Creative collective keeps faith in books

All The Time In The World was one of the many stories that were in the original Twilight Zone series, filmed in the ’50s and early ’60s and featuring just about every big-name star in the early years of their careers.

One of the things we enjoyed most about Thanksgiving during our time in America was the Twilight Zone marathon on television. It started at eight in the morning and went on till eight at night and for us, the day revolved around it — the creepy stories, the film noir look of it and the sometimes admittedly cheesy acting.

Confirmed bookaholic that I am, the story that stayed with me from that time involved a small, middle-aged man who worked in a Los Angeles bank as a teller.

He wore pebble-like bi-focal glasses without which he was as blind as a bat.

The man was constantly in trouble for reading when and wherever he could. But it wasn’t just books that he devoured so avidly.

The teller read everything — notices, cereal boxes, the newspapers of his customers. And all he wanted out of life was a quiet corner to read.

So imagine his delight when one day, at the precise moment he was replacing some documents in the bank’s enormous lead-lined vault, unnamed enemies chose to blast America to smithereens with an atomic bomb.

As it dawned on him that he was probably the last man left alive, he crowed with delight at the thought of all that uninterrupted reading time that lay ahead of him.

But just as he was doing a little victory jig he heard a crunching underfoot and the glasses, which had fallen during the blast, were crushed beyond repair leaving him a broken man.

Now, of course, we live in a time where the options for storytelling and receiving are so multi-faceted that he could probably have found some sort of alternative.

But would it have satisfied him, addicted as he obviously was to the whole tactile experience of books — the cover, the artwork, that particular scent of a book and the promising whisper of its pages? I don’t think so.

Of course, we live in a time where the printed word, in some circles, is now regarded as “old technology”. Which is a shame really and could well propel us into an either/or situation whereby if we want to be up to date, informed and cool, we simply give up books and rely on screens.

Why can’t we have both? Kindles and tablets for travelling, and physical books to enhance the shelves of our homes with their colours, wisdom and stories.

Each year, more than 16,000 students from all over Ireland get to find out what it’s really like to be their own boss as they manage their own school-based business in the Student Enterprise Awards Programme.

This is the single biggest enterprise competition for students in Ireland and helps students to develop the real life skills which are associated with running a real enterprise — including working as part of a team, managing production and finances, organising a sales and marketing campaign and liasing directly with customers, judges and the media.

And this year, transition year students at Beara Community School in Castletownbere, Co Cork, unveiled their unique children’s book to a national audience in Croke Park at the Student Enterprise Awards finals.

These young book-lovers took the second prize in this prestigious event with their delightful illustrated book. My Little Big Adventure.

The concept, which allows children to become their own authors is the first of its kind.

Already, their book has sold out its entire first print run of 1,000 books since January.

The managing director of this unique project, Sadhbh Sullivan, told me about their success with a book in this time of technology.

¦ So how did it go at Croke Park, Sadhbh?

>> “Oh, it was fabulous. There was a real buzz and we were delighted to take the second prize. “To unveil our book to a national audience was really special and demand for the book has taken us by surprise. We’re already looking at a second print run.”

¦ Tell me what it is that makes My Little Big Adventure special?

>> “Well, there’s nothing like it on the market and we’re already working on more themes for the series to appeal to an even broader audience, as well as developing an app. The way it works is that it allows children to write their own stories on one page to accompany the pictures on the opposite page. It aims to unleash children’s imaginations and lets parents get a look at the wonderful and often wise imaginations of their kids. “It allows children to become their own favourite author, encourages them to be creative and of course, the experience helps them to improve their literacy.”

¦ How did you come up with the idea in the first place?

>> “I was reading a book to my little sister who is eight and she said she’d love to write her own book. That got me thinking and we were in need of a project for the school’s mini companies project. And our group all agreed that it was a good idea though we didn’t realise that it would be so successful.”

¦ How do you develop the themes for your stories?

>> “We have regular weekly meetings and come up with the story ideas. Then once we are all agreed, it’s on with the artwork and all the other things that are involved. We are constantly aware of the need to diversify so that our books contain material that can inspire the widest possible range of children.”

¦ I have to admit that I was surprised that such a bright group of tech-savvy young people chose such a traditional medium.

>> “I know that some young people think of books as not cool and wouldn’t be caught dead reading one. But we think there’s plenty of room for both. And I’m readingmad. I love books and I’m into technology too. I’ve just finished reading The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and I really enjoyed it. So we think it’s important that children should be introduced to books as early as possible, and encouraged to participate in creating their own stories. At the moment we have five different books in the pipeline. The books are available throughout West Cork and 10% of all sales go to Barnardos.”