Some good news

National Union of Teachers supports reading for pleasure, and backs Campaign for the Book

The National Union of Teachers has voted to promote initiatives that support reading for pleasure. Delegates meeting at the Echo Arena on the Liverpool waterfront also voted to affiliate to the Campaign for the Book. This is very significant and encouraging support for reading, libraries and librarians. After the debate CftB organizer Alan Gibbons addressed the delegates and thanked them for their support. Paraphrasing Steinbeck in Grapes of Wrath he called on union members to pledge that wherever a school library was under threat they would be there, wherever a public library was being cut they would be there. Echoing a famous speech from the 1980s Alan stated: “Governments, you cut if you want to, our schools, our libraries, our services, our children’s futures, they’re not for cutting. We will resist you.”

Illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith for R.L.Stevenson A Child's Garden of Verses, 1905.