Tilly's Reading Plus Champion tasks
We are thrilled to share what Tilly has achieved as Reading Plus Champions this academic year!
Within her role, Tilly has the opportunity to complete a series of exciting reading activities throughout the year, including:
- Writing a blog exploring love for reading and how Reading Plus has made an impact.
- Expanding their reading further and reviewing books outside of Reading Plus.
- Creating a vlog detailing all their favourite things about reading.
Publishing their very own piece of creative writing on our website.
Opportunities may also arise to collaborate with us on interviews with children’s/YA authors.
I feel amazing about becoming a Reading Plus Champion. I’m so honoured to have been chosen to give feedback and help children read more! Now that I have been chosen, I feel inspired to keep reading, safe in the knowledge that my efforts are being seen by the wider world. The people around me are even starting to read more! I’ve been exchanging book recommendations with my friends.
My reading journey blog
What do you enjoy most about reading?
For me, the thing I enjoy most about reading is that I can go anywhere. I like to imagine myself in the protagonist's shoes, say I’m Eric, from “Codename Banana”, his best friend is a gorilla, so that tells you a lot. It shows me that he probably doesn’t have many friends, so then I read the book with a melancholy tone going forward. I read this book probably a few years ago, but it stuck with me because of the saddening plot.
That’s another thing I love about reading, it feels like your memories. I was never a young boy during World War II keeping a gorilla safe, but it feels like I was!!
I like that the Reading Plus short stories are mostly educational. At school, I remember reading the “Right of Passage” short non-fiction, which tells you how children from all around the world are accepted into adulthood. Even in that text, I was able to go beyond my classroom and be sat on a warm field in a cap and gown a few years matured.
"Reading Plus expands my knowledge, and my imagination makes a boring afternoon into memories, that’s why I love reading."
Can you tell us about your favourite author/book?
"My favourite book?!?” (I say as I clearly have a favourite book). My favourite book is “Rise of the Ogre” written by Cass Browne. See, Gorillaz is my all-time favourite band… virtual band, the musicians aren’t real. I’ll explain that better: The characters who play the instruments aren’t real, the music and everything else is.
“Rise of the Ogre” is an autobiography written from the perspective of the fictional characters published in 2006, just after the second album. The autobiography covers phases one and two of the timeline, as well as providing the only source of character backstory. I’m getting a bit geeky, aren’t I? That’s why I love it, a book written by geeks for geeks.
Copies of the book are now extremely expensive due to the limited amount of them produced (Gorillaz wasn’t very popular when it was in the making), but my Auntie, an art book enthusiast and lover of Gorillaz, had two and happily lent me one! It’s my favourite book because it has input from my favourite characters and real facts on how the music was produced. Also, original Jamie Hewlett artwork!! All four of my favourite things combined Gorillaz, music, art and reading.
Out of all the books you have ever read, who is your favourite character?
Out of all the books I’ve read, my favourite character has got to be Glam from “Farewell” by Alina Ko-Valenva. It’s a really, REALLY niche comic based on the Russian web series called “The Metal Family”. Originally produced in Russian, the comic was then translated into English - Enough with the nerdiness Tilly, this is why my favourite character is Glam.
Well, he was raised in an abusive household, a rich father who forced him to play the violin and would abuse him if he played anything but perfectly. Glam gets older, teenage, and his father makes him apply for a full scholarship to the most advanced music school. He obviously gets in with a full scholarship, but someone scored above him. A street rat named Ches.
Glam, after feeling enraged, takes a record from Ches and plays it: Twisted Sister. He’s never heard any music that isn’t classical before, it shocks him, but he loves it. Glam and Ches become great friends. Ches teaches Glam to play the guitar and he feels genuinely happy for the first time in his life, hiding every part of his secret rock life. As you can imagine, this didn’t last long…
After sneaking back from a gig, his father greeted him at the door with his notebook in hand. This part was truly powerful. His father says “Is it us, or the street rat Sebastian?” and he replies “My name is Glam…” turns around and never goes back. I was so shook by how he could just leave his whole life behind just like that, the bravery he had to muster to turn on his father who threatened him like that for so long. Honestly when I read it, it moved me, even though it’s fiction, his story felt so true. Human - from words and pictures.
I love Glam because throughout his story, he had to make challenging decisions and didn’t look back. The character also displays that it’s a sad reality and stories like this are actually happening, and it’s spreading awareness. Finally, I love Glam because it feels like I have lived his story. It feels like I was by his side through everything because it felt so real.
What are your favourite things about Reading Plus?
My favourite part about Reading Plus is how competitive it gets. I’m not a very competitive person, but when it comes to reading, I like to be on top. I like to compare my reading rate with my friends to see which one of us can read the fastest, I also think this encourages them to read too. A normally rowdy and loud class can turn to silence just five minutes into their stories.
I also like the wide variety of educational subjects Reading Plus provides: history, the arts… fruits and vegetables? I liked the one debating whether a tomato was a fruit or a vegetable, there was a prolonged class argument going on about that and I settled it thanks to you Reading Plus!
Also the words you can learn on the vocabulary section, it makes me feel proud when I see a word flash and I already know what it is without even checking the options. Two kids were laughing at the word “Chasm” and I don’t know why because it just means a big crack in the earth?
Have you learned any interesting facts with Reading Plus?
Totally! A tomato is legally a vegetable, but biologically a fruit (take that Richard!!). I read the story on the Greek Gods and Goddesses which lead to me purchasing the “Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief” book set, I learned a lot in just the text though! I mean, Athena isn’t just Goddess of intelligence, but also battle strategy.
Do you feel your reading skills have improved with Reading Plus?
My reading has definitely improved with Reading Plus, 100%. I was an adamant reader in primary school, but kind of fell out of love with it in secondary. Then my teacher introduced Reading Plus, we were to do one hour a week of reading and comprehension on the website, and promises of rewards if you were the best. Well, I’m sure you can guess who put their all into being the best?
But during this time, I was also inspired to read outside of school by the way the texts captivated me. I was reading once again! Now I’m partaking in the James Reckit reading awards, which I never would have done if Reading Plus didn’t push me to read more and improve my skills!
Do you have any advice for other students on their Reading Plus journey?
I hear my peers around me all the time “Reading is boring” this and “I hate writing” that, but the truth is, they just haven’t found the right story to inspire them.
When I started Reading Plus, I would only pick the shortest stories that were in touch with my interests, then everything just clicked. You think you’re born for football, bad at reading? Just read a text about football! It’s simple really. Then, once you’ve finished all of the stories on football, your reading rate is quicker, you have a better vocabulary and understanding of text and you start venturing into other genres.
Don’t want to read about the Dom Tower in Amsterdam? That’s fine, Reading Plus offers so many other resources to grow your knowledge! Maybe try reading about WWII. The stories just keep flowing, the questions start to answer themselves for you as your brain expands its comprehension and you will feel competent in your reading ability. And before you know it, you’re a Reading Plus Champion!
Book review of 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' by Mitch Albom
This book was about an old man named Eddie and his incredible journey through the author’s interpretation of the afterlife. The book takes you with Eddie through flashbacks of his past birthdays and conversations with deceased loved ones, and not -so-loved ones, before a cinematic and heartbreaking ending, getting you rethinking the way you want to live your life. (I’m serious!)
What was your favourite thing about the book?
My favourite thing about the book is not only the inspiring plot-line but also the layout! The book doesn’t have chapters, the closest it gets is the repeating line ‘Today is Eddie‘s birthday’ before the start of a new flashback. The author also singled out a select few words from each new paragraph to capitalise and make bold. These often stopped midway through another sentence, but when read on their own, made complete sense. Occasionally, punctuation would be placed wrong, or not placed at all. I’m sure this was purposeful though, because I noticed the pattern with it. So, not only did it have the story getting you thinking, but also the deliberate placement of SPaG.
I would’ve loved more detail on side characters, or the swapping of real world to flashbacks, just to buff it out a couple more pages. Other than that I’m completely consummated with this book!
Who was your favourite character?
My favourite character? It’s hard to choose really. Out of the five people Eddie met in heaven, it was the captain’s story which really moved me the most. He had never known a life but war and did everything he could to keep his unit (which included Eddie) alive.
Eventually after a narrow escape from an enemy base, the captain shoots Eddie in the leg, something that would pain him for the rest of his life. But, if it weren’t for that shot, Eddie would’ve been dead. The captain's place in this book is to teach Eddie about the importance of sacrifice, and I think he teaches a significant lesson to anyone picking up the book. It taught me that sacrifice is something not to regret, but something to aspire to. And a lot of the time you’re not even losing anything, you’re just passing it on. Beautiful message.
New words I came across while reading:
Ballyhoo - An exaggerated, noisy, attention-grabbing commotion. Context: A ballyhoo gathered to laugh at the Ruby Piers freak show attraction.
Primitive - Something in early stages of production. Context: Eddie arrived in heaven in a primitive teacup ride.
New facts I learned:
Through this book, I have learned that some authors hire researchers to make sure that the specific thing they are writing on is correct. In the story, a big part of Eddie's personality is that he is a maintenance worker at the Ruby Pier. When reading the acknowledgements, I saw that Mitch had thanked a team of people for ‘researching rides’. Also another team for researching ‘war wounds’. I then realised that the author wanted to be so precise with their writing, they got researchers so that they could write accurately on specific topics, and I found that very interesting.
I would recommend this book to others, definitely. Specifically, I would recommend it to people who have recently lost a loved one, or people uncertain about life after death, because this book is actually written regarding authors deceased uncle, Edward Beichman.
A haiku by Tilly
Choppy blue waters
Waking me before autumn
Like an upbeat song
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