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FEATURES CHOICE SELECTION A child picks a book in Cambodia from a wide selection (left & below) STORY TIME Children in South Africa read a Room to Read book (bottom left) told stories. But now the culture is slightly different; people don't have time and families are separated. We need to fill that gap. We need to give the children books. Books can be their companions forever, through all their life.' Meeting needs The subject matter and audience of each Room to Read book is determined by local needs. 'When we enter a project area, we open a library and purchase local language books to support local publishers,' says Pascual. 'From those, we can see the gaps in terms of reading levels or genres.' Governments play a vital role too, offering support and clarifying the needs and literacy levels of their children. Room to Read works with the ministries of education in each country to make sure that 'reading time' is established in schools, and guidelines are put in place to help teachers and librarians establish the reading level of each child, which they can match with appropriate materials. 'We find out which words are being taught in the classroom and we give that list to the writers and illustrators at our workshops,' says Pascual. 'Those words are a starting point for developing stories with really interesting characters. We're setting the children up for success by making sure we're using some words they already know and, by also using Vol/52 No/4 2013 words they need to learn, we're making sure the teachers want to use the books.' These books are carefully vetted too. Manuscripts and artwork are screened by the charity's book development committees. Those they approve are taken to a focus group of local children to make sure they understand the words and engage with the stories. Books are then edited and printed. Thereafter, Room to Read programmes provide training for teachers and librarians to help them use the books to engage with children, whether that's through reading aloud, group reading or independent reading. Part of Room to Read's success comes through its collaborative approach to sharing ideas and practices. From his San Francisco office, Pascual often brings country directors and committee members together on Skype. 'Most of the people we work with speak English as well as their local language,' he notes. 'You will have a Cambodian, someone from Bangladesh and someone from Tanzania, and they all have very different levels of English. We learn from each other and share the good things we've done. 'Through that process, we've had titles that have been adapted from one country to another too,' he adds. That's possible by changing the cultural context. As an example, he cites a Sri Lankan picture book about hands and tools. 'That concept is universal, so in South Africa they contextualised it using local tools.' Another example is collaborative work between India and Vietnam. 'We sat down together in a workshop and they brainstormed a story about watercolour tubes drawn as characters, talking to each other. They each took that as a starting point and built their own books, working with local illustrators.' Subject matter varies from country to country, but Pascual sees one common factor across all successful titles. 'The books the children want to read are story-driven and character-driven,' he says. 'Stories with an overt lesson – "the honest boy", "the obedient girl" – are not engaged with. It's about making the child the central character. Have a little girl that solves a problem or a little boy that resolves a conflict. Write stories that are familiar to a child in a context, and make sure it captures their imagination. It's about telling a story and the development of those characters.' All of which harks back to Wood's 'eureka moment' back in the village school in Nepal 15 years ago. Room to Read is about giving children access to books – and it's about the importance of using appropriate language, content and, crucially, context. To support Room to Read visit roomtoread.org/checkoutchallenge. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER The Linguist 19