Elizabeth Baguley Elizabeth Baguley lives in Nottinghamshire where she works as an English teacher. She has written several books for Little Tiger Press, including MEGGIE MOON, which has been re-formatted into an early reader for our READY STEADY READ series. To tie-in with the launch of READY STEADY READ, we asked Elizabeth some questions about her feelings on teaching children to read.

Do you come from a family of readers?
My parents weren’t highly educated, but they were readers and there was always a book on the hearth. My father had to get up very early for work, so he could often be found in front of the fire at 5.30am, drinking a great big mug of tea and reading a Western novel. My mother liked romantic stories. I have two sisters who have always read, and our mother would take us to the library and read to us.

Can you remember the first book that really got you excited about reading?
A Bear Called Paddington. I will always remember how much I must have loved this book because when I was a child I had a lovely class teacher and when she left, she gave me her copy of Paddington. She obviously knew how much of an impression it had made on me. My daughter also loves the Paddington books, and at the age of sixteen still finds them comforting and wouldn’t be able to part with them.

Did you struggle to get either of your daughters interested in reading?
I have to confess that my youngest daughter isn’t really a big reader, and obviously I did the same things with both of them. I always read to them and we were regular visitors to our local library. My older daughter particularly likes to read biographies and war stories. She has been reading adult books since around the age of eleven. My younger daughter is the musical member of the family and was more interested in audiobooks as a child.

When it comes to reading, do you think it is the responsibility of the parent or the teacher to cultivate a child’s passion and proficiency?
Both. It definitely has to be a partnership. Passion must come before proficiency though. Children need to be passionate about wanting to get into the world of reading. This is more difficult to do in the classroom as you are restricted by performance structures. I was once told I shouldn’t be reading to children in a literacy lesson – I  was of course outraged! Children have to hear reading aloud in order to learn about rhythm, intonation and emphasis. Reading doesn’t make sense if they don’t hear someone else reading properly.

Do you think reading for pleasure improves literacy in schools?
Yes, research proves that children who read are better spellers. They have a greater awareness of spelling patterns, and how punctuation works. Reading also encourages imagination and makes children lateral thinkers. It also opens up other worlds, cultures and times, and encourages empathy for others.

What role do you think picture books play in a child’s development?
I strongly believe that if children enjoy picture books they will come back to reading in their adult life. The pictures encourage children to visualise the stories which they are reading, so when they move on to “adult” books they will be more skilled at visualising what they are reading. Picture books are also interactive and an intermediary in the communication between adult and child. They introduce children to new language and ideas and the structure of literature.

Do you see a distinct difference between boys’ and girls’ reading habits?
Definitely, particularly when dealing with teenagers. Boys don’t tend to have the sticking power, they tend to be more physical. Boys that do read tend to be far more voracious than girls – they are interested in exaggerated, adventurous, plot-driven fiction or quick-fix non-fiction. Girls tend to be more interested in relationship-based stories or biographies. Boys retain facts from what they read, whereas girls will remember how a book made them feel.

For tips on reading, see our pages for parents and teachers.