Blog

On World Book Day, Head of Coram Beanstalk Amy Lewis reflects on the mission of the World Book Day charity, ‘the reading for fun charity’.

Ex-teacher and Coram Beanstalk training and resources manager, Rebecca, shares why having Coram Beanstalk reading helpers in your school can be a gift for teachers.

Our friends at Parrot Street Book Club generously give us a 50p donation for every book they ship to their subscribers. Here, Emily Bright and Sarah Campbell, founders of the book subscription service for children, have written about the 6 ways in which graphic novels can encourage reading for pleasure!

Amy Lewis, Head of Coram Beanstalk, welcomes in a new year…

At Coram Beanstalk we’re often asked how best to support children in specific year groups and sometimes we can find ourselves becoming overly concerned by a child’s reading age or ability and what level books they “should” be reading. Our Learning and Development Manager, Rebecca Pedelty-cox helps unpick the idea of a ‘reading age’.

Dr Bharti Parmar couldn’t read until she was seven years old. Here she tells us how the reasons for that have shaped her volunteering role with us…

One of our recently trained reading helpers talks about why she chose to join our Coram Beanstalk reading community…

Four very special children’s author friends of ours each tell their favourite traditional fairy tale to celebrate Tell a Fairy Tale Day! Listen to Pippa Goodhart, Abi Elphinstone, Claire Fayers and Marianne McShane tell you a story here…

Giving the gift of reading is so much more than ‘just’ giving a child a book.  When we give a child a reason to read that book, when we help them to discover for themselves the value and pleasure that reading can bring, and give them free rein to explore books in their own way…. those children become readers with all of the benefits that brings!

Do you have a memory of a time when you suddenly felt very grown up and that, quite possibly, something you’d chosen to read played a part in giving you that feeling of independence and perhaps contributed to you growing more fully into yourself? Hear from children’s author Ross Montgomery who talks of just such an experience!

Reading helper Michael Dillon talks about his experience of using joke books, in response to Gill Worrall’s blog “Why a joke book is more than just a stocking filler.”

Science fiction – do you love it or hate it? And if you’re not a fan, does that mean you’re less likely to share a science fiction book with your child? Gill Worrall our resources developer explores how exploring all sorts of genres with children is important – regardless of our own preferences.