"Famous Fifty" book idea launched to tackle child literacy levels

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) August 30, 2011 -- Named “The Famous Fifty” – a wordplay on the much-loved Famous Five series of children’s novels by Enid Blyton - the project is the idea of Martin Slaney, a father of two who was concerned at the growing number of studies suggesting that children’s reading levels are suffering.

Slaney, 41, describes how the idea came about: “I was throwing a few very lateral business ideas around and a colleague mentioned Consequences, the party game where everyone takes a turn choosing a word or phrase to answer various questions on a piece of paper structured around a basic plot, folding the paper over and passing it on to the next person; the end result being a hopefully fun and certainly entertaining short story.”

Slaney thought of taking that format but modernise it using the concept of crowdsourced writing – “crowdwriting”, where strangers come together online to each write part of a story. “I was aware crowdsourced novels had been tried in the past,” he explains, “but believed it could be taken to a whole new level using established best-selling authors, each one being responsible for a chapter at a time”.

The decision on the nature of the book was straightforward. “It had to be a children’s book,” says Slaney. “I’ve always been an avid reader, but am only too aware of the disconcerting trend of children reading less and less. With two young kids of my own, the thought of them either struggling to read, or just not even being interested in reading, is a real worry.”

“It was at that point that I realised I didn’t have a business idea, I had a cause”.

Slaney decided that the book should become a fund-raising project, and for profits of sales from the published book to go to the Children’s Literacy Trust (http://www.literacytrust.org.uk), a charity created to encourage children to read launched in 2006 in conjunction with the Queen’s 80th birthday, with the aim of encouraging children to read for pleasure. Children's authors who have supported the charity include J K Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, Michael Bond, the author of the Paddington books, and Jacqueline Wilson, the Children's Laureate and best-selling writer.

“My plea today is for authors interested in contributing to come forward, to help us make this a reality”, says Slaney. “The brief is simply to write with a 9 to 12-year old audience in mind. The rest is in their capable and creative hands.”

You can follow the progress of the project via Twitter (@famousfifty), Facebook (page name: The Famous Fifty) or www.famousfifty.com, where anyone wishing to help with the project can register their interest.

Media contact information (not for public release): email famousfifty@gmail.com .

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