Bookstart Around the World 1
Bookstart Around the World ‘The current results i
ndicate that BookStart does not contribute to narrowing the word gap at school entrance between children from less and highly educated families. The project may support “the rich” instead of “the poor”, which may strengthen the Matthew effect: “the rich get richer and the poor poorer”.’ (Berg, 2015: 68). As shown in Berg’s (2015) study, BoekStart in the Netherlands appears to be more attractive to families in good socioeconomic situations. This issue is especially topical amongst bookgifting programmes in EURead. Here, of course, the model of the programme is important, and a number of different methods are likely needed in order to be able to reach out to all families. However, this does not necessarily mean that general efforts are not needed or that families in good socioeconomic situations do not need to learn more about how important their role is in the language development of their children. Most of the programmes make general as well as targeted efforts. Another aspect regarding targeted efforts is multilingualism. In one literature review, Anderson et al. (2017) included family literacy programmes9 that focus on bilingualism amongst children. They establish that these programmes show promise in strengthening the language development of children in multilingual families through the concept of additive bilingualism (Cummins via Anderson et al., 2017); i.e., that children are able to learn new languages in parallel with their mother tongue. Most bookgifting programmes seem to include an element of multilingualism, and the message that families should engage in literacy activities in their mother tongue is central. Something else they note is that reading aloud is not a universal tradition, but it is a core part of all bookgifting programmes. This could be significant with regards to different language cultures, which has also been noted by many bookgifting programmes. It is the literacy activities (reading, singing, chanting, storytelling, rhyming etc.) that are important, but books are a valuable and essential tool for helping families to initiate such activities. According to Sanders et al. (2000) and Byington et al. (2008), an important part of bookgifting programmes in terms of multilingualism is that books and information should be available in a family’s mother tongue (the study involved Spanishspeaking families connected with Reach Out and Read). Being able to communicate is, of course, vital in order for the actual meeting with a family to inspire confidence and so that books in more languages can encourage multilingual families to read in the home and make it easier for them to do so. 4.4 Bookstart representatives, collaboration and conditions In this chapter, we describe the relationship that the various interested parties have with bookgifting programmes according to the reviewed literature. The parties are discussed on the basis of questions regarding how the professions giving away the books are affected and what impact they have on families by means of the programmes, what role collaboration plays in this, and the conditions for implementing bookgifting programmes. Finally, Swedish research on the role of preschools and the participation of children in Bokstart is described. 4.4.1 Bookgifting programmes in relation to various organisations The results from measurements taken of the effects on language development in young children point almost exclusively in the same direction. What has received attention in recent times is whether bookgifting programmes have other effects, and in such case what these effects might be. How does participation in bookgifting programmes affect organisations and employees? How do bookgifting pro9. Note that the studied programmes are not exclusively aimed at young children, and that it is not solely the nature of bookgifting programmes that is the main focus of this study. 29/52