Reading Rights: Books Build a Brighter Future
An interview with our new Waterstones’s Children’s Laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce
At a ceremony in Leeds on 2 July, Frank Cottrell-Boyce assumed the role of Waterstones Children’s Laureate. In a passionate speech, full of urgency, he set out his intentions: to address the inequalities that mean so many children in our society miss out on the benefits of reading and being read to; and to ensure that children’s books are valued and taken seriously. Four days into his two-year tenure, he discussed his plans with Books for Keeps.
It was in November 2023 that Frank was offered the role of Children’s Laureate. He was in Warrington, opening a library; something, as he points out, that you don’t get to do very often these days. An auspicious beginning perhaps to his term, and we are speaking on the morning after the General Election (Frank has been up watching results since 4.00am), so there’s a strong sense of optimism and of sleeves being rolled up in preparation for work ahead. He’s determined, he says, ‘to make a measurable difference in the role’ and has been laying the ground since November, approaching people he wants to help deliver his aims. Keeping the appointment a secret has been a real challenge.
Asked what made him decide to take the role on, his response is instant: ‘Anger.’ He is furious at the inequality he sees on school visits and already has plans in place to tackle it. ‘I’ve seen great practice in schools [around the promotion of reading] and if there was a vehicle for sharing that, you could improve things massively without needing any kind of major policy shift or budget change.’
He quotes as an example, something he saw in a school in Tower Hamlets. ‘The school didn’t have a library, so your immediate reaction tends to be, “well, this school needs a library”, but their literacy lead did this thing where she went around the classes every half term with a box of books and personally recommended each book in it: “This is a really funny one. This made me cry,” etc and then asked the children, holding them up, “So who wants to read this one?” By the time she got to the last in the box, there was more or less a riot. She’s handing them out saying, “You know you’ve got to read it quickly because that girls wants it too so you can have it first, but remember, she wants to read it too”. Her curation of that cardboard box was worth a lovely state-of-the-art library that actually isn’t used properly. So, using this type of solution seems an easy thing to share and it’s evidently enjoyable.’
He plans to bring together people who know what works and share what they’re doing and is delighted that a lot of the people and organisations he wants to involve in these discussions have already approached him, while he’s also been offered venues to host them.
This is an area where his background as a screenwriter is an advantage too. ‘If you make a movie, you have a really strong sense that all the pieces matter – you need the electricians and joiners and caterers and makeup people, as well as the actors. I’m the right person for this too because I’ve been around a long time. I’ve got an address book and a lot of practice at being good in a room which quite a lot of writers don’t have. Making movies is all about being in the room and listening and taking notes and being comfortable talking to people.’
Amongst those he wants in the room are people who are successfully promoting books and reading to the very young. ‘Early years is more important than anything: how do we get to the 50% of nought to three-year olds who are not read to? So that means reaching health visitors, grandparents… How do we contact them? How do we how do we praise the ones who are doing it and share what they’re doing? It’s a matter of collating that evidence and sharing that practice.’
He’s happy to admit he doesn’t have the answers to these questions, it’s all about asking. That will include questioning things we tend to value without question: ‘A library that’s not working as it should, is not worth anything.’ His acceptance speech talks about a ‘massive national investment’ in children’s reading, but that’s not necessarily one requiring huge amounts of money. ‘I’d love by the end of this tenure to produce some kind of systemic change that says it’s part of the core mission of this government that every child gets the chance to be read to in their early years, whatever that takes. And I’m sure at some point that’s going to take some money or some guidance, but it doesn’t seem to be a huge ask given that it’s happening in some parts of the country already.’
As to why reading to children has fallen off in recent years, while he’s more interested in fixing it than in lamenting it, he does identify certain issues, ‘We live in a world of distraction, and we’ve failed to value boredom, and we’ve failed to value stillness and quiet. These are not expensive commodities, but it turns out that they are crucial commodities. And I think we can bring them back.’
His other aim is to have the value of children’s books properly appreciated, something he thinks would have significant impact. ‘Sometimes initiatives don’t land because there’s a lack of public conversation around children’s books.’ He’s been highlighting the lack of coverage for children’s books in that national conversation for some time and will continue lobbying for a better quality of discussion around children’s literature. He admits that his experience interviewing authors and illustrators for The Island of Brilliant, the podcast he broadcasts with Nadia Shireen, has made him more aware for example of the extraordinary amount of work that goes into creating a picture book. He’ll be carrying on with the podcast, ‘I see it as the parish magazine for children’s books’, he says.
When he’s not in those rooms with people in the know, or putting together the parish magazine, Frank will still be making school and festival visits, and hopefully opening more libraries, his energy and determination to make a tangible difference, to increase the sum of happiness in our children, unmissable.
