Winning the reading game

He’s also a maths teacher, and many students have been unaware of his other life as an author. For them he’s just been ‘Mr P, the maths teacher’.

Despite the public debate and angst over declining literacy standards and the impact of digital media on reading, Michael is reasonably optimistic about the future of reading by young people.

When it comes to encouraging reading, he emphasises the importance of what happens at home.

‘It’s mums and dads reading to their children, sharing a love of reading, finding some time to read,’ he says.

‘I’m not so big on “let’s shut the world off and this is now our half hour of reading time every night”. I think that’s a little bit sterile. I just think it needs to happen when it can naturally happen.’

Michael urges parents to be reading role models and fill the house with books.

As a child, Michael says he was a reluctant reader. But his father – an author, teacher and librarian – had thousands of books in the home. Eventually, he engaged with reading. ‘Books weren’t an odd thing – they were there and about.’

He’s also encouraged by the recognition that there’s value in children reading from a broad range of sources.

When he was a primary student, he got into trouble for taking a football magazine to school. It was confiscated, and he was told the magazine was not appropriate material for him to be reading.

‘Nowadays, thankfully we don’t mind what the kids are reading as long as they’re reading something,’ says Michael. ‘They’re engaging in words, and they’re engaging in literature in some format. I think that’s really important.’

This year, he has decided to go part-time, which will enable him to expand his work in schools encouraging young writers.

He champions the importance of the idea. And kids, he says, have wonderful ideas. He tells aspiring writers to have an interesting, engaging idea –  ‘an idea that makes someone want to turn the page and continue reading.’

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