Fiction Express

There is so much emphasis on phonics these days that reading for pleasure seems to be on the back burner so I was heartened to meet Paul Humphrey at the Education Show. He is a former Editorial Director at Wayland Publishers and has set up Fiction Express.  The site provides online books in parts. A chapter is published on a Friday and then readers are given options for the next instalment. They have until 3 pm on Tuesday to vote online and then the author has just two and half days to produce the next chapter.

It seems that children like the shared experience of reading a chapter together on Friday afternoon and being able to influence the plot by voting. At the time of writing the two ebooks in progress are The School for Supervillains, a fun fantasy adventure, which turns normal morality on its head. It is aimed at readers aged10 or more. It is the story of Mandrake de Ville, daughter of super villains, who is sent to a boarding school where acts of kindness lead to detention. For younger readers or those with a reading age of approximately 8 years, there is Olympic Adventure, the story of a young athlete fromNorth Africa who has to overcome many setbacks before he can compete in the ancient Olympic Games.

Teachers are raving about the stories. Sue Burn, a teacher at St Matthew’s C of E Primary School in Gloucestershire said of one of the previous books, “The class did enjoy the final part of The Mystery of Maddie Musgrove. In fact they broke into spontaneous applause at the end of it!” Carla Kennedy ofAldermanRichardHallamPrimary School, inLeicester reported, “The children have been really engaged in reading the books. Comprehension has improved in my class as a result of using Fiction Express as a teaching resource and enjoyment levels for reading have shot up as well.”

Fiction Express books come with teachers’ notes and can be used in different  ways:

– As a stand-alone class read

– As a text for shared reading

– As a text for a guided reading group

– As an independent comprehension activity

– As a text for a book club or writers’ club

– As a homework challenge

With an increasing number of teachers signing up for the service, now is a good time to have a look at what Fiction Express can offer to your class.