As the name suggests, Duffy Books in Homes distributes free books to almost one hundred thousand children each year. The charitable foundation has been doing it for thirty years —with impressive statistics to match— in a bid to instill a love of reading and curb our dwindling literacy rates. But the programme is not just about giving access to books, it’s about getting kids excited to read. That’s where the Duffy theatre production comes in.
The Sapling’s Claudia Palmer spoke with Production Manager for Duffy Books in Homes David Rumney and author of Duffy and the Bullies and theatre director Jeff Szusterman about the impact Duffy Books in Homes has had over thirty years.
The Sapling (TS): How long have you been involved with the Duffy Books in Home programme? What keeps you coming back to Duffy Books in Homes?
David Rumney (DR): I’ve been involved one way or another since primary school. I went to Selwyn School in Rotorua in the late 90s, and it was a Duffy school. I’ve been working for Duffy since 2013 where I started as a touring actor in Duffy Theatre before moving into the role of organising our theatre shows at the end of that year. I keep coming back because Duffy provides such a unique opportunity to create theatre for young audiences that is purely designed to encourage them to read and find a love of books. This message is one I found extremely valuable growing up, and it is such a privilege to help share that message in my everyday life now.
Jeff Szusterman (JS): I was first contracted to work with Duffy Books In Homes, specifically the Duffy Theatre, in 2013 when I came in as the director for that year’s show Duffy: King of Books. I had been working with young people and drama for years prior and still do. After twelve years now, aside from getting to work with lovely people at Duffy Books in Homes, one of the other reasons I keep coming back is it’s fun. A very important thing in these times. Our plays are delightful, full of creative wonder and surprise and demand that the actors employ any number of performance modes as they play out the story for that year.
TS: The organisation is marking thirty years since Alan Duff Charitable Foundation Books in Homes was officially launched. What has been the organisation’s most profound impact over that time?
DR: The ability to provide books to hundreds of thousands of kiwi kids that they may have not been able to own if it wasn’t for the Duffy programme is such a profound impact. Students building their own personal libraries of books that are theirs to own has a massive impact on their own self-worth as well as widening their imagination and sharing with their whanau. Duffy has provided nearly fifteen million books across those thirty years and that number continues to rise.
Duffy has provided nearly fifteen million books across those thirty years and that number continues to rise.
TS: In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing children’s literacy rates at the moment?
DR: Competition. People have so many ways to distract themselves now that books and the written word are having to compete with, especially in small doses. An app on a phone or tablet can seem a lot more enticing to a young kid and convincing them that picking up a book has value can be a massive challenge.
TS: When and how did the theatre production arm of the organisation begin? And what was the driver behind this development?
DR: The Theatre programme started early on in the life of Books in Homes with the show Duffy Boots and All, which was written by Justin Lewis. It featured our eponymous hero, Duffy, helping Zinzan Brooke get his rugby powers back through the power of reading. The Theatre programme remains an absolute highlight for schools as it’s such an exciting way to deliver the message that ‘it’s cool to read, it’s cool to achieve’. Theatre has a way of reaching students that may not find classroom-learning suits them, and I believe it is important to have a diverse range of options for tamariki so as many can thrive as possible.
TS: How do you keep your work relevant and cool for kids? What involvement do children have in shaping your content?
JS: We go out to the kids and check in with them to see what they’re into, basically. When I started working with Duffy Theatre I installed a kaupapa I adapted from work I had done writing plays with at-risk and incarcerated young people. This was work I did in the US and then brought that programme back to Aotearoa in the mid 2000s.
As we enter our development phase for each show a group of us visits a Duffy school and workshops with a couple of classes. We take the students through a question matrix where they can write, draw, or describe to us their answers. We then put those through a complex algorithmic metric, i.e. many strong personalities around a coffee table, looking for patterns and themes. We then build the script for the show from there. It’s always delightful to go back to those schools with the finished show and have the young people who were part of the original workshop recognise elements as they appear in the story! Experience has taught me that, if you want to make shows that are relevant to young people, you have to meet them where they’re at and then move them from there.
Duffy and the Bullies is based on Lauren Jackson’s Duffy and the Cloakroom Bully play. How did experiencing it as a play first influence its development into a book?
JS: Being with the original play script from its earliest stages, and even at the idea phase, then shepherding it through development, shaping it through rehearsals and feeding back to the casts through the season, I knew the story inside out and back-to-front. Also, around that time, my daughter was being bullied at school and so that gave me a deeper relationship to this particular show and story. It was always the first play I intended to adapt into a graphic novel, and that became Duffy and the Bullies.
TS: Why did you choose the graphic novel format for this story? What strengths does this format have compared to other formats?
JS: I love graphic novels as a storytelling form, as a reader first and now as an author. I’ve always read them. And, indeed, some of the best and most moving books I have ever read have been graphic novels. Across my working life, I have also directed for the screen, so sitting and imagining a story panel-by-panel was truly a joy. I plan to write more. More for the intended Duffy series of graphic novels and an adult story of my own.
In our increasingly visual-centric world, I think graphic novels are a great way to invite young readers to pick up books and turn pages. And, research has shown that boys in particular are more likely to pick a graphic novel as a book to read. It’s an inviting format and can be less daunting than a regular novel of all words, no pictures. Hard as it is for me to key those words …
TS: What do you hope children will gain from the book?
JS: A love of turning pages to find out what happens next. And enjoying the act of reading for pleasure, so they look out for the next one whatever book that may be.
TS: And to finish, a question for both of you. When you imagine children’s relationships to books in thirty years’ time, what do you hope to see?
DR: I hope that every house in Aotearoa has books, that every child has the same chance to own and choose what they read and that books are still a key way for families to bond. I have a 9-month-old daughter, my first child, and one of the best parts of my day is reading her a few stories before she goes to bed. I hope this special relationship is even stronger in 30 years’ time.
JS: I hope parents still read to their children and that, in turn, those children grow up and read to their aged parents when they can no more. I hope, when asked for celebrations where presents are given, that children ask for books. I would hope that libraries are vibrant communal places where people of all ages sit and read, alone and in groups, and then discuss with others what they have read, why they read it, and how they feel about it.
And I hope people share their books with each other freely, without expectation of return, and knowing that that tome will be shared with others in an ongoing journey. And in its journey it gathers weight and importance as it has passed through so many hands, maybe one day returning to the original reader filled with the fingerprints, smears, stains, dog-eared pages, highlighted notes, inscriptions in the margins, from all who have read it, and they can appreciate it anew. Poetic for sure, but why the hell not!
Claudia Palmer
Claudia Palmer (Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri) has a background in campaigning and marketing. After completing the Whitireia Publishing course, she worked for Huia Publishers in Wellington promoting award-winning books and authors. It was during this time, she realised just how life changing great children’s books can be. She now lives in the wildlife capital of Aotearoa, Ōtepoti Dunedin, with her partner where she works as an advocate for nature and taonga species.