Campaign of the week

The Big Issue: getting kids excited about reading

Open books

With virtual lives full of MSN, Bebo, Facebook and all the TV they can surf it’s harder than ever to get young people interested in books. The Big Issue Goes to School does it by bringing the writers to the kids.

The excitement in Stonelaw High School is palpable. Piled into their school hall, around 200 second year pupils are turned towards a scruffy bloke in a hooded jumper and jeans; 30 or so are straining to get their hands as high as they possibly can, bouncing up and down on their chairs to try and get the guy’s attention.
“How would you rate yourself compared to JK Rowling?” challenges one mischievous, grinning teenage boy.
“How much do you get paid?”
“Which is your favourite of your books?”
“Where do you get your inspiration from?”
The questions are coming thick and fast from all over the room as the kids get caught up in the excitement.
Much to the teachers’ delighted surprise, all this attention is focused not on the usual stars of music and TV but on an unlikely new idol – author Kevin Brooks, who is here as part of the Big Issue Goes To School initiative.
Launched in February, and backed by First Minister Alex Salmond, the scheme brings top young adult authors into schools and communities around Scotland and is already proving to be a hit.
Today in Rutherglen, Glasgow, Brooks’ edgy fiction and laidback persona have succeeded in getting through to the teenagers where their teachers’ previous best efforts have failed.
It’s the second time the Big Issue has worked such magic – Brooks’ fellow top teen fiction author Melvin Burgess has already persuaded some reluctant readers in Perth to give his books a shot – and more authors are already lined up to enthuse Scotland’s children about reading.
Anne Crawford has taught English at Stonelaw High School for more than 30 years and she says it’s harder than ever to get the kids interested in books.
“The big problem is computers, there’s no doubt about it,” she says. “At night they go to MSN and they chat – an hour and a half, two hours on MSN. It’s terrible. In every class you’ll get a couple of voracious readers, but for the rest of them it’s really hard to get them going.”
Every parents’ evening she and her fellow English teachers listen to the same pleas from concerned mums and dads who have houses full of books but can’t get their kids to read. Yet thanks to the Big Issue, books are now getting a look-in.
“The event has generated quite a bit of interest,” says Crawford. “Word gets round and it just generates an interest in books, and that is what we’re here to do.”

A brilliant idea
Stonelaw has a tradition of bringing in authors as a way of kick-starting a respect for the written word; over the years they’ve hosted Liz Lochhead and Alan Bisset, among others. However, it has not been easy. And with half her department’s budget going on photocopying and further cuts to their allowance just announced, Crawford says it’s becoming difficult to find the cash to keep the talks going.

Today’s Big Issue visit – totally free to the school – is a godsend for the hardworking staff.
“It’s been fantastic having it all organised for us,” says Crawford. “The Big Issue Goes To School events are a brilliant idea. My first years are now asking if they can get an author. It’s really great.”
For second year students Cree Milligan and Katy Annandale, both 13, Brooks’ visit is particularly special. Frequently teased for being the ‘bookworms’ of their year, the pair are revelling in the opportunity to broaden their reading horizons and meet an actual author.
“It was fun to get an event about something I’m interested in,” confirms Katy, grinning after challenging Brooks on a plot point in his new novel.

Both Katy and Cree got the chance to read Brooks’ latest, Black Rabbit Summer, ahead of the talk since The Big Issue and publishers Puffin arranged for the school to receive copies of the book. Normally fans of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, they nonetheless warmed to Brook’s tense and violent tale of kidnapping, disappearances and blackmail.
“It was really dark and sinister,” says Katy, who enjoyed reading so much that she rattled through it in just two nights. “It made me think more than anything I’ve read before.”
Cree nods in agreement. “It really makes you feel for the characters,” she adds.
“It was very different from the books I normally read because they don’t usually have swearing in them and all those bad things happening. I quite liked that.”
Though Brooks has sometimes been criticised for the violence in his books, neither of the girls were fazed by Black Rabbit Summer – which includes scenes of drug taking and one teenager stabbing another.
While Katy and Cree admit to being afraid of knife crime, they’re savvy enough to realise it isn’t as widespread as the papers would have you believe.
“I think the out-of-control image of teenagers is a bit overdramatic,” says Cree.
“In the papers that stuff gets put to the front because it is so dramatic and it’s made a big fuss over,” Katy explains. “When it happens people want to read about it.”
Keen to hear what his young fans made of his talk, Kevin Brooks has wandered over to join us. He nods in approval at the girls’ media nous.
“Kids get such a bad press but they’re ok,” he says. “There are bad ones, but there’s always been bad ones.”
Brooks is convinced that there’s a “huge untapped market of kids” that could be buying books, and so was very happy to lend his support to the Big Issue campaign.
“I’m a great believer in doing practical things if you believe in something,” he says. “The Big Issue does great stuff and this is a fantastic idea.”

The kids are all right
For Brooks, the main advantage in meeting his potential readership is showing them that not all authors are tweed jacket-wearing, pipe-smoking fuddy-duddies. “I’m well read and all, but I’ve also done the music stuff, I’ve done all the drugs. I know what that’s like,” he says.
“I love TV, I love football and I think that makes a difference. It just means I’m not totally outside their world.”
Having shown the Stonelaw pupils he knew who The Mighty Boosh were, Brooks hopes that his books won’t seem as removed from their lives. He believes that making literature seem relevant is the only way to get through to kids who wouldn’t ever think of setting foot in Waterstones.
“America is doing a lot better than us with the way books are marketed,” he says.
“They’ve started moving the teenagers’ stuff away from children’s books, and putting them with CDs and DVDs. Here books are so connected with librarians and teachers and parents.”
It may be a struggle to get through to teenagers but Brooks says it’s worth the effort.
Once you’ve broken down the barriers, they’re the best fans an author could ask for, he believes.
“I like their honesty and simplicity. If they don’t like it they’ll tell you, but there’s no nastiness about it. “I’m not great lover of the human race,” he confesses, “but the kids are all right.”
Black Rabbit Summer is out now (Puffin)

If you would like to host a Big Issue author event in your school, contact Paul McNamee on 0141 352 7264, or email him on paul.mcnamee@bigissuescotland.com