Ten years on and reading's still cool

Bernice Mene reads books yesterday with (from left) Vienna Frost, Aloe Vaai, Danija Cowell-Smith, Jerry Guo and Vincent Fasi. Picture / Martin Sykes

Vienna Frost says a book can take you places in your imagination "and it can tell you stuff you didn't know".

Classmate Aloe Vaai reads in his spare time and has a collection of "Duffy" books that he reads "over and over again".

Danija Cowell-Smith is not sure if books are as good as sport because "I like them both", but reading is definitely "cool".

The 10-year-olds from Oranga School in One Tree Hill were among 80,000 primary schoolchildren nationwide celebrating 10 years of Books in Homes yesterday.

And if their reaction is anything to go by, the project is a success.

The aim of Books in Homes, the brainchild of writer Alan Duff, is to create a more literate and employable society by encouraging deprived youngsters to read.

Low socio-economic area schools are targeted and, thanks to sponsors, the children get to take home free "Duffy books" to line their shelves.

To celebrate the anniversary, role models are visiting schools to give inspirational talks and award books.

At Oranga yesterday, former Silver Fern captain Bernice Mene was the centre of attention as she told pupils she was always a keen reader as a child.

Since then-Prime Minister Jim Bolger officially launched Books in Homes in 1995, the programme has distributed more than 3.5 million books and today 435 schools are involved.

Oranga principal Juliet Small said the scheme had an "enormous impact", with literacy levels rising and children treating the books as "their prized possessions".

That opinion is backed up by a report from the National Council for Educational Research in 2002 that concluded that the "deep and lasting impact on each of the 78,000 students is inestimable. It is a programme that invests in the future but changes the present".

Birthday celebrations will continue at schools over the next three weeks.

Role models from all walks of life, including television personality Oscar Kightley, entrepreneur and adventurer John Bougen, psychiatrist Dr Rees Tapsell, rower Katie Pocock, rugby legend Michael Jones and singer Jackie Clarke, will help celebrate the milestone.

The party launch yesterday was held at College Street School in Dunedin with Associate Education Minister David Benson-Pope and Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen.

"Nothing's more certain than we cannot read a book if it ain't there," said Mr Benson-Pope.