posted on 29 Nov 2016

The Story Lady Goes To London

Most of my ' Wild Things and Gold Rings' events seem to be as a result of knowing people who recommend me so when I went to stay with my brother in London recently I was delighted to be invited to read stories to children at a nearby nursery. Gateway Tots is a social enterprise that provides affordable childcare to the most disadvantaged and vulnerable families in Tower Hamlets. It is part of a Christian charity ‘City Gateway’ that works in partnership with people through providing vocational training and many other ways to redress the many effects of poor housing and associated difficulties.

I was given a warm welcome by Andie and her very friendly staff. I was asked to take small groups of children for rhymes and simple interactive stories in a cosy family room. Here we looked at ' Postman Bear by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler and ‘Box’ by Min Flyte and Rosalind Beardshaw. These are good examples of ‘lift the flap’ books which can always be guaranteed to capture the attention of any two year old for a few minutes at least. After enjoying these books with five different groups of very co- operative children, I moved into another room for a story with the whole group. I was impressed at how they joined in and listened to another of my favourites by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler: ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’. This is an ideal book to read aloud with its colourful illustrations, simple structure and repetitive text. My final choice was ‘ Peace at Last ‘ by Jill Murphy which always encourages joining in with the different sound effects and the refrain of the exhausted Mr Bear trying to find somewhere quiet to get to sleep as he declares ‘ I can’t stand this’!

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and hope to do another event after Christmas. I have been told that the following day several children asked for ' the story lady' - I guess that must be me!

Karen Argent

November 2016