‘That’s not my Mummy’
Michael Camelliri’s illustration for ‘Drawing the Story’ Kids’ Own Publishing promotional video
Michael Camilleri’s illustration of the Kids’ Own Book Cubby
Voices from the past
About a year ago, I flew to London for just four nights, to farewell my beloved Uncle Adrian–– a testament to his inspiration in my life. The day after my return, my eye was drawn to the stark green cover of Ivan Illych’s Deschooling Society a book carried across continents for over 40 years. Inside, my uncle’s handwriting: Christmas 1978, dear Vicky, I hope this doesn’t put you off, love Adrian. Far from putting me off, this text framed my soon-to-be-embarked-upon journey as a teacher and arts pedagogue.
Another voice from the past
‘A great neurologist tells me that the puzzle is not how to teach reading, but why some children fail to learn to read. […] What prevents it is almost demonstrable that, for many children, it is precisely going to school that prevents - because of the school’s alien style’ (Goodman, 1971 p. 27).
Re-reading these words almost 50 years after they were written, I reflect how, as a new teacher in the early 1980s, in multicultural neighbourhoods of London, that, for many, the books I asked my children to read were indeed alien worlds. An early lightbulb moment occurred when one of those children, a five-year old Gujarati boy, refused point-blank to read the single word contained in his ‘reader’. He pointed at the word, ‘Mummy’, and its accompanying image of a young blonde woman with an A-line pinny in a neat, post-war, British kitchen. He said simply, “that ‘s not my Mummy”.
My response was to make books containing the children’s drawings and words to counter the limitations of the mandated graded reading scheme, which led subsequently to my first experience of publishing a book by children as authors within the Local Authority.
At this time the ‘whole language’ approach to literacy learning in schools was in full flow. I sailed the tide, devising imaginative ways to sign up children to the ‘literacy club’ (Smith, 1988), embracing Donald Graves’ writers workshop model (Graves, 1983) and fostering a playful culture of language and literacy in the classroom (Hancock, 1987).
That early lightbulb moment led me to develop ideas that have grown into a 35-year practice of publishing the voices, stories, words and art of children in book form.
Victoria Ryle March 2020
Goodman, P. (1971). Compulsory miseducation (Vol. 51). Middlesex, England: Penguin
Graves, D. H. (1983). Writing: Teachers and children at work. New Hampshire: Heinnemann Educational Books.
Hancock, G. (1987). Developing Children's Writing Through a Thematic Approach. Reading, 21(3), 185-204.
Illich, I. (1973). Deschooling society. Middlesex, UK: Harmondsworth, Middlesex.
Smith, F. (1988). Joining the literacy club: Further essays into education: Heinemann Educational Publishers.