WELCOME TO
The ‘Bookmark This’ Blog
Read about my favourite books, teaching, reading for pleasure and other things that interest me, like Icelandic traditions and honesty boxes in the Scottish Highlands. Be warned, I have been known to ramble.
Sand, sea and some book suggestions
After weeks of the most unScottish weather (it’s been consecutive weeks of blue sky sunshine!), the rain has returned. My garden is happy about this. I just hope this is not now the rain back for the rest of summer! (Never bloody happy!) As I try to remain optimistic that we’ve not just experienced summer for the year, I’ve decided to do a wee blog post on some of my favourite Scottish locations to visit in the sun (and rain, to be honest they’re all year round loveliness) and also recommend some sunshiney beachy themed books.
Reading for enjoyment & reluctant readers
Reading for enjoyment is at “crisis point” according to recent National Literacy Trust research. My advice in this blog post will not have any children swapping their PlayStations and phones for poetry and prose, but it does offer some genre suggestions and strategies that I have seen success with in terms of engaging some very disengaged readers in my (nearly 18 years of) experience of supporting young people with literacy difficulties.
Reading for pleasure, buy a book, donate a book and then what?
I have been asking myself/the internet/my husband/my colleagues (I’m a lot of fun at parties, I know!) but what happens once kids get these books? Don’t misunderstand me, I am so excited to be able to celebrate World Book Day as a bookseller as well as a parent this year and truly believe what they do is phenomenal. But once these kids have their book - is it just gathering dust? Especially for those young people who are classed as growing up in “disadvantage and inequality”? (I promise it gets more positive soon…)