The books that shape us

Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust team aren’t able to meet in person but regular catch ups take place on zoom. Yesterday, as it was World Book Day, we shared our favourite children’s books and a book that shaped out lives. On reflection it demonstrated how we are all shaped by books, those that we escape to, develop our sense of fun, our sense of right and wrong and those that make us question the world and how we live.

World Book Day exists to both celebrate and promote reading. In the excitement of primary school dressing up it’s worth pausing on why else it is important to celebrate and share great books and encouraging reading. Maybe there is a concern that in the world of tweets and posts, instant response and gratification from responding to texts, and memes on tiktok, Snapchat etc that the love of books might be on the wane. Literacy is key to all other learning, and knowledge is also the first step in how we change the world. We love social media for connecting people, organising for action and spreading news, but we are aware of its limitations of not dealing well with complexity, ability to spread misinformation quickly and dangerously and how we can get trapped in our social bubbles without realising the range of contradictory voices that exist elsewhere. So after the Harry Potters and Matilda’s put their costumes away let’s keep sharing our favourite books that contain secret worlds, wise words and ideas that change the world.