September is fast approaching and before we know it, it will be time to head back to school and back to college. I am getting ready to enter my final year of my masters. I’m going to be very busy writing my thesis, and I am slightly apprehensive about all the work that is to come, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.
I’m very lucky because I truly love my course. I’ve gotten to learn from some brilliant people and I’ve made lovely friends. I’ve also gotten to meet lots of fascinating people.
If you are a consistent reader of my articles here on Katelovesliterature.com, then you will remember that a topic that I am very passionate about is the idea of inspiring and celebrating a sense of wonder and curiosity in young readers. Children’s literature is so important because the books we read when we are young can have such a lasting impression on us, and we take those stories with us into adulthood. I believe that developing a love for reading when you are young can open so many doors for you in life. Reading encourages you to use your imagination, and reading expands your vocabulary. Reading also allows you to read about different people, different places, different cultures, and when you read about experiences that are different to your own, you develop a sense of empathy for others, even if those characters are fictional, you can take that skill with you into the real world.
Children’s Books Ireland is a national charity and arts organisation and I have been very fortunate as throughout my course, I have gotten the opportunity to hear members of the Children’s Books Ireland team speak about the wonderful work that they do.
I am going to provide a link to the official website below. I highly encourage anyone who enjoys reading to go to the website and read about the brilliant work that Children’s Books Ireland does. A brief summary is that Children’s Books Ireland is a brilliant organisation that strives to help young people develop a love for reading, and engage with stories.
If you go to the Children’s Books Ireland website, you will see that the organisation’s mission is to inspire a love of reading in children and young adults. Children’s Books Ireland believes that every child has the right to access wonderful books so that they can understand the importance of reading. The vision of Children’s Books Ireland is that every child is a reader, and this is a vision that I personally love.
The more I’ve gotten to learn about Children’s Books Ireland and the work that they do, the more impressed I’ve become. I think that all children have the right to read, and it is so important that the resources are available because the benefits of being a book lover should not be inaccessible. I love seeing children fall in love with books, I love hearing their thoughts and their opinions. I feel that children so often remind rooms full of adults that they are more intelligent and more insightful than they are given credit for. I also love seeing that childhood love of reading develop into a love for literature as an adult, and as we grow, our literary interpretation skills grow alongside our critical thinking skills, so I know that I will forever be an advocate for stressing the importance of reading in childhood.
Children’s Books Ireland is an organisation that does many things, but one of my favourite things about the organisation is their book gifting scheme. All of this work is detailed on the website, you can go online and read all about their various projects, one of them being the book gifting scheme which allows Children’s Books Ireland to gift books to libraries, schools, educational and healthcare settings, and other children’s charities. This scheme alone allows Children’s Books Ireland to help ensure that resources are available and accessible to those who need them, and Children’s Books Ireland also strives to share knowledge so that adults can learn about various different books and ideas so they can then go on to influence and teach children in the best way possible.
I’m very excited to share that I have also gotten involved. I am now a reviewer for Children’s Books Ireland. I’ve been lucky enough to receive some lovely books that I’ve had the pleasure of reading and reviewing. It has been a joy to receive lovely new stories and being a reviewer has allowed me to read stories that I may not have ever chosen myself. It is a new experience that I am thoroughly enjoying. I hope to continue to review books as I want to keep learning. I want to continue to expand my knowledge of all kinds of literature from children’s to YA, to picture books etc.
I’m really enjoying this opportunity to engage with new authors and illustrators whose work I maybe haven’t seen before. The books are always different so I am getting to engage with different kinds of stories and different kinds of lessons. It is a joy and I truly feel that it is a pleasure to be involved with this organisation even in the smallest way. I’m very excited to keep learning, and I am very grateful for this opportunity.
Two of my reviews are now available to read on the Children’s Books Ireland website.
I’ll link them here as I am so excited about this. It is surreal to see my name in print on a platform of this calibre. The fact that my reviews are there to be viewed by all is really special. I couldn’t be happier.
If you’re a book lover, if you’re a parent/guardian of a book lover, if you believe in fostering and encouraging a love for reading in children then get yourself over to the Children’s Books Ireland official website and educate yourself about the organisation. Learn about what they do, learn about their events, learn about all of the support they provide, learn about how you can get involved if you’d like to.
Links below:
Click here to visit the Children’s Books Ireland official website https://childrensbooksireland.ie/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw_7KXBhCoARIsA
Click here to read my reviews on the Children’s Books Ireland website
https://childrensbooksireland.ie/our-recommendations/kings-ship
https://childrensbooksireland.ie/our-recommendations/princess-olivia-investigates-wrong-weather
Always remember #everychildareader.
Kate xo.
Katelovesliterature.com 