Andy Charman's Blog

Here’s a good book for 10-14 year-olds. I’ve just finished reading it and here are my first unformed thoughts. Evie’s mum goes off on her honeymoon and sends her to stay with her eccentric godmother, who lives in a flat that is part of a converted old mansion. On her first night, Evie sees a ghostly figure at her window and runs from her room to find that she has time-slipped to 1814. She finds out more about the ghostly girl and realises that she’s been sent back in time to fix the past.

The...

This is, in my humble opinion, the best children’s book ever written. Detractors may be right in saying that this is because I am a white, middle-aged, male Brit who is nostalgic about the English countryside and his own childhood, but a close look at the text and the wonderfully characterful illustrations (E.H. Shepard’s – no-one else’s) will reveal a book that is beautifully written in a uniquely distinctive voice, with great characters, simple story lines, infused with sparkling humour and...

I have always wanted to be a writer. No, that isn’t strictly true. When was 11, I read James Herriot’s books and wanted to be a vet. Later, I thought that working with trees would be good, because I love trees. Then there was always farming; but I didn’t have a farm. I didn’t set out to work in publishing for 13 years – I just loved books. I didn’t plan to be a teacher for 17 years – but I turned out to be quite good at it, and it has its own momentum. No, what I really wanted to do was write...

I have been worming my way through books for over 40 years and consider myself to be pretty well-read. When I meet people who’ve read more, I wonder if they’ve ever got up from the sofa. And this is one of the best books I’ve ever read. The Once and Future King is an Arthurian fantasy – a tragedy, a comedy, a study of the nature of power and justice. It is the first book about King Arthur that I read and remains the best. (Is it really one of the best books I’ve ever read, or is it just that...

I don’t think we do. When we read, we are bringing to it the sum of all our experiences – in life and other books – which is why reading is an active process, not a passive one. I take inferences, make connections, have responses that are different to those of the other reader. (This is especially true for me, because the people with whom I share books most of the time are 10 year olds.) We make connections that grow out from us like fungal mycelium. It’s the opposite of a closed circle; it’s...

The people who have visited me so far – to whom I am grateful, and a...

The bluebells are in full glory in our UK broadleaved woodlands. They cover the woodland floor with a heavy oily blue mist that always makes my heart ache: I want to gather them up, take them home and protect them. Failing that I photograph them on my mobile while I am out walking or cycling. They remind me of my childhood – and being in love. I am not much-travelled; I wonder if there are bluebells in the woods of other European countries right now.

Our Guided Reading sessions are the best part of my day. What I understand by it is that the class is divided into ability groups of about 5 or 6 children and they sit together and read. My teaching assistant and I rotate each day, so that each group gets to read with an adult at least twice a week. We read a variety of different things: texts that are relevant to our history, science or geography topics; texts that relate to the type of writing we might be doing in English; a variety of text...

What a great book! I have just finished reading it for the second time and am full of admiration for Michelle Magorian’s novel, first published in 1981. It’s the moving story of Willie Beech, mistreated at home in London, but then sent to the countryside as part of the evacuation of the city’s children at the beginning of the Second World War. He is put in the care of Tom Oakley, a grump loner, whose wife and child both died years before.

As a literacy leader, I am always being asked to recom...