Hunting down the books

Jay Writes -

Hi everyone,

A few people have offered (here or on Facebook or by email) to loan us us some of the books from the list. Below is a list of those we've not got yet. If you have any you'd be willing to lend Luke, could you let us know? I'm running up quite the tab with Amazon - which I must confess isn't unusual for me - but I'd like to only buy those books we can't get elsewhere.

• Swallows and Amazons (promised to be loaned to us)
• The Happy Prince, Oscar Wilde
• The Singing Tree, Kate Seredy
• The Secret Garden (promised to be loaned to us)
• Refuge Boy, Benjamin Zephaniah
• The Tygrine Cat, Inbali Iserles
• Carry On Jeeves (got lots of Jeeves but not this one)
• The Story of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
• Little Women, L M Alcott (promised to be loaned to us)
• How To Be Topp, Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle
• Animal Farm (I think I had this at one point but can't find it on the shelves)
• After The First Death, Robert Cormier
• The London Eye Mystery, Siobhan Dowd

I'd also like to thank Luke's school library, who have promised to get him any of this list they have on their shelves. Librarians rock.

Where it all started

It started with Michael Gove.

That is not a sentence I thought I'd ever type, I must confess. However, he made a comment which inspired a newspaper article which inspired an email which inspired a conversation which inspired a bet which inspired this blog.

It seems Mr Gove thinks Y7 pupils should aim to read one book a week, 50 a year (maybe he thinks they should get Christmas holidays off? Or perhaps maths is not the Education Minister's strong suit) The Independent asked 5 authors and journalists for 10 books they'd recommend to Y7 students, making a list of 50 for the year.

My partner emailed me the list to show to our rather fabulous Y7 son Luke. He was unimpressed, "Did grown ups write this list? I think they did. Real 11 year olds would put stuff with more action and chases and adventure. Modern children want action." We had a chat about why classics were regarded as classics, that all old books were not necessarily ones that came out when I was a kid, some were even older than me and I still enjoyed them.

Upon hearing of Luke's disdain, his dad laughed and said, "Bet him a quid he can't read them all by Christmas."

I rather liked the idea, but knowing the pecuniary demands of today's 11 year old, bet him a tenner. "Will you provide the books? OK then, prepare to lose your money, Mum," said my supremely confident offspring.

Luke and I are blogging the bet - he'll be writing reviews of the books as he goes along and I'll probably get roped in as chief typist. I'm Jay, by the way. I'm a self employed baker (here's my website and here's the blog about my baking adventures) and mum to Luke, his younger brother and sister.

Welcome to our book journey!