You didn’t just Give A Book, you Gave A Library!

Four little girls sit attentively in the bright green reading nook as author Farhana Islam prepares to read from her debut picture book, Not Now, Noor! Their eyes glitter as Farhana perches on a squashy toadstool and begins to turn the pages, beautifully illustrated by Nabila Adani.

If it’s exciting enough to have a real author present at their school, Longwood Primary near Tamworth, Birmingham, the anticipation is heightened by the fact these young children are sitting for the first time in their new school library, funded through the generosity of Daily Express readers.

When we ran our Christmas 2022 charity campaign in conjunction with charity Give A Book, and supported by the likes of Lee Child, Ian Rankin and Sir Tom Stoppard, we were overwhelmed by your kindness, and by the touching letters that accompanied donations. In all, more than £12,000 was raised.

“Often the money came in £5 and £10 notes, and with such generous kind notes and no return address; expecting nothing back,” explains Victoria Gray, executive director of the charity. One 80-year-old reader wrote to say: “I could not imagine a life without books – turning the pages in anticipation and excitement.”

A widow enclosed a cheque for £25 with the words: “I wish it could be more, but I’m afraid my pension is being stretched to its utmost these days. I have always been an avid reader and tried to encourage my grandchildren to read. There was always a box of books available…”

A third, described how she has “travelled the world, seen many wonders, had so many different adventures, even back in time, and forward in space – all this from the comfort of my chair with a book in my hands. Imagination is pure magic, no person should be denied the chance to experience all this.”

Collectively, you have brought the transformative power of the written word to a new audience of young children in a school where books genuinely have the power to create new horizons. Longwood – which is an area of high deprivation and where 45 per cent of children receive free school lunches – was chosen as the recipient of this new, custom-built Key Stage One library.

And it was sorely needed. Just six weeks ago, a bin-style bookcase on the floor was crammed between lockers. The school wanted to do more, but lacked the funds.

Today, thanks to the kindness of readers and the expertise of Peters – the library furniture company who installed the inviting facility to the children’s own woodland designs – it has been transformed into an appealing and airy reading space.

The library was officially opened shortly before Christmas by the local mayor, Olivia-Joy Shepherd, 33, who was herself a pupil at the school in the late 1990s; as was her mother in the 1970s.

“I’m so pleased about this library,” says the local youth leader, who has been mayor since May. “When I was at school, this
was just a cloakroom where you hung your coats.” As she snipped the bright green ribbon – her first ribbon-snipping moment as mayor – the children waited patiently to explore the toadstool seating, moss-green bolsters, a soft ‘log’ sofa, and the 1,200 books enticingly perched on the tree-shaped shelves.

“We are so grateful to readers of the Express for their incredible generosity,” says headteacher, Pauline James, in tears. “I can’t express what this library means to us. To all of you, thank you. The children have been so excited for weeks.

“It really has meant the world to them. Many of our children don’t get to read at home because this is a deprived area where there are many single parents and few holidays, and where libraries are closing down.

“If we didn’t value reading as we do then their world would be even smaller. Instead, our love of books is rubbing off on them.”

The grand opening of the library also involved the children’s thank you to our readers, for your kindness.

Riffing on a theme of The Night Before Christmas, and with every pupil in the school wearing bright red reindeer antlers, the older children had re-written the seminal seasonal poem into their own modern variations, performed with joy and confidence in a special assembly attended by the mayor, the school governors, representatives from Give A Book, and the Daily Express.

Their original creations showed an understanding of the rhythm and rhyme underpinning a poem that has clearly made creative-writing lessons infectious fun this term. “This is a school that ignites reading,” says Ray Dyer, MD of Peters. “We see a lot of schools where the shelves are stuffed with the classics, looking lovely on the shelves, but untouched. Longwood knows that you can’t afford to put young readers off.”

The children themselves chose many of the books and on a wide variety of topics including the riotous Hippos Go Berserk by Sandra Boynton, as well as non-fiction books on science.

As I read aloud All Through The Night: The People Who Work While We Sleep, one four-year-old is delighted to find her world specifically referenced in a picture book.

“My mummy works when my brother and me are in bed,” she tells me joyfully. “Aeroplanes also fly when we are asleep,” says her friend knowingly.

The current book being read in History lessons by Year 3 at Longwood is Time Travelling With A Hamster by Ross Welford. History lessons here are exercises in stretching the mind. This, dear readers, is a proper education. And offering choice is central to Give A Book’s strategy.

“Children are very good critics; if they don’t like it they won’t read it,” says Ray Dyer, whose company, founded in 1935, builds 300 libraries a year and has a catalogue of 10,000 titles on its books.

And the presentation of the books in the library – in a face-on display – is also key to engagement.

“Children’s books have very small spines, so it’s better to have fewer books and reveal the covers,” he asserts. It is not compulsory for a primary school to have a library – and many schools working in deprived areas lack the funds to create one, focused as they are on helping their children in other ways. A library is, however, mandatory in prisons.

“It seems so fundamental to have libraries in schools,” adds Ray. “You need to learn to read, write and count, and for that you need access to good quality materials.”

The new reading space will inspire generations of pupils at the school, and Victoria Gray was delighted to see the new library for herself. The widow of the writer and playwright, Simon Gray, she set up the charity in his memory in 2011. Victoria, a former academic, is quietly passionate about the power of reading.

“If you go to secondary school unable to read it is difficult to catch up, especially for boys. Reading changes everything. It’s lovely to feel that our charity can make a difference.”

And she points out that it’s not just reading for pleasure that extends boundaries for vulnerable people. “Not being able to read medicine labels or legal letters can lead to greater problems,” she adds.

One of Longwood’s governors, District Councillor John Hill, is a volunteer reading listener at the school on Tuesday afternoons. “Many of the children read fluently and with tremendous intonation, but I always
ensure we talk about what the words actually mean,” he says. “Then we act it out, stomping around, for example, if the word is ‘stomp’.”

This sort of patience is key to comprehension.

“One child read about a ‘science foundation’. When I asked if she knew what a foundation was, she said, ‘You put it on your face’.” Since 2015, Give A Book has been working with one primary school every year on its Whole School Reading Project. The charity doesn’t want any child to miss out on developing a love of reading.

It’s an approach that is endorsed by Longwood’s chair of governors, Peter Armitage MBE. “Reading is amazing,” says the 79-year-old, who has worked for Royal Mail for 35 years and now gives school talks on the war years in local schools, sponsored by his employers.

“To be able to get children to read is so important. When you come to school and there is a library, for a little while that book is yours. And the amazing thing is that it’s a book you have chosen for yourself. The power of that is priceless.”

To support the future work of Give A Book in schools and in prisons, please send cheques to Give A Book, 112-114 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 4UA. To donate online visit giveabook.org.uk and, to get in touch, email info@giveabook.org.uk