Book Chat: RfP partners with Macmillan Children’s Books

reading with your child

The Reading for Pleasure (RfP) project, part of the Research Rich Pedagogies group within the School of Education, Childhood, Youth & Sport (ECYS), has launched Book Chat: Reading with your Child, a resource which comprises three short films and support materials to help parents, families and carers read books conversationally and creatively to children.

Working with Macmillan Children’s Books, the films use a selection of their picture books and a poetry collection to support families with reading to children of different ages. The aim is to reach over a million families across the UK to enable parents and children to share the pleasure of reading together – a significant step for the RfP project, as home life becomes even more important whilst families cope with a post-pandemic world.

Teresa Cremin, Professor of Education (Literacy) in the School of Education, Childhood, Youth & Sport and lead researcher on the Reading for Pleasure project said:

“Drawing on our research and practitioner networks, the OU was well placed to produce this Book Chat resource which offers support and advice to parents to read with their children and discuss the text. These conversations are critical as they invite children’s deep engagement, prompt them to imagine, and help them make sense of what they are reading. Book Chat fosters a love of reading.”

Book Chat is the informal interaction that accompanies quality reading to and with children, developing children’s language and comprehension and nurturing a love of reading. The films model this relaxed interaction using open questions, comments and prompts to initiate Book Chat.

Professor Cremin reads on one of the films, along with Richard Charlesworth and Ben Harris, both experienced teachers and long-standing partners of The Open University’s work.