Getting children hooked on books

Sometimes, one great story is all it takes to turn a child into a lifelong reader, and Fizzlebert Stump might just be it, says Sarah Threlkeld-Brown...

I am sure you have heard the saying, ‘Everyone is a reader. Some just haven’t found their favourite book yet.’ And it’s true. The absolute key in unlocking the ‘reader’ in every child is the right text. I use the term ‘hook books’ to describe this – books that hook children into reading. These are titles children find irresistible, funny, compelling, moving; fiction and non-fiction to which they can relate.

It’s up to us to ensure children do not see books as stuffy and boring, but rather a source of huge entertainment, escapism, information, awe and wonder. The best books not only ‘hook the reader in’, they are high quality and written with many layers of meaning – in other words, perfect for reading, reflecting and learning.

I am addicted to children’s literature (I think I must be making up for what I missed out on as a child) and could spend hours revelling in the whys and wherefores of different high-quality texts. A current personal favourite is Fizzlebert Stump: The Boy Who Ran Away From the Circus (and joined the library), by A.F. Harrold (Bloomsbury Children’s, 2012). This is the story of the eponymous boy, Fizzlebert, who lives with a travelling circus. Although he hangs around with acrobats and fools around with clowns, he gets lonely being the only child in the troupe. So, one day, he decides to join a library – and that’s when it all goes terribly wrong…

There are many opportunities for using this text to engage children in reading. This can happen both beyond the literal level, which requires pupils to apply their prior knowledge and experiences to unearth deeper meanings, and at a personal level – exploring the reader’s emotional response to the text. Here are a few examples.

1. Predictions

There’s plenty to discuss before children have even opened the book, such as the title – which is also the name of the main character. Ask the class:

• What they think a character with the name Fizzlebert Stump will be like?
• From where might Fizzlebert have got his name? Who might have given it to him?
• Do the children think Fizzlebert likes his name? Would they like a name like that?

2. Chapter by chapter

Each chapter in the book begins with a very brief synopsis, which is an absolute gift for teachers.

• Chapter One – in which the hero is introduced and described.
• Chapter Two – in which a lion eats a child’s head and in which the audience applauds tremendously.
• Chapter Three – in which a mind reader is met and in which rabbits are discussed.
• Chapter Four – in which a librarian is encountered and in which death robots from Mars make a brief appearance….
• Chapter Eleven – in which another boy puts his head in a lion’s mouth and in which loose ends are tied up.

Give the children the chapter synopses before they read the book and ask them to predict what they think might happen in each instalment. Ask them to storyboard their predictions.

After reading each chapter, get the children to reflect on what they have read, how this compares to their predictions, and how their predictions for future chapters might change because of what they have discovered.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Prediction BEFORE reading
What ACTUALLY happened
Prediction AFTER reading

3. Making connections

When we read, we make connections to other books and the knowledge and experience we have gathered in our own lives. This is a crucial part of becoming a ‘reader’ as these links give readers the tools they need in order to think critically and make meaning at a deeper level.

Ask the children whether Fizzlebert reminds them of a character from another text (Charlie Bucket, for example), or perhaps someone they might have encountered outside of fiction. How is he or she similar and different? Two other characters in Fizzlebert Stump, Mr and Mrs Stinkthrottle, might be particularly reminiscent – Mr and Mrs Twit, anyone?

4. Characters’ feelings
We can focus on Fizzlebert’s feelings throughout the story. For example, in the last paragraph of chapter one, A.F. Harrold writes, “Fizzlebert sat out the back of the Big Top late one evening looking dolefully (which means sadly, miserably, gloomily and also slightly bored) at the sea lion who had just burped a tuna-flavoured burp in poor Fizzlebert’s face.”

Children can map out how Fizzlebert’s feelings change depending on his circumstances, and from the beginning to the end of the story. We can then ask the pupils if and when they have ever felt the same way.

Gloomy Apprehensive Frightened Relieved
Where did Fizzlebert feel…
When have you felt …

5. Visualising

There are many opportunities for visualisation in this text, such as the circus and the library. But a particularly ‘wonderful’ setting for firing children’s imagination is Mr and Mrs Stinkthrottle’s house. Chapters six and seven describe the abode using the author’s quirky humour. A.F. Harrold introduces the house with the line, “What met his [Fizzlebert’s] eyes was awful. (What met his nose was worse, but we’ll get to that shortly) …The house looked like the set of a disaster film, just after all the big action has happened. To call it untidy would be an understatement of monstrous proportions.”

Ask the children to visualise how terrible it could be? They should then draw and label illustrations of what they predict the living room, kitchen and bathroom would be like, reflecting on what they already know about Mr and Mrs Stinkthrottle and any other relevant experience they might have.

Once they’ve made their predictions, ask the children to close their eyes and visualise what they can ‘see’ as you take them on a guided tour of the Stinkthrottle’s home, room by room, using the descriptions from the text.

As mentioned earlier, it was not just what Fizzlebert ‘saw’ when he entered the Stinkthrottle’s home that shocked him – it was what he could smell as well. Exercise children’s imagination further by telling them that, now they are in the house, they notice lots of other things going on around them that evoke the senses – especially their sense of smell!

Finally, ask the children to think about emotions. How is Fizzlebert feeling as he enters the house for the first time? How do they think the house feels!?

A.F. Harrold’s humour is contagious and encourages children to keep turning the pages. His use of parenthesis to talk to the reader (just like this one) will have children rolling on the floor with laughter – as well as giving them additional information about the story. As such, children will find this book a source of huge entertainment, escapism, information, awe and wonder. In short, everything a ‘hook book’ should be. Most of all, they will have engaged with Fizzlebert at a personal level; they will never see a circus or a library in the same way again, and they may well have found a favourite book.

About the author

Sarah Threlkeld-Brown is the lead education consultant for reading at Andrell Education. She is the co-creator of Big Reading and The Reading Criterion Scale. She admits being addicted to children’s books.