Now that World Cup football fever has subsided, perhaps we can take a look at another very popular sport in the
In 2007, the English-speaking Caribbean
hosted Cricket World Cup. Matches were played in different islands and a good
time was had by all – well nearly all. There were a few unfortunate incidents.
As a lead up to the event Ginn decided to produce reading
material, fiction and non-fiction, for
children in their Get Caught Reading imprint, and my friend and fellow writer, Diane Browne,
who was responsible for the fiction section asked me to write two stories for
the series. It was an interesting experience for me as this was the first time
I was writing for an overseas publisher – working with their editor and
illustrator.
Books cover the age range 6-11 years. One of the aims was to
“Fire the imagination of reluctant
readers, especially the boys in the class.” Diane says that feedback from
teachers seems to confirm that this aim has been achieved. Maybe because
cricket is still regarded mainly as a ‘manly’ sport, the boys don’t mind
reading the stories.
The challenge for me, therefore, was to make sure that the
stories featured boys in a way which would engage the readers in positive interaction - with an appeal both to
boys and girls. My stories were The
Challenge Match about the rivalry between boys and girls in a grade four
class and the cricket match which helped to settle things. The other was Cricket Geeks about four boys who hated
sports but were drawn into the sporting world because of their ‘geekiness’.
Diane Browne wrote most of the stories and they are all
delightful – how do a boy and girl twin manage to keep their cool when one
bowls for the girls and one bats for the boys at their school match? What to do
when your ‘six’ breaks the window of an old grouch? Can Mickey remain good at bat without the use
of his inherited ‘magic bat?’ It’s all about cricket.- mini versions of the philosophy behind CLR
James’ famous cricket book Beyond the Boundary “arguing that
what happens inside the "Boundary Line" in cricket affects
life beyond it, as well as the converse.“ (quotation slightly adapted by me).
You can get an overview of the series and order books here:
You can click on sample pages to get a feel of the series.
Here’s an extract from It’s a Funny Game
Keep on running
In a game in Australia
into the air. The
ball landed in a tree. The elders
went to nd a gun
to shoot the ball down. The
batsmen scored 286
runs before the ball came down.
This one is a lot of laughs. There’s also a bio of Brian
Lara .check it out.
