News
Sparking the reading bug through the Houses
07 May 2008
To celebrate the National Year of Reading (2008), the school library has arranged to have a ‘pile’ of books given to each of the school houses.To decide which books were to become part of these ‘piles’, Mrs Vincent invited two representative members from each house to the Library, where they spent an engaging afternoon deciding which books it would be best to inflict on the other un-suspecting members of their houses.
They could have chosen (in theory) any book in the world, so it is not surprising that there is a huge amount of variation, with books varying from the favourite ‘The Travel Book’ and ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ to ‘Where’s Wally’ and ‘The Complete Cat in the Hat’.
The number of books chosen was limited only by the house budget (a portion of the overall school budget for the project that was allotted to each house for these books); however, most houses chose approximately ten and had a reasonably equal mixture of fact and fiction, though some, like Bloomsbury, favored reference, while others, like Deis, strongly favored fiction.
There was a rather obvious gender stereotyping amongst the choices: ‘How to Walk in High Heels’ for Charleston and ‘Johnny Wilkinson; My World’ for Dorms: I doubt that either house would appreciate the other’s book as much as they may appreciate their own.
Mrs Vincent was keen to point out that though these books were purchased by the Library, they are not Library books: they are the house’s books, which is why the houses were given complete control over the choosing of them and why they will be on display for reading purposes in the houses. Mrs Vincent also hopes that for some people this opportunity will be what’s needed to light the spark of reading within.
Alice Lynch, 1st Year Charleston
