PS. If you see a small chinese girl wearing pink tinted glasses with her hair in plaits staring at you in awe holding a Billy B book tin, could you please sign it for her? I don't think she would dare ask you because you actually "write the Billy B books" and because she is new to the school. I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for starting her on the road to discovery. She went from stuttering out her readers to picking up Roald Dahl books on her own accord. She never took to reading like her brother did, I never sat with him sounding out each letter and now because of you I do not have to do it with her. Thank you.

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    1. This is such a lovely comment Libby - thanks so much for posting. Reading things like this makes my heart sing. Of course I will sign your darling daughter's tin. I'm at Castle Cove on the 31st of this month, I believe. Please tell your daughter to come up and say hello. I have such a hectic schedule that week, I'd hate to miss her!
      Sally

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  7. Thank you for signing her book tin today. Her teacher said she sat still (miraculously) listening attentively with her mouth open staring at you the whole time. You made her day!

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  8. That's great to hear, Libby. I'm glad she enjoyed the visit. It's a lovely school.

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