The Lesser-known Haddenham FRoG
When I arrived in Cambridgeshire nearly two and a half years
ago one of the most exciting projects I inherited was a Family
Reading Group, based in the small village of Haddenham near Ely.
The group had been set up in 1997, with financial support from
a local and long established charity, The Robert Arkenstall Educational
Foundation. It met monthly, during term time, on a Thursday between
6.30 and 7.30 pm in Haddenham Library. The group was open to families
living in Haddenham and the surrounding smaller villages. It’s
given aims were "To promote the love of books and voluntary
reading" and "To widen children’s and adults’
experience of children’s books."
The publicity stressed that the Family Reading Group was different
from simply using the library. There was no limit on how many
books the children could borrow, the books had a loan period of
3 months and there were no fines to pay. The sessions took place
when the library was closed and there would be a wider range of
titles available than would normally be found on the shelves of
a small, level one library such as Haddenham. As an added incentive
squash and biscuits were served at each session and the children
would receive a range of promotional materials.
So an exciting project, but also a challenge, and a challenge
I readily admit it has taken me the last two years to meet! Looking
back I realise that as my experience and confidence grew, my priorities
changed. Back in August 1999, with only 5 families on the books,
I felt my first priority was to increase the number of families
involved in the group. To this end I put together, what turned
out to be a totally unrealistic, programme for 1999-2000. I thought
that if I was to make the group attractive to a wider range of
families I would need to include a strong I.T. element, so I ‘roped’
in the areas lovely I.T. librarian to assist me. In the first
term I planned to concentrate on creating a website for the group,
with links to sites of other reading groups, authors and publishers.
The children would have the opportunity, I promised, to swap reviews
and recommendations with reading groups all over the world! And
this I planned to accomplish in just three, one hour sessions!
I was SO naïve!!! For the remaining two terms, I was less
ambitious, but still we were going to shadow the judging of the
Kate Greenaway and the Carnegie Medals, contribute to the Library
Association’s interactive shadowing website and entertain
visiting authors and/or editors of children’s books. This
was all in addition to talking about what the children had been
reading!
This programme was publicised both, in an article I wrote for
The Friends of Haddenham Library newsletter, and at a visit I
made to the local primary school. Well, I was right, the programme
did widen the appeal of the group. For the first meeting there
were twelve families - that meant over 25 children, plus parents,
crammed in to the library. I can only describe the scene as resembling
a seal colony!! It soon became clear to me that it was impossible
to do anything constructive with this number of people, mainly
because Haddenham Library was too small to hold them! I could
have moved the group to the Robert Arkenstall Centre next door,
but that would have taken ownership away from the library service,
which I didn’t want to do.
  It
also did not help that the library only has two Internet terminals,
so it was not feasible for a group of that size to all access
the web during the meetings. We were though allowed to create
a website for the group by attaching ourselves to the Cambridgeshire
Libraries website:
www.camcnty.gov.uk/library/ver1/lib43/
Please feel free to have a look but nothing has been added for
at least a year. Again a lack of time, staff and terminals!
There was, though, one change I made that year that was a success:
my decision to rename the group "The Haddenham FRoGs"
— Family Reading Group: the ‘o’ is small and silent.
This has spawned, if you’ll excuse the pun, a strong sense
of identity for the group within the village and beyond: as well
as a logo designed by one of the children. However, due to the
large number of Jaffacakes the children consume during each session
I might have to re-name it "The Jaffacake Club"!
 In
the end I need not have worried about excess numbers as by the
Spring term the number of families had dropped to 6, with an average
of 5 families turning up each month, making the group much more
workable. This year (2000-2001) there have been just 4 families
on the books, 8 children, and I have found that they have been
very regular attenders.
Once I realised an emphasis on I.T. was unworkable (about the
end of the second session), I brought the focus back to the books,
and concentrated on how to make reading as satisfying and fun
an experience as possible. My report on that year (1999-2000)
says "the age range of 5-13 years made it impossible to choose,
and then have a discussion about, the books." On reflection,
this was not just because of the age range, but because there
was a great diversity in ability and confidence too. To compensate
for this I had tried to match each child to a book that would
cater best for their individual needs. This was successful in
as much as it encouraged several ‘non-reading’ boys
to read far more often and widely than they had before, but the
obvious drawback was the lack of opportunity for discussion: I
was usually the only other person who had read the book! I was
also trying to persuade children to talk about their book in front
of a whole crowd of children and parents. The other problem was
this structure left no role for the parents, which defeated the
point of being a FAMILY reading group.
Thankfully it had dawned on me by the beginning of the next year
that I could stimulate discussion between the children, and the
parents, by giving children of a similar age the same book, or
books by the same author, to read. They would still write their
own reviews, but at the meetings they would discuss it in their
groups first, then report back together to the whole group the
results of their discussion. In practice there were usually 3
groups, one for the younger children (5-8 year olds) and two for
the remaining 9-13 year olds. On a couple of occasions I divided
the older ones by gender, but usually I would just mix up the
families so siblings were in separate groups. The parents were
encouraged to read the books as well so they could join the appropriate
group for discussion. We have used this structure for the passed
year now (2000-2001) and it has proved to be a lot less daunting
for the children, and has ensured that the parents have been fully
involved in the group. The success of this new structure has given
me the confidence to open the group up to a larger number of families,
but the lack of space will still prevent us from accommodating
more than 8, with an average of 2 children each, and even then
it will be a squeeze!
Having worked out a structure that would enable the children
to feel more comfortable about discussing books, my next task
for the year 2000-2001 was to increase the group’s confidence
and vocabulary when talking about the books I had asked them to
review. I was aware that this, by necessity, would have to be
a long-term project, as confidence would only come with time and
experience. However I felt a simple first step towards increasing
their vocabulary would be to revise the review form that I gave
out with each book, so it encouraged them to think about WHY they
liked or disliked the book, and not just retell the story.
My most ambitious plan to stimulate confident discussion was
for the FRoGs to apply to shadow the judging process of the Carnegie
and Kate Greenaway Medals. We had tried in 2000, but mainly due
to the fact that we only had one copy of many of the books there
was little or no discussion, and we didn’t vote!! However,
the children did write some excellent reviews of the books they
did read. This year I was a lot more organised, at least where
copies of the books was concerned. I asked The Friends of Haddenham
Library if they would be willing to buy two copies of each title
on the shortlists, they agreed as long as I ensured the books
were put into stock in Haddenham library after the judging was
over.
Everyone reviewed the Kate Greenaway books, so in readiness for
this, the last meeting of the Spring term was spent looking at
past winners of the Medal and assessing them against the judging
criteria. However, only the children who were 10 and over could
read the novels on the Carnegie list, so the parents’ input
was invaluable! There were still barriers to participating fully
in the shadowing process: Only meeting monthly meant there was
not a fast enough exchange of books, so the few children old enough
to read all the books, did not have access to a copy of all book!
There is also the fact that even had they had access, they would
not have had time to read them all! To their credit each child
did read an average of 2 novels each, and everyone assessed at
least 4 picture books, in the two months. And I was determined
that we were going to vote, so I devised a voting form which asked
what they had read, as well as what they thought should win.
"Beware of the Story Book Wolves" by Lauren Child ‘won’
the Kate Greenaway Medal and "The Wanderer" by Sharon
Creech ‘won’ the Carnegie Medal. The winners of our
vote, the overall Shadowers’ vote and the official one were
announced at a special end of year party. Each FRoG received their
certificate of attendance: this included the parents, and my lovely
colleague Jenni, who had helped me for the last year and a half.
 I
have learnt so much from ‘running’ this family reading
group, mostly from my mistakes, which is perhaps the best way
to learn. I have slowly gained the confidence to believe that
less can be more. When I look back on that first year I can remember
how inadequate I felt, not realising that I had simply been trying
to achieve too much! This year I feel ridiculously pleased with
myself for just putting the reviews together in a folder that
can be displayed in Haddenham Library! I now feel intensely proud
of ‘my’ FRoGs, and what WE have achieved during this
past year.
The exciting news for next year is that Cambridgeshire have been
accepted to join the Orange Children’s Reading Groups project,
so next year the Haddenham FRoGs will be turning Orange!
Louise Aldridge
Senior Children’s Librarian, Cambridgeshire
Louise.Aldridge@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
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