Read or be a failure, kids told

Alan Duff chats to the kids of Pompallier Catholic School in Kaitaia. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Acclaimed writer Alan Duff didn't mince words when he toured Far North schools last week - telling his young audiences they would be failures if they decided they had no interest in books.

"If you had a chance to read and didn't use it, bad luck. You'll end up in a stupid job," Duffy Books in Homes founder Mr Duff said.

Duffy Books in Homes has distributed 10 million books to children at 540 schools since its inception 20 years ago.

The scheme, which sees children receive about eight free books a year, was sparked in 1993 when Mr Duff was invited to speak to children at Camberley School in Hastings about being a famous writer. He soon realised that not one of them had any books at home and he was wasting his time talking about being an author.

One of the stops on last week's three-day tour was Pompallier Catholic School in Kaitaia, where he told the children about his "deeply unhappy" childhood.

He was a "tough, angry little kid" with a hard-drinking, violent mother whose relatives would fight and wreck the house. He was a talented child but his family, with the exception of his father, only ever put him down.

At 11 he ran away and tried, unsuccessfully, to impersonate a 16-year-old so he could get a job. At 13 he was made a state ward and sent to a boys' home.

Mr Duff said he decided then that no child of his would grow up in an unhappy environment.

He asked the Pompallier children what they were good at and what they wanted to do when they grew up. They were reluctant to speak up or sing their own praises at first, but eventually a few future architects and engineers emerged, as well as a welder, a doctor, an astronomer, a journalist and even a cryptozoologist.

The children asked Mr Duff about France, where he now lives. Starting last Monday the author visited Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Pukemiro, Kaitaia Intermediate, Pompallier Catholic School, Waiharara School, Pukenui School, Ngataki School, Te Kao School and Te Hapua School. His tour tied in with the opening of a new depot by Mainfreight, a Books in Homes sponsor.

Mr Duff said he had been back to Camberley School many times since 1993 and had been heartened by the changes he had seen.

"The kids don't look like they're hurting as much." He believed that was part of a wider change but Books in Homes had played a part.

Mr Duff said if children decided reading books was not for them, they were making a conscious decision to be failures in life. "We don't want them to be failures, that's why we're here."