Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #952- A Rippin Good Read

Transcript

#952- A Rippin Good Read · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

0:03
Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the
0:07
Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers now. This is
0:11
Speaker 1: the podcast of the time for parent who just wants
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Speaker 1: answers now. Today it's all about reading and your kids,
0:16
Speaker 1: whether they're little kids who are just sounding out their
0:19
Speaker 1: first words or big kids who have decided that the
0:22
Speaker 1: telephone and screen is more exciting than anything they can
0:26
Speaker 1: read in a book. Today, it's a podcast that you
0:28
Speaker 1: want to hear because reading is so foundational for every
0:32
Speaker 1: success that our kids have in life. I say this
0:34
Speaker 1: all the time on the podcast. Readers are leaders and
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Speaker 1: leaders are readers. My guest on the podcast today is
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Speaker 1: the Australian Children's Laureate. If you're not sure what a
0:47
Speaker 1: laureate is, and if you didn't know that Australia had
0:49
Speaker 1: a Children's Laureate, we'll talk about that in a second,
0:51
Speaker 1: but please may I introduce you to Sally Rippons. Sally
0:54
Speaker 1: is the eighth Australian Children's Laureate. She is Australia's highest
0:59
Speaker 1: selling female author, with wait for it, over ten million
1:04
Speaker 1: that's million, ten million books in print around the globe,
1:08
Speaker 1: more than one hundred books for children and young people
1:11
Speaker 1: to her name, including the wildly popular Billy b. Brown
1:15
Speaker 1: and Hey Jack series, as well A School of Monsters
1:18
Speaker 1: and Polly and Buster. Sally writes stories with heart and
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Speaker 1: characters that resonate with children, parents and teachers are light
1:24
Speaker 1: and Sally, we're here to talk about reading. So glad
1:26
Speaker 1: that you're with me on the Happy Families podcast. Thank
1:28
Speaker 1: you for chatting, Thank you for having me.
1:31
Speaker 2: I'm so happy to be here too. Justin.
1:32
Speaker 1: Let's talk about what a laureate is, because this is
1:35
Speaker 1: a fancy word that most of us don't use every day.
1:38
Speaker 2: It's true, so lauriates exist all around the world. The
1:42
Speaker 2: Australian Children's Laureate has only been around, probably for about
1:45
Speaker 2: sixteen years. I think our first ones were Alison Lester
1:49
Speaker 2: and bury Monty Pryor. And basically we are chosen by
1:54
Speaker 2: our peers and a board and a committee. And what
1:58
Speaker 2: a lauriate does is represent the body of children's authors
2:02
Speaker 2: and illustrators in Australia. So say, for example, Justin, you
2:05
Speaker 2: want to know something about kids books. You think, okay,
2:07
Speaker 2: I'll call the Laureate and I'm here for you.
2:10
Speaker 1: That's so good of you. So a children's lauriate means
2:12
Speaker 1: that you're focused primarily on getting books into kids hands.
2:16
Speaker 1: You're interested in helping authors to write books that kids
2:19
Speaker 1: want to read, your interest in helping teachers and parents
2:22
Speaker 1: to get those books read by the kids. Can we
2:25
Speaker 1: just take a step back and talk a bit about
2:27
Speaker 1: the research. Why for people who don't really think that
2:30
Speaker 1: reading is a big deal, maybe don't have too many
2:32
Speaker 1: books on the shelf, and you're pretty happy for the
2:34
Speaker 1: kids to get outside and play or stare at their screen.
2:37
Speaker 1: Why do we need to emphasize and elevate reading.
2:40
Speaker 2: Well, as you said in your introduction, Justin is that
2:42
Speaker 2: everything requires reading. So the reason why I'm particularly passionate
2:46
Speaker 2: about this and my mission is all kids can be readers,
2:50
Speaker 2: is because there will always be children who fall through
2:52
Speaker 2: the gap. And this was the case with my youngest son.
2:55
Speaker 2: I learned to read before I started school. My two
2:57
Speaker 2: older boys were the same. But my youngest son plateaued
3:00
Speaker 2: in grade three and we had him assessed and he's dyslexic.
3:04
Speaker 2: So this was about, oh, it must be twelve years ago,
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Speaker 2: and that's when I started to write the Billy B.
3:08
Speaker 2: Brown and Hate Jack series for kids who struggled to read.
3:11
Speaker 2: But I've since learned that there are many more things
3:14
Speaker 2: that we can do to support kids that struggle to read,
3:16
Speaker 2: because the first three years really we're focused on kids
3:20
Speaker 2: learning to read, and from after grade three we're expecting
3:24
Speaker 2: them to read to learn. So if they missed those
3:26
Speaker 2: really vital years, they'll always be playing catch up. And
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Speaker 2: as I found with my son once he started high school,
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Speaker 2: it wasn't just about engaging fantastic stories, which is of
3:35
Speaker 2: course important as it is, but every subject requires reading.
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Speaker 2: The way you express yourself, the way you can show
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Speaker 2: what you've learned, and all the knowledge that your story
3:45
Speaker 2: is all through language and literacy. So he really his
3:48
Speaker 2: self esteem plummeted, his mental health really went down, and
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Speaker 2: I recognized how important reading is not just for engaging
3:55
Speaker 2: great books, but for everything we do in life.
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Speaker 1: Sally, I love the emphasis on everyone being reader that
4:00
Speaker 1: you've highlighted. You've mentioned your son's dyslexia. There are plenty
4:04
Speaker 1: of parents who are listen to this podcast who is
4:06
Speaker 1: kids neurodivergent ADHD autism, And what we again find is
4:11
Speaker 1: when competence is low, when kids are struggling with something,
4:15
Speaker 1: they tend to be less motivated to do it. They
4:17
Speaker 1: just don't want to be there. You couple that with
4:19
Speaker 1: the reality that there are some pretty enticing alternative activities
4:24
Speaker 1: outside of books, and it makes for a really complicated
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Speaker 1: and challenging scenario for parents who desperately want that eight
4:32
Speaker 1: year old ADHD kid, or that six year old dyslexic kid,
4:35
Speaker 1: or just that wonderful child who won't pick up a book?
4:39
Speaker 1: What do we do to get books into their hands
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Speaker 1: and help them to find I mean, I'm a reader.
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Speaker 1: I read probably fifty forty to fifty books a year.
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Speaker 1: For me, this is a thing, right, I just care
4:50
Speaker 1: so much about it, and I know what a different
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Speaker 1: owned books just open up worlds. What do we do
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Speaker 1: to get these kids that are just saying not for me,
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Speaker 1: not competent, doesn't feel good? How do we get them reading?
5:01
Speaker 2: So there's a few things I'm not sure if you saw.
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Speaker 2: A few weeks ago justin the grata and report came
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Speaker 2: at and identified that a third of our children are
5:08
Speaker 2: getting through primary school without having required reading skills to
5:11
Speaker 2: really perform well in life. So those are just really
5:14
Speaker 2: basic skills, not even just being able to enjoy good stories,
5:17
Speaker 2: and we know reading stories other people's stories are important
5:20
Speaker 2: for developing empathy, they develop your vocabulary, they'll help you
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Speaker 2: make connections with stories and how other people might live
5:28
Speaker 2: in the world. And so of course we want our
5:30
Speaker 2: children to be readers, and so we really need to
5:32
Speaker 2: get intervention and identification happening really early on, so pretty
5:37
Speaker 2: much as soon as a child starts school, if a teacher,
5:40
Speaker 2: as you say, has identified there might be some neurological
5:42
Speaker 2: differences there. My son later was identified as also having
5:46
Speaker 2: ADHD and so obviously had some challenges reading, not just
5:50
Speaker 2: through dyslexia, but also paying attention. And so those kids
5:53
Speaker 2: are just going to need some extra support, and we
5:55
Speaker 2: want to build a team around these kids, with the teachers,
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Speaker 2: potentially with support outside of the school. But always there
6:02
Speaker 2: will be kids who just find reading a real struggle.
6:05
Speaker 2: And that's where I would say, don't be snobby about
6:08
Speaker 2: what they read. I really really was, you know, because
6:10
Speaker 2: like you, I was a reader. I wanted my child
6:12
Speaker 2: to read Charlotte's Web and love it like I had.
6:15
Speaker 2: I read it aloud to him justin and this is
6:17
Speaker 2: just there's you an example of his focus at the
6:20
Speaker 2: end of the book, when I was crying and I
6:21
Speaker 2: was like, oh, and Charlotte died. And he turned to
6:24
Speaker 2: me and he said, who's Charlotte again? All right, this
6:27
Speaker 2: is a kid that hasn't engaged with stories in the
6:30
Speaker 2: same way as me. So look for other things. Your
6:33
Speaker 2: child likes cooking, read cookbooks with them. Your child loves
6:36
Speaker 2: cars read Carmeny was with the graphic novels, comics, the
6:40
Speaker 2: fantastic ways to get kids to engage with stories. And
6:43
Speaker 2: my son, who's now twenty, reads subtitles on anime on movies,
6:48
Speaker 2: So you know, he has found a reason to really
6:51
Speaker 2: want to build up his reading skills because he's found
6:54
Speaker 2: something that he can connect with.
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Speaker 1: This bear of mind like subtitles just drives me crazy.
6:59
Speaker 1: And yet I have to pause and think that they
7:01
Speaker 1: are reading. I know that they're reading and listening, but
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Speaker 1: they're reading. And just recently, I was watching a show
7:06
Speaker 1: that was in Spanish, and I'm learning Spanish, and while
7:09
Speaker 1: I'm learning Spanish and watching this show, I'm thinking, oh
7:12
Speaker 1: my goodness, all of it started to click and I
7:14
Speaker 1: suddenly had this new appreciation for subtitles. You said, don't
7:17
Speaker 1: be a reading snob, And for me this has been
7:20
Speaker 1: a big thing because I care so much about great
7:22
Speaker 1: literature and great books and great learning. Our youngest really,
7:27
Speaker 1: we just couldn't get her reading, could not get her
7:30
Speaker 1: to pick up a book no matter what. And I'm
7:32
Speaker 1: talking about all the best ones that I've sat and
7:34
Speaker 1: like Bridge to terror Bithia. I've sat there and cried
7:37
Speaker 1: with my older kids as I've read it to them,
7:38
Speaker 1: and The Princess Bride and Nania, all of all these classics,
7:42
Speaker 1: and she just wouldn't touch anything. And then one day
7:45
Speaker 1: we found her. She'd borrowed a book from the library.
7:48
Speaker 1: It was a graphic novel, like literally, a comic book
7:52
Speaker 1: about dragons, Wings of Fire. I'm sure you know the
7:56
Speaker 1: wings are fire books. And I just I robbed my eyes.
8:00
Speaker 1: I looked down my nose so much disdain, and I'm like, oh,
8:03
Speaker 1: my goodness, I've got I've got a seven year old
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Speaker 1: girl reading a comic book about dragons. And I don't
8:08
Speaker 1: really like the tone of the book. There's a lot
8:10
Speaker 1: that I don't like about it. And then I pause
8:12
Speaker 1: and thought, oh no, this is this is my opportunity
8:15
Speaker 1: to practice what I preach. And so I took a
8:17
Speaker 1: deep breath and I said, to you like it? And
8:19
Speaker 1: she said yes, and I said, would you like to
8:21
Speaker 1: get the next one when you finished that? And she
8:23
Speaker 1: looked at me, Sally, with the widest eyes and just
8:28
Speaker 1: said really, So I said yeah. And in the end,
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Speaker 1: I think we probably have twenty or twenty five Wings
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Speaker 1: of Fire books and our bookshelf now. But the Wings
8:37
Speaker 1: of Fire led to she wanted to watch Harry Potter,
8:40
Speaker 1: and we said, well, read the book first. She's now
8:42
Speaker 1: read four or five of the Harry Potter books, which
8:44
Speaker 1: also led to her wanting to watch pet Percy Jackson,
8:46
Speaker 1: and we've said, well before you watch it, read the book.
8:48
Speaker 1: So now she's reading book four or book five of
8:50
Speaker 1: Percy Jackson. And this kid who three or four years
8:53
Speaker 1: ago would not pick up a book is reading fantastic stuff.
8:59
Speaker 1: She's like, I can't get a turn off the light
9:01
Speaker 1: and go to bed at night. She won't stop reading.
9:03
Speaker 1: The idea that you shared around just getting them into books,
9:06
Speaker 1: and the other thing that you said about being involved
9:08
Speaker 1: reading with them, these things just resonate so so much.
9:14
Speaker 2: So important. And also she gets to see her parents reading,
9:17
Speaker 2: which is exactly what you're doing. And I'm always saying
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Speaker 2: to Dad's if you want to get your boys reading.
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Speaker 2: Let them see you reading. You know, if we're sending
9:23
Speaker 2: them off into their room to read their school reader,
9:26
Speaker 2: that feels like a punishment. Let reading be a joyous
9:28
Speaker 2: thing that the family does, read with your child. And
9:32
Speaker 2: audiobooks amazing. So there will always be kids who struggle
9:35
Speaker 2: to read. They may be dyslexic, they may be vision impaired,
9:38
Speaker 2: but you can access all of these wonderful stories through audiobooks.
9:41
Speaker 2: So another thing I really want to champion is not
9:44
Speaker 2: only do we want to allow kids to choose their
9:47
Speaker 2: own reading material and how they access stories, but let's
9:50
Speaker 2: not be a snob about it. You know, I think
9:52
Speaker 2: it's really important. If I was to joke with you
9:54
Speaker 2: justin about how bad I am at maths, you wouldn't
9:57
Speaker 2: judge my intelligence. But if I tell you that I'm
9:59
Speaker 2: bad at reading or writing straight away, people make assumptions
10:02
Speaker 2: about our intelligence. So another thing I'm really passionate about
10:05
Speaker 2: doing is the children's laureate as I travel the country
10:08
Speaker 2: is to remember that there will be kids that will
10:10
Speaker 2: always struggle to read and ensure that they find other
10:13
Speaker 2: ways to access stories, whether it's through audiobooks, whether it's
10:17
Speaker 2: through oral storytelling or reading aloud to them, don't really
10:20
Speaker 2: write them up so quickly, because stories are available to
10:23
Speaker 2: everybody in many different formats.
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Speaker 1: Sally Rippin is the eighth Australian Children's Laureate, the highest
10:32
Speaker 1: selling female author Australia has ever produced, and Sally is
10:37
Speaker 1: on a mission to help everyone know that all kids
10:40
Speaker 1: can be readers. This is going to sound like a
10:43
Speaker 1: strange thing to say, Sally, but based on what you've
10:45
Speaker 1: just mentioned, this idea that if our kids are falling behind,
10:48
Speaker 1: like there's that issue around if you don't read well,
10:50
Speaker 1: people actually assess your intelligence differently versus if you don't
10:54
Speaker 1: maths well. Everyone laughs, Math's whatever, but reading is a
10:57
Speaker 1: big deal. I'm presently writing a book about bringing up boys,
11:01
Speaker 1: and I'm writing some education chapters. At every level, it
11:04
Speaker 1: seems that our boys are lagging girls when it comes
11:07
Speaker 1: to academic outcomes. They're lagging in terms of year twelve completion,
11:11
Speaker 1: they're lagging in terms of going to university. They're absolutely
11:14
Speaker 1: lagging in terms of graduating from university. And this matter
11:19
Speaker 1: is in a couple of really important ways. First of all,
11:21
Speaker 1: we know that the better you do educationally, the more
11:23
Speaker 1: likely is that you go to earn more, so you'll
11:25
Speaker 1: be financially more stable. But something else thought I was
11:27
Speaker 1: really fascinated by as I was doing this research is
11:30
Speaker 1: and this is a sort of a thorny place to go,
11:34
Speaker 1: but I want to go there anyway, because the data
11:35
Speaker 1: really points here. There's a dating and mating problem that's
11:38
Speaker 1: associated with education. So studies show that while men are
11:42
Speaker 1: happy to date and marry at an education and an
11:45
Speaker 1: economic level that's either up, down, or level with their
11:48
Speaker 1: own accomplishments, women feel differently, and data points to women
11:54
Speaker 1: marrying at either the same level educationally and economically or up.
11:58
Speaker 1: So women are less likely to date and marry at
12:02
Speaker 1: the same level or down. They seem to go up,
12:04
Speaker 1: which means that with fewer men achieving or exceeding the
12:06
Speaker 1: same status that women attain when it comes to education
12:10
Speaker 1: and economic outcomes, the dating and mating pool is an
12:14
Speaker 1: increasingly challenging place for both men and women. When I
12:18
Speaker 1: look at stats like that, I think this conversation becomes
12:22
Speaker 1: even more important because from a statistical perspective, our boys
12:28
Speaker 1: don't read like girls read, and therefore our boys aren't
12:31
Speaker 1: having the same educational outcomes. This is not just about
12:35
Speaker 1: doing well at school. This is something that affects our
12:37
Speaker 1: entire lives, our companionships, our relationships, our finances obviously, but
12:43
Speaker 1: the way that we interact with people throughout the rest
12:45
Speaker 1: of our lives. I wonder if you have any comments
12:47
Speaker 1: on that.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and I think if you even look at the
12:51
Speaker 2: education environment starting from when kids are very young, and
12:54
Speaker 2: you may be covering this in your book, but it's
12:56
Speaker 2: very female dominated. Most primary school teachers are female. You
13:00
Speaker 2: usually the person who interacts with your child's teacher is
13:02
Speaker 2: the mother, and often it's mothers that are taking kids
13:06
Speaker 2: to bookstores to buy books and reading with them. So
13:08
Speaker 2: little boys are growing up thinking not only is reading
13:11
Speaker 2: not a masculine thing to do, but even education is
13:14
Speaker 2: very female dominated. Studies also show that boys can often
13:17
Speaker 2: develop behind girls as well, and so they're often going
13:20
Speaker 2: to feel on the back foot, so they're in an
13:22
Speaker 2: environment where they're told to be very quiet, to sit
13:25
Speaker 2: very still, and we know also their developmental motor skills
13:29
Speaker 2: can be behind girls. So even sitting at a desk
13:31
Speaker 2: and writing can be too much to ask of an
13:33
Speaker 2: active young boy. So we really do need to look
13:35
Speaker 2: at how our schools can be more boyfriendly in a way,
13:39
Speaker 2: but also the way that we judge accomplishments and achievements.
13:43
Speaker 2: I really had to reassess that with my youngest son
13:46
Speaker 2: because while he was in great when he was in
13:49
Speaker 2: year ten, he was teaching himself university level calculus, but
13:52
Speaker 2: because he couldn't write an essay on Shakespeare, he wasn't
13:55
Speaker 2: able to pass school. So even the fact that we
13:57
Speaker 2: only judge intelligence in a particular way, we'll always put
14:01
Speaker 2: boys were often sorry, put boys on the back foot.
14:04
Speaker 2: And I think we really need to break down these
14:06
Speaker 2: stereotypes of how we measure intelligence, what intelligence looks like,
14:10
Speaker 2: and the opportunity is available for neurodivergent people once they
14:12
Speaker 2: leave school.
14:13
Speaker 1: This is really fascinating. One more question on this, how
14:17
Speaker 1: do we help boys to love reading? Like, how do
14:19
Speaker 1: we make reading more masculine? Because reading doesn't feel like
14:23
Speaker 1: kicking a footy, it's not as tactile. It does require
14:26
Speaker 1: sitting still and concentrating and staring at words on a page.
14:28
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't see reading as being feminine or masculine.
14:32
Speaker 1: It's just something that I love to do. But I
14:33
Speaker 1: guess the question on my mind based on this tangent
14:36
Speaker 1: of a conversation is how do we get the kids,
14:39
Speaker 1: how do we get the boys, especially into books so
14:41
Speaker 1: that they're more likely to have these positive outcomes.
14:45
Speaker 2: I think the number one thing is for them to
14:46
Speaker 2: see men reading, and I think not just their dads,
14:49
Speaker 2: but let's have a whole campaign where we're seeing footballers read,
14:52
Speaker 2: and we're seeing all kinds of sports stars reading, so
14:56
Speaker 2: that boys see it's a really cool masculine thing to do.
14:59
Speaker 2: And many of my my friends who are children's authors
15:02
Speaker 2: are often thinking of boys as they're writing their books.
15:04
Speaker 2: And so, you know, let boys choose the kind of
15:07
Speaker 2: books they're interested in. It may not be Charlotte's where
15:10
Speaker 2: it might be something else, but really engaged with the
15:13
Speaker 2: material that they're drawn to. Rather than wanting them to
15:16
Speaker 2: be more like we think there should be, let's listen
15:18
Speaker 2: to them a little bit more and see what they're
15:20
Speaker 2: interested in and connect with them that way.
15:22
Speaker 1: Let me ask you an incendiry question here, something that
15:24
Speaker 1: could be explosive. There's a really big push in publishing
15:27
Speaker 1: at the moment to increase diversity and to reduce the
15:30
Speaker 1: number of male characters and to reduce the number of
15:34
Speaker 1: just male protagonism is at the very core of what
15:37
Speaker 1: has been writing for such a very long time. Is
15:40
Speaker 1: that a good or bad thing? Especially when we're looking
15:43
Speaker 1: at the issue that boys are struggling to get into books.
15:46
Speaker 1: Do they need more not less of their own representation?
15:51
Speaker 2: I think this is a problem that you identified that
15:55
Speaker 2: certainly was being identified when I first started writing about
15:58
Speaker 2: twenty years ago, and we kind of swung in that
16:00
Speaker 2: direction of really putting so many strong boy characters in books.
16:04
Speaker 2: And apparently the rumor goes that the reason why JK.
16:07
Speaker 2: Rowling didn't call herself by her full name and used
16:09
Speaker 2: to her initials, and so boys wouldn't see that it
16:11
Speaker 2: was a girl who'd written the book. And so I
16:13
Speaker 2: think we also need to break down stereotypes of what
16:16
Speaker 2: we think boys are and what they're attracted to. And
16:19
Speaker 2: so I also, once I'd written the Billy B. Brown
16:21
Speaker 2: series about a strong female character, I wanted to create
16:25
Speaker 2: a series for sensitive boys. I know my three boys
16:28
Speaker 2: as they were growing up were very sensitive and have
16:31
Speaker 2: big feelings that they didn't know how to express. So
16:33
Speaker 2: all of the stories that I wrote about Jack were
16:35
Speaker 2: about him expressing his feelings and his emotions and recognizing
16:39
Speaker 2: that these aren't girly things to do that these are
16:41
Speaker 2: actually important life skills that you'll need when, like you say,
16:44
Speaker 2: when you're meeting partners, I'm sure they'd be so much
16:46
Speaker 2: more impressed that you can have emotional intelligence rather than
16:49
Speaker 2: the books you read. I mean, obviously books are really
16:51
Speaker 2: really important that so often how we gain emotional intelligence.
16:54
Speaker 2: But rather than belittling the materials that we give our boys,
16:59
Speaker 2: you know, there's this some that they'll only want to
17:01
Speaker 2: read action books, or that they'll only want to read comedy.
17:04
Speaker 2: These are important things, but I know with my little
17:07
Speaker 2: boys often, rather than talking about their emotions, they'd make
17:10
Speaker 2: a joke to laugh it off. And I think let's
17:12
Speaker 2: really not undermine how we want our boys to express
17:15
Speaker 2: themselves and help them to talk about their emotions, and
17:18
Speaker 2: books are a great way to do this. Let them
17:20
Speaker 2: see their dads read and their dads ask them questions
17:22
Speaker 2: about how did that story make you feel? Not just
17:25
Speaker 2: what happened in that book.
17:26
Speaker 1: Sally, as we're at this, if there was a take
17:28
Speaker 1: home message, if there was one thing that you want
17:30
Speaker 1: parents to walk away from the podcast and say, Okay,
17:34
Speaker 1: this is what I need to do today, this is
17:36
Speaker 1: what the focus needs to be this week. What do
17:39
Speaker 1: you want people to really carry home from this conversation.
17:43
Speaker 2: I think the number one thing is to if your
17:46
Speaker 2: child is very young, then to really look at how
17:49
Speaker 2: they may just need that extra intervention if they're not
17:52
Speaker 2: hitting those milestones getting quickly, if they've missed that gap,
17:55
Speaker 2: then make sure that they can still access great stories.
17:58
Speaker 2: Let them see you reading, put on audio books in
18:01
Speaker 2: the car, and make sure reading and books and storytelling
18:04
Speaker 2: is a joyous activity.
18:06
Speaker 1: Sally Rippon, the eighth Australian Children's Laureate and the author
18:09
Speaker 1: of a bunch of books that I have on my
18:11
Speaker 1: bookshelf because my kids loved the Billy B. Brown series
18:14
Speaker 1: ten million books. Can I ask you a quick personal question,
18:16
Speaker 1: how does it feel to know that you've sold more
18:19
Speaker 1: books than any other female author in this country? On
18:21
Speaker 1: that this might be just must be amazing.
18:24
Speaker 2: It's such a thrill justin But I think it's more
18:27
Speaker 2: the fact that when I go into shopping centers to
18:30
Speaker 2: do book signings or school's kids know my work, and
18:33
Speaker 2: sometimes this can even happen with older kids. I remember
18:36
Speaker 2: doing a book signing in a shopping center and a
18:38
Speaker 2: group of teenage girls walk past and they saw me
18:40
Speaker 2: signings of billy books for some little girls and they
18:42
Speaker 2: called it.
18:43
Speaker 1: Oh, I remember those books.
18:44
Speaker 2: I used to read them when I was little. And
18:46
Speaker 2: I think if I can be at the start of
18:48
Speaker 2: a child's reading journey, like you're explaining your daughter had
18:51
Speaker 2: to go through this journey to read more sophisticated books,
18:54
Speaker 2: I think that is a true honor that if I
18:56
Speaker 2: can turn kids onto reading, then that that's the biggest
18:59
Speaker 2: thrill of all.
19:00
Speaker 1: Thank so much for the conversation, Sally Cleasure, good to
19:02
Speaker 1: meet you. The Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin
19:05
Speaker 1: Rowland from Bridge Media. Craig Bruce is our executive producer.
19:07
Speaker 1: For more information about making your family happy, a visit
19:09
Speaker 1: happyfamilies dot com dot au and if you'd like to
19:12
Speaker 1: know more about Sally, we will link to a bunch
19:14
Speaker 1: of her books and series in the show notes and
19:17
Speaker 1: give you some more information about the Australian Children's Laureate.