Jackie French: Rocket Your Child Into Reading

On first meeting Jackie French it is easy to mistake her for a typical warm-hearted farmer's wife with a passion for gardening. While she is indeed all these things, Jackie is also an award-winning author for children and young adults, with over 120 books to her credit.

Furthermore, Jackie, who suffers from dyslexia, is also a staunch advocate for
children with reading difficulties and she is passionate about switching
children on to the pleasures of reading. Hence she has become "matron" of the Books in Homes programme in Australia's Central Territories, patron of Club Cool (a reading programme in Australian public libraries) and is a children's
ambassador for Unesco.

Jackie's first book for children, called Rainstones, was published in 1991. At that time she was living in a shed with a wallaby called Fred, a snake called Gladys and a wombat called Smudge. The publishers thought her manuscript was the messiest submission they had ever received, plus it was full of spelling mistakes. The messiness was due to the fact that Smudge had a habit of leaving his droppings on the typewriter every night.

However Jackie admits that the spelling errors were entirely her own fault and the result of her dyslexia.

Luckily Harper Collins, the publishers, were able to accept the book for its
content rather than its presentation, and Jackie was on her way to becoming one of Australia's favourite authors for children.

Jackie has just published two books in time for Christmas. The first of these is a very funny picture book called Pete's Sheep, which featured in last week's Kid into Books section. The other book is called Rocket Your Child into Reading and it is a valuable resource book for parents and teachers who are keen to turn struggling readers into confident ones.

The key to Jackie's approach to reading is the acknowledgement that children learn in different ways and that a "one size fits all" approach to the teaching of reading is simply not going to work.

In Rocket Your Child into Reading Jackie argues that parents and teachers must first identify a particular child's learning style before attempting to teach them how to read. Furthermore, reading isn't just one skill - it is an accumulation of many skills, from how to hold a book to how to focus on a page.

Rocket Your Child into Reading begins with chapters on very early development and goes right through to sections on encouraging reading among teenagers. Parents will discover new ways of teaching the alphabet, spelling, and
writing. Jackie also includes games for co-ordination, concentration and focus, all essential elements of the reading process.

The chapter on identifying reading difficulties is sure to be of great help to parents concerned about their children's progress.

Jackie doesn't pretend to be an expert in this field but she does provide guidance in terms of offering suggestions as to where parents can go once they have identified a specific problem.

In the final chapter Jackie discusses ways that we can encourage a reading culture and how we can "hook" children on to books.

She also provides hints on starting book groups for young readers.

Rocket Your Child into Reading is a very accessible resource book, filled with a wealth of advice, anecdotes and activities.

It is essential reading for any parent concerned about encouraging a love of reading in their children.

Recommended by DOROTHY VINICOMBE

Publisher: HarperCollins

Price: $24.99