“One Child, One Teacher, One Book, One Pen.”

Happy library days!

The epilogue to Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography begins with the words of this post’s title; she expands upon them as she asks world leaders to offer children education across the world: “Let us pick up our books … our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.” Her words highlight something crucial for me – the role of reading in young people’s spiritual and educational development – and the subsequent spread and cultivation of ideas. Before I began my Publishing MA, I was a librarian in Abu Dhabi. I read as many children’s stories as I could, read a lot of picture books, and listened and watched a little. I came to a few conclusions in watching children read.

The key thing is that reading can and should be shared, if a child is going to learn to love books. It was one of the reasons we hosted book fairs and had an author come to visit us, one of the reasons we bought wall stickers (quotes from books) and added those to the library decorations. Some struggling readers may not necessarily ‘see’ a story beyond the problem of decoding and analysing it. While reading as a skill is crucial, stories and the immersive nature of them is what makes a book fun (losing yourself, living in another character’s world and thoughts). Children need to know that a book is a story, as much a world to be lived in as a movie could be. To me, this happens when adults take the necessary time to nurture a love of books, showing them that reading is about stories. There is something magical about reading picture books to very young children for this reason.

Another thing was the timeless value of printed books; I still love seeing young people digging with their hands into library bookcases, as opposed to swiping fingertips across screens. It was good likewise to see our pupils clutching signed print copies of books brought to our library by a visiting author. Academics from Stanford and Munich are arguing that the mere presence of books and bookcases in a house has a positive impact on a child’s achievements: “Books at home are the single most important predictor of student performance in most countries.” (See link here.) This is not to negate the incredible development of eBooks, the brilliance of story and spelling apps from publishers like Nosy Crow or Oxford University Press, or aimed to discourage those children who prefer reading on tablets – but for me (and hopefully for most), print and digital, old and new, can and should coexist. (On the subject of apps, Nosy Crow posted this via their blog some time ago, which is worth a read.)

If nothing else, I took away from my library work the vital place of libraries as relevant, powerful hubs for nurturing reading and learning. I really loved it whenever a picture book that proved a hit and several children the following week would come in asking to borrow it; I loved recommending books, having books recommended, reading one-to-one with people, deciphering the meanings of misunderstood words in English and Arabic, or dissecting the finer plot points of J.K. Rowling and steady building of canon over a certain series of seven stories. An adult’s input – librarian, teacher, parent, etc. – can, I think, help create the bedrock and foundation for a lifetime’s reading, and I haven’t stopped loving the books I loved when I was younger any less. This nurturing of great children’s literature is part of what makes children’s publishing such an exciting industry to be a part of.