HHCP Conference 2023: Emotional Sparks – Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Frank Cottrell-Boyce, a children's novelist who won the Carnegie Medal for his first book - Millions - in 2004 and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Unforgotten Coat in 2013. The phrase comes from a talk by Mem Fox “The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading.” We often talk as though reading were a solitary and silent activity. But it has not always been so (St Augustine found St Ambrose’s habit of silent reading puzzling and possibly anti-social). Some of our most important reading experiences are shared and social and … spoken. My own love of writing came from hearing my year six teacher read out something I had written. It was a transformative experience. I went on to work in film. It takes a lot of money and technology to make a film. But until the film is finally shot, the most alive it ever is, is in the writer’s verbal “pitch” - a piece of storytelling. I would like to celebrate and point to the tra