News

We’re thrilled to welcome Mairi Holden as our guest blogger. Mairi is Oscar Holden’s mum - you’ll remember that 11-year-old Oscar recently published his first fantastic book about his character Fazoom. Here, Mairi recalls Oscar starting to create characters age six, and how his first book was published. Oscar created the characters in his book Fazoom and Zen at around age six. He has always had a love of reading, particularly The Beano, The Dandy and Superhero stories. He started by drawing the characters and putting them into comic style, he would doodle and make stories about them - Fazoom [...]

In this blog Reading force founder Alison Baverstock reflects on Christmas in the military and eclectic Christmas tree decorations! I don’t come from a military family. As a child, listening to ‘Two-way family favourites’ on the radio, I remember being fascinated by the messages sent by Forces families. They always seemed to be longing for Christmas – when they would next all be together. But what a long time to wait! Now, looking back on thirty years as a Forces family, the Christmases really do stand out. Rather than merging into one, I can still date them by looking [...]

Hi everyone, What a fantastic summer! We teamed up with Connected Forces to create an online book club for 16–19-year-old UK Armed Forces students across the UK and provided three free books to each member. We began with The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros – a prize-winner in three categories of the Wales Book of the Year Awards. The Blue Book of Nebo paints a spellbinding and eerie picture of society’s collapse, and the relationships that persist after everything as we know it disappears… Our second book club in partnership with Connected Forces is starting next month. [...]

We’re thrilled to welcome K.N. Chimbiri as our guest blogger for Black History Month. In this blog Kandace talks about her writing life and where the idea came from for her newly released book, The Story of Britain’s Black Airmen. Hi! I’m Kandace and I’m a Black history children’s author. I started writing more than 13 years ago as I wanted to see more diversity in children’s books especially history books.  There weren’t many Black history books for children at the time and I certainly didn’t see many books about Black British history. I didn’t think any publishers would [...]

In this blog our Ambassador in Scotland, Fiona Maxwell (aka The Book Lady!), shares the highlights of her Reading Force life… Hi everyone, I’m Fiona Maxwell and I have had a wonderful time working as the Reading Force Ambassador in Scotland for the past five years. If asked what the highlight of my job is, I would have to say it is getting out and about all over Scotland meeting families and chatting to parents, grandparents, children and young people about the fun of reading and sharing stories. In the case of serving families, I work mainly with welfare organisations to [...]

Calling all secondary school Service Children’s Champions and Coordinators, Welfare Officers, and Community Development Officers... Have you seen our amazing new titles for senior book clubs? Our senior book clubs are perfect for teens and young adults aged 12 – 16/18yrs old with a military connection including children of veterans and reservists. Our book clubs can be online or in your local community. Reading Force will support you from the very beginning, provide each member with three free books and ideas on how to continue your book club afterwards. In Lionheart by Yaba Badoe Sheba discovers her powers can unravel [...]

Hi everyone, I’m Nicola Hill and I am delighted to have been warmly welcomed into the Reading Force team as Book Club Ambassador.     Another story please Mrs Hill … As an Early Years and Key Stage 1 teacher, I have been sharing books and encouraging reading for pleasure with the children in my class for many years. Story time was the highlight of the day with my class, and I am excited to share my passion for reading with others through our Reading Force community. I am looking for volunteer coordinators to set up book clubs in military communities. [...]

Alison Baverstock is a military wife and mum, the founder of Reading Force, and the author of 18 books. In this blog Alison shares her thoughts on why you should enter the Reading Force ‘My Forces Life’ writing competition... 1.The chance to think about your life with the Forces Our theme is ‘My Forces Life’ and this is an opportunity for you to really think about what makes your life different – and special. You may be a Forces child, partner or the parent of someone in the Forces. Whatever your connection, why not try writing about how it [...]