Conserving a love of reading

Friday 28 February 2014

Durrell is celebrating World Book Day with a week of literacy activities for Jersey schoolchildren which Dr Lee Durrell hopes will introduce more young readers to the world of Gerald Durrell, who founded the world-famous zoo.

Her late husband is not only famous for his work to protect the world’s endangered species, he’s become one of the most widely read authors of animal stories. Gerald Durrell wrote 41 books including My Family and Other Animals, The Bafut Beagles, A Zoo in My Luggage, Catch Me a Colobus, The Stationary Ark and The Aye-Aye and I. They’ve been translated into 26 different languages.

Lee will be launching Durrell’s literacy week on Monday with a talk to secondary school students on Gerald Durrell’s life and work which will focus on his best-selling book My Family and Other Animals, describing his childhood on the Greek Island of Corfu.

Meanwhile primary school children will learn about the book whilst going on a scavenger hunt around the wildlife park.

Honorary Director of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust Lee Durrell said: “Gerald Durrell’s books are more influential than most. People have told me that, because of his books, they learned to read or they developed a deep appreciation of nature or they pursued a career in conservation or sometimes all three! I am delighted that we are celebrating them in Jersey in the run up to World Book Day and hope that we introduce more young readers to the world of Gerald Durrell.”

On World Book Day itself on Thursday the charity’s staff and volunteers will visit twelve primary schools and one secondary to read some of Durrell’s books to pupils.

The week of activities, sponsored by NatWest, ends with a scientific spelling bee competition where primary schools will compete against each other to find the best science speller.

Durrell’s Education and Interpretation Manager Naomi Webster said: “This is an exciting new project sharing the literary side of Gerald Durrell’s work with a new generation of readers. I’m really looking forward to the scientific spelling bee as it’s something new and different for Durrell to offer the schools.”