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The ‘Bookmark This’ Blog

Read about my favourite books, teaching, reading for pleasure and other things that interest me, like Icelandic traditions and honesty boxes in the Scottish Highlands. Be warned, I have been known to ramble.

Take your “man up” nonsense and get it in the bin!
Sheila Jarvie Sheila Jarvie

Take your “man up” nonsense and get it in the bin!

With most difficult topics or questions I turn to a book. Even just for a starting off point. There’s so much nuance in relationships and feelings, I find myself getting into a brain fankle trying to explain it all to a 3…4…5…6 year old!  Picture books are the answer. In fact, they are almost always the answer! So I hope adding to our section on feelings and including those trickier topics like death, family separation & racism will be useful for you too.

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Reading for pleasure, buy a book, donate a book and then what?
Sheila Jarvie Sheila Jarvie

Reading for pleasure, buy a book, donate a book and then what?

I have been asking myself/the internet/my husband/my colleagues (I’m a lot of fun at parties, I know!) but what happens once kids get these books? Don’t misunderstand me, I am so excited to be able to celebrate World Book Day as a bookseller as well as a parent this year and truly believe what they do is phenomenal. But once these kids have their book - is it just gathering dust? Especially for those young people who are classed as growing up in “disadvantage and inequality”? (I promise it gets more positive soon…) 

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