Looking glass to spyglass

Arts Council England is to develop a national strategy for children's literature. The announcement has been welcomed by the children's book world, whose opinion the council is canvassing. The new strategy will focus on the process of creating children's books and getting books to children in an inspired way. It is about building a nation of readers, not simply a nation of people who can read.

The council has launched a consultation paper, "From Looking Glass to Spyglass", which will inform its final recommendations. Never has there been such a broad review of children's literature. It covers writers and illustrators, publishing and bookselling, readers and libraries, the promotion of children's literature and education, and training and research.

Arts Council England is being careful not to prejudge the outcome, but says that it hopes to create a framework for children's reading that will broaden access to books, raise the profile of children's literature and provide a recognised structure within which the bodies involved in children's literature can work.

Why hasn't this happened before? The current review follows the reorganisation of the council. Gary McKeone, director of literature at Arts Council England, says: "Our focus is not just on funding. We can think about children's literature in a more strategic way."

There has also been a shift in emphasis at the council: young people are now a priority. Substantial grants have been allocated to the national bodies that support children's literature, including Booktrust, the Reading Agency and the National Association for Writers in Education. McKeone says: "We hope and expect that those organisations will help us to deliver the recommendations that come through from this consultation process."

However, he emphasises that this review is not a blank cheque. "This document is not about funding. We hope it will be more creative and thoughtful than that, although there will be funding implications both regionally and nationally." On a regional level, he says: "Our nine regional offices have access to programmes called Grants for the Arts. So, for example, if we find there is more need for children's literature on tour, we could solicit regional applications for that kind of activity."

Nationally, Arts Council England will look at initiatives that may need to be supported with central funding. A new programme called Flexible Funds will be available from April 2004 for such projects. This could, for example, be used to help deliver a national programme of creative development opportunities for librarians and teachers. In theory, then, more money will be available for children's literature, but the council will still have to argue the case for it.

The council is encouraging debate to help decide its final recommendations. A series of discussions of the consultation paper are being held around the country—Newcastle, Leeds, Oxford, London and Birmingham—attended by people from all areas of children's literature.

Elaine McQuade, chair of the Children's Book Group of the Publishers Association, says: "It's an important statement for children's books. There is a strategy document for other areas of literature, but not for children's. It is time there was." National Reading Campaign consultant Liz Attenborough adds: "Some people have looked at the paper and said, 'It's not mentioned this or that.' But one has to look at it from the point of view from which the Arts Council developed it, which was, 'What can we do?' I hope that a lot of people will respond to it."

Time is of the essence. The consultation period closes on 14th November. After that Arts Council England has just another two weeks to present its recommendations. The final paper is expected to be concise and practical, and to address key issues with recommendations. It will be launched on 4th December at the Centre for the Children's Book in Newcastle.

"From Looking Glass to Spyglass" addresses the following areas:



Education, training and research

Arts Council England wants to support the creative teaching of children's literature. It recognises that teachers need more help in finding out about children's literature, while school libraries also need support—the paper points out that 16 local authorities are without formal provision for school library support. The council will be taking a broad look at how teachers are introduced to children's literature. McKeone says: "We will consider how teachers develop an awareness of children's literature and how experienced teachers refresh this knowledge. Where can practising teachers be creative themselves, and explore what makes literature work?"

Like many publishers, Elaine McQuade, as marketing director for Puffin, would like to see children's literature made part of the teacher training curriculum. Should this not be possible, she says: "We need to ensure that every teacher knows that turning children into readers is absolutely part of their job." Sally Gritten, managing director of HarperCollins Children's Books, says that teachers need "good, practical reasons" for taking the time to be well read in children's literature. "Knowing that books are important is different from knowing how they can help someone become a more effective teacher."

Since many teacher training organisations concentrate on getting teachers into schools, Liz Attenborough argues that efforts should be focused on in-service training—informing teachers in a reasonable way, without making them feel daunted. "We have to create a culture within schools where it matters for someone to have that knowledge."

Resource (the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries) has already proposed a practical initiative that could form a national framework for introducing teachers to children's literature. Jonathan Douglas, head of learning and access at Resource, says: "We would like school library services to be enabled to go into teacher training centres and deliver training in children's literature and library provision." For that to happen, he says: "Arts Council England would need to broker and fund partnerships between Resource's regional agencies and teacher training agencies."



Readers and libraries

Arts Council England sees itself as an advocate and enabler of library services, supporting such services as the Reading Agency with reader development. The council's literature officer, Abigail Campbell, says: "We can't duplicate funding. And we won't, for example, end up funding school libraries. But we can help them to deliver those services, for example in teacher training."

Advocacy work could see the council getting behind national programmes such as Reading Champions and Bookstart (which aims to get free books to babies), and arguing for them to be embedded in central government funding, as well as persuading local authorities to get behind public libraries to support long-term development.



Promoting children's literature

Arts Council England suggests that promoting children's literature and developing children's reading require a more structured approach. "We will be looking at a range of existing programmes, such as Reading Champions, which suggest to kids that reading is fun and worth doing—not that 'it's good for you'," Campbell says. "We will also be looking at how other art forms can support reading through festivals and so on."

The council wants to help to change the perception of children's literature, particularly through the media, says Campbell. "It can be hard for the media to get an angle on children's literature and perhaps more could be done to generate stories, and maybe syndicate stories."

Publishers might want to consider supporting a national media centre for children's literature that could generate stories as well as supply the media with relevant contacts. The Centre for the Children's Book may, in time, provide a focus for both the promotion of and research into children's literature.

There are other more immediate and practical steps that Arts Council England could take, suggests Alison Morrison, head of marketing at Walker Books. The council already produces a guide to arts festivals. A guide to regional venues—theatres, galleries, teacher training centres and so on—would be useful to publishers, ensuring that they don't miss out certain regions during author tours, for example, because they cannot locate a suitable venue.



Publishers and booksellers

The consultation is focused on ensuring the future stability and diversity of children's literature. "From Looking Glass to Spyglass" suggests a need for more variation in publishing, a need for support for those making reading choices (be they parents, carers or children) and a need to reach more readers.

The council may consider supporting a programme of traineeships to encourage black and Asian people to go into publishing. There are calls, too, for more research into black and Asian children's literature and for more dialogue between the sectors, including teachers, to support and encourage cultural diversity.

Janetta Otter-Barry, editorial director at Frances Lincoln, says that there should be more support for authors and illustrators from differing ethnic backgrounds. "A way needs to be found in which those authors and illustrators can be developed, advised and encouraged to go to mainstream publishers. The council may be able to support opportunities to bring writers from other countries into the UK, so that they can build their audiences here."

Walker's Alison Morrison adds: "Until there are more people from ethnic backgrounds in publishing houses, you won't get more authors and illustrators from those backgrounds." Booksellers should also be encouraged to hold more culturally diverse stock, Otter-Barry says.

Bookseller training, and how the bookselling chains handle promotions, come under consideration in the consultation paper. Gary McKeone suggests that few of the larger chains provide substantial training for children's booksellers, even though training can have more long term benefits than promotional activity.

The Booksellers Association says it is unable to comment on the service provided to the public by its members. Bookselling chains have said they would have liked to have had more input into the consultation paper, particularly on the issue of training for children's booksellers and their status within stores.

The paper also suggests that ongoing promotions may be more effective than short-term promotions such as World Book Day. Jo Marino, PR manager at Waterstone's, argues that short-term promotions are effective at drawing youngsters into stores, but suggests that the council could work alongside existing large-scale activities, such as the Summer Reading campaign, to help engage children in activities that are already supported by the trade.



Writers and illustrators

The consultation paper suggests that children's authors should be taken more seriously, and have the kind of profile and opportunities afforded to writers in other areas. How many children's authors, for example, have extracts from their books published in magazines and newspapers? A survey during half-term tested people's basic attitude to children's literature—for example, should a children's author win the Man Booker prize?

The council is considering how it can help raise the profile of authors and illustrators and support them, for example, by publicising resources available to them, and assisting them with training to work in schools. Abigail Campbell says: "We need to get across the message that these are real writers, not that they are doing this as some kind of hobby. These people are the ones who get youngsters interested in literature. If they don't succeed, how do you get children interested as adults?"

Not all authors or illustrators support the idea of funding children's authors through grants. Author Philip Pullman says: "Don't support the writer—support the structures. Leave the editorial judgement in the hands of the editors, but give them the means to help unlikely books and writers see the light of day." He has one exception: older writers who have fallen out of popular favour. "I'm all for having some sort of civil list pension, something regular, dependable and honourable—a thank-you, if you like, from the nation."

He suggests that other ways can be found to encourage a love of literature among the very young, parents and new teachers. "Imagine if every new parent, whenever their first child is born, gets a book of nursery rhymes and a book of fairy tales, with the compliments of the nation. And if every young teacher, on graduating, gets something similar—a book of myths and legends, or folk tales, or great poems. There would be a sense of 'Here's one of the greatest things our culture has produced and it belongs to everyone, and this is for you, so take it and treasure it and enjoy it every day.'

"That would be worth doing, don't you think?"

The full consultation paper is available for download at www.artscouncil.org.uk. Comments may be e-mailed to childrensliterature@artscouncil.org.uk.