posted on 29 Nov 2016

West Heath Nursery School, Birmingham

This was a rather strange experience because I actually did a teaching practice at this Birmingham nursery school fortyyears ago! The building has exactly the same layout as I remember but has obviously been considerably modernised including some modern technology, but thankfully lots of lovely books as well. I had a rush of nostalgia as I looked out at the enclosed garden space which I can remember playing in. Now it has a big apple-laden tree at the centre and a ring of weathered wooden toadstools for the children to sit on - hopefully sometimes for stories.

My brief was to talk to the staff about some recommended books to promote inclusion and as usual, I was hard pressed to make a selection that would fit into my trolley and not cause me to rupture myself as I carried it on and off trains and buses on my long journey.I wanted to broaden the idea of inclusion to cover picture book representation of children and families in all shapes and sizes. This was a bit of a challenge in forty five minutes but managed to introduce some that the staff hadn't seen before. So, with the emphasis on ' ordinary ' lives we looked at examples like ' Having a Picnic' by Sarah Garland and ' My Mum Goes to Work' by Kes Grey, illustrated by David Milgrim. We agree that the bold positive statements challenging stereotypical gender roles in 'What are you playing at?’ by Marie Sabine Roger and Anna Sol were necessary and very helpful for discussions with children. The best inclusive picture books are ones that do it naturally without a big fuss and ' Donovan's Big Day' by Leslia Newman, illustrated by Mike Dutton about a little boy’s exciting and important role at the wedding of his same sex parents is a good example. Another all-time favourite of mine reviewed elsewhere is ‘Through My Window' by Tony Bradman, illustrated by Eileen Browne because it presents a child with a dual heritage who has a working mother and stay at home father and is packed with positive  messages about living in a multicultural community. I also took along several examples that portray children with a special need or disability and was surprised that no one had seen these before. There was particular interest in ones relating to the autistic spectrum like ‘Looking after Louis’ by Lesley Ely, illustrated by Polly Dunbar.

As ever, I ran out of time because there are just so many good books to talk about and it is such an important subject because as the picture book academic Janet Evans puts so succinctly:

It is the texts that surround us that tell us how to read the world.

I left them with a strong recommendation to look at the Letterbox Library website for more good ideas for buying books.

Karen Argent

November 2016