Far more desirable than a Sony Bravia 52" HD Telly surely?

For this week's theme, I must admit to having a huge gap in my knowledge so I'm hoping lots of you lovely folk will be able to help me plug the gaps. You see, on average we watch probably about 2-4 hours of TV a week at home so we don't often have time to hoover up some of the brilliant book-based programmes that children can discover new books through.

When I was a whippersnapper, two TV programmes about books used to be required viewing.

The mighty "Jackanory" is probably remembered by quite a few folk my age. Celebrities (even royalty) used to read a children's book over the space of a week, with some utterly scintillating titles and guests counting themselves amongst the Jackanory alumni. Here's a fantastic clip of a 'Young Ones'-era Rik Mayall reading Roald Dahl's "George's Marvellous Medicine" in his own inimitable style!


The other programme I loved to bits was The Book Tower. With an utterly cracking (if somewhat surreal) theme tune by Julian Lloyd Webber, and presented by the towering presence of my favourite Doctor Who of all time, Tom Baker, the Book Tower was stunning viewing even if you weren't that interested in books (luckily I most certainly was at that age!)


It probably looks a bit old and creaky now (much like me!) but it had bucketloads of atmosphere and always featured the sort of books I couldn't get enough of as a kid (by the likes of Ian Serrailler, C.S. Lewis etc).

Moving on, children today have far more choice. From an early age, kids can enjoy the CBeebies lunchtime and bedtime stories - either read by the fantastic CBeebies presenters or, like Jackanory, by willing celebrities who do a fantastic job of fleshing out some of our favourite children's books. Here's John Simm taking a break from Life on Mars to read "Winnie the Witch".


CBeebies is also home to a rather loveable storytelling Lion. I still struggle to marry up the image of Peter Serafinowicz as Bernard Butterfield in my head with the rather softly spoken Driver Dan but nevertheless, Driver Dan's Story Train has become a firm favourite with kids - leading into a story reading with a little story of its own featuring the multitude of (sometimes loopy) characters that inhabit Dan's world.


Flipping over to CITV, you've got plenty of choice too. We could not run a theme week on Book TV without mentioning the mighty Bookaboo. Fabulous, fantastic, rocking. We've run out of superlatives. Though we've only checked out a couple of episodes, and though it's often on when Charlotte is still at school we really ought to watch it more often as it's fab. Here's Mel C on Bookaboo.


(Yup still the most fanciable spice girl).

Last but by no means least we've got to mention Signed Stories, simply because they use Child's Play books - and we really love those books very much indeed. Signed Stories mixes read aloud stories with signing, and you can also download an app from iTunes too!

Check out a clip below of Natalie 'signing' Rumplestiltskin.


So there you have it, these are just a few of the book-based programmes that children can tap into on TV and hear about new books, hear new stories and get some brilliant ideas for that next visit to the bookshop or library.

At Read It Daddy we've taken a look at the innovative 'Signed Stories' app for iPad previously but we thought we'd let the Signed Stories team guest on our blog as part of our #Readitmummiesanddaddies2013 campaign. As more and more parents and children start to use storytelling apps, and the potential for reaching parents who can't read to their kids is realised, apps like this become vital to extending the book world into the technological one. 

Over to you, Signed Stories Folk!

Keith on the Signed Stories App telling the story of 'The Three Little Pigs'

Mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone are opening up huge opportunities for accessibility and inclusion for children who are so often excluded from fun and important childhood activities.
I probably don’t need to tell readers of this blog how important reading is to children, whether it’s sharing stories and adventures with friends and family, curling up with mum and dad at bedtime or learning words at school.
But what you might not realise is how many deaf children miss out on these experiences because stories are not readily available in sign language, and for many deaf children English is their second language.
Official attainment figures make for grim reading - only a third of deaf children achieve five GCSE grades A-C compared with 60% of hearing children, and poor literacy is a huge factor in this.
iPads are perfect for presenting visual information like sign language - and you can see how amazing our Signed Stories look on the iPad. Although of course they’re amazing on the website too (!) it’s the device that enables us to do so much more with it - the sign language and subtitles can be turned on and off and the subtitles can be customised to make them easier to read. And we’ve extended the stories with two interactive games that reinforce the sign language and a sign language dictionary to help children and adults learn new signs.
But the real inclusion opportunities come because the iPad is a cool device, and using it doesn’t mark children as different.
All the stories on our app are also told with voiceover and with subtitles meaning that all children can use the same app on the same device, creating positive shared experiences within the family and between classmates.
And of course sign language is not just for deaf children. I recently spent time with a five-year-old boy with limited speech because of cerebral palsy and his family, who are just starting to use sign language as a means of communication. I watched him tell his sister he was thirsty - one of the first times in his life, his mum said, that he had initiated communication.

Peter on the Signed Stories app (we know this face all too well!)

Apps like Signed Stories are raising the profile of sign language and enabling people who have never considered the benefits of sign language to easily get access to it. For example, hearing children with no special needs can benefit from learning to sign - it develops motor skills and helps them become confident communicators using body language and facial expressions and can help improve IQ. And also it’s fun - just look at how Peter/Keith brings this story to life!
The Signed Stories app is free to download from the App Store (iPad, iPhone and iPod touch) with one free book ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’, two interactive games and ten words in the dictionary.
Click here if you’re in the UK: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/signed-stories/id550966811?mt=8
Click here if you’re in the USA/Canada: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/signed-stories/id550966811?mt=8