World Book Day is an international reading initiative designed to get children and young adults around the globe focussed on and engaged in reading. Reading is a massively important skill, both during school years and in later life, so fostering a love of reading from an early age is very important.
At Longbenton Community College, we celebrated World Book Day 2016 with a ‘story in a day’. We did this through a school-wide reading of a short story from famous children’s horror writer, ‘The Hitchhiker’ by Anthony Horowitz. Key stage 3 students were treated to one chapter at the beginning of each period over the course of the day, with everyone having to wait until the start of the next lesson for the following instalment!
We interviewed a couple students about their thoughts about this method.
Emma, a student from Y7, said, “I thought the suspense when finishing each chapter was great! It left us hanging and I really wanted to read the next chapter straight away!”
Kieron, another Y7, said, “It was relaxing, it meant you weren’t working, you just got to sit back and listen to the teacher read that chapter, and it was really calming. It made me want to read another of Antony Horowitz’s stories.”
We asked Mrs Roberts, the librarian who organised this unusual reading activity, about the thinking behind the idea. She said, “We thought it would be a good idea, as a way to promote reading alongside telling people that it was World Book Day. It was a nice way to get people talking about the story, as well as other books they have read and enjoyed! I chose an interesting story, and split it up into four sections. I made sure to make the sections end on a cliff-hanger, letting the tension mount between lessons. I picked the story because of the twist at the end; I knew a lot of students wouldn’t expect that!”
We also really enjoyed the book, as it was quite thrilling and there is a plot twist at the end. We won’t spoil it and tell you what it is!