“READ ALL ABOUT IT”!! – By Des Kelly

It simply gets worse, as we move along, in the 21st Century. Children of today, the majority of them anyway, are not reading books anymore. There are still many bookshops around, there are still many “Writers” who cater especially for children, good Writers who spend the greater part of their adult lives writing thousands of words in the hope that some boy or girl (or parent), will pick up their special effort and enjoy the story within, but unfortunately, this does not happen now. The shop next door sells iphones and other newfangled gadgets that actually “read” stories out to their children, who keep staring at these little screens all day, not even bothering to go out and play, as the children of bygone eras did. Naturally, if you ask any of the “young ones” why they do not read books, they turn around and say, “why should we, ?, we can hear any story we want to, on our iphones”.

Even as I write this, I am looking at an Australian Vintage toy-collector (on television), who has written a new book on, (you guessed it), “vintage toys”. Obviously, he wants Aussie kids to read it, before picking out the toys they are mostly interested in. Unfortunately, this Author’s name escaped me, but there IS a certain James Gunn who wrote a story about a “Toy-Collector”. Whether this “Gunn” is the same “One”, I would not know.

Talking about “reading” & good books TO read, there was once an English Lady by the name of Richmal Crompton, who was born in 1890 in Lancashire, earned herself a huge reputation as an Author. She wrote a series of books based on an 11 year old boy by the name of William Brown, 38 novels in all, and she died in 1969, aged 78.

“Just William” books, all 38 of them, were published in

1922, the final one in 1970, just after it’s Author died, in 1970. The very first story about William Brown was published in the “Home Magazine” in 1919. The reason for my concentration on Richmal Cromption & William, is because, although William Brown & his Outlaws were books especially for young boys (& girls), Richmal’s superb writing make it extremely interesting even for adult readers. I did read these books as a young lad, re-read them again, as an adult, enjoying them just as much, the second time around.

My advice to each and every youngster around is this.

It really does not matter what you have now got used to, spend some time of each day reading a good book. The more you read, the more you “get the feel” of a good book in your hands, the better off, you will be, for it. I promise you,

“READ ALL ABOUT IT”.