We Are What We Do Announces sequel to best selling Change the World for a Fiver

11 August 2008 00:00:00

We Are What We Do, the social change movement behind the best selling Change the World for a Fiver and last year’s now iconic, “I’m not a plastic bag” project with Anya Hindmarch, has announced plans to publish a children’s book titled, Teach Your Granny to Text and Other Ways to Change the World.

The book, which is aimed at children between the ages of 8-12, will be published on October 2 in a joint venture by two of the UK’s most dynamic independent publishers, Short Books and Walker Books.

Teach Your Granny to Text and Other Ways to Change the World  features 30 simple everyday actions by children and for children. In addition to “teach your granny to text”, the actions include “walk your dad”, find out how happy your meal was”, “talk rubbish to your parents”, “Ask ‘Why?’”, “read with a pal”, “stand up for something”, “speak football”  and “cook a meal from scratch”.

Like Change the World for a Fiver, Teach Your Granny to Text will provide children with a simple way “in” to some of the biggest issues we are all facing – from climate change to gang culture - and provide a means for them to make an immediate and positive contribution to these problems.  It will also – like its predecessor – include a number of “surprises” including seeds to plant, pages to complete, badges to design and maps to draw as well as contributions from Anthony Horowitz, celebrity chef Sam Stern and even an “appearance” by Wally.

The development of Teach Your Granny to Text was funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and involved a national competition – smallactionsbigchange – which ran throughout 2007 and gave every child in the country the opportunity to answer the question; “What would you ask one million people to do to change the world?” More than 1,500 responses were received and more than 1,000 schools took part.  Eleven year old Erica Ritchie’s suggestion of teaching your granny to text proved so popular that it became the title of the book.

Eugenie Harvey, co-founder of We Are What We Do, said: “Our work with schools through the competition has demonstrated that children want to take the initiative and indeed are extremely clued up on the problems that need addressing.  They don’t need a lot of encouragement – they just need the means to take action and a fun and engaging way of doing so.  This book does both these things.”

As part of the DCSF partnership, every primary school in England will receive one complimentary copy of the book when it goes in sale this October (i.e. 24,000 copies in total).

Jane Winterbotham, Publishing Director at Walker Books, said: “Walker Books is thrilled to be collaborating with Short Books and We Are What We Do on this important project.  This will be a ground breaking book, and it's exciting to be involving some of our best authors and illustrators in the creative process to reach out directly to children."

To compliment the book’s launch, We Are What We Do has also worked in partnership with the Aldridge Foundation and volunteering agency, v to develop the Young Speakers’ Programme which is providing 200 young people between the ages of 16-25 with the opportunity to develop their public speaking skills so that they can deliver We Are What We Do presentations in primary schools around the country.  The Young Speakers have received training throughout July this year and will start going into schools in September this year and will use visual materials and animations based on the new book.  The delivery of this project is supported by TimeBank. (Further information can be found at www.wearewhatwedo.org/youngspeakers)

Eugenie Harvey said: "We are really excited about the Young Speakers’ Programme.  It has been both humbling and awe inspiring to help these young people find their voices and to give them an opportunity to talk about issues that matter to them – knife crime, the security of their families and homes, the state of the environment and the harmony in their communities – and then to see them encouraging younger children to find simple, everyday ways in which they can make a difference to these problems.

“There has never been a more important time to provide young people with the confidence to speak out and a platform upon which to do it,  We are passionately committed to all our work with young people and look forward to developing it further in the coming years.”

In  the first six months of the Young Speakers’ Programme, We Are What We Do believes that as many as 200,000 school children will hear the presentations and plans to roll the programme out nationally as well as making the resources available through open source .

For further information about the launch of Teach Your Granny to Text or the Young Speakers’ Programme, please contact Nick Stanhope at We Are What We Do on 02073961274 or Nick.Stanhope@wearewhatwedo.org

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Editor’s notes:

About We Are What We Do
We Are What We Do is a global social change movement which aims to inspire people to use simple everyday actions to change the world – in other words small actions x lots of people = big change.  In addition to Change the World for a Fiver, they have published a second book, Change the World 9 to 5 and total worldwide sales of the two books will shortly reach one million.  They have also developed products including last year’s collaboration with Anya Hindmarch on the “I’m not a plastic bag” project, run a community programme in the London Borough of Newham and work in partnership with companies including Unilever, Virgin Atlantic, Nokia  and Sainsbury’s. Further information can be found at www.wearewhatwedo.org

About Walker Books
Walker Books is the world's leading independent publisher of high quality books for children of all ages.  It is part of a vibrant international group that includes Candlewick Press in America, and Walker Books Australia.  Founded in 1980 Walker now publishes over 300 books a year across all genres, while remaining true to its original ethos: the pursuit of excellence.

About Short Books
Founded in 2001 by two national newspaper journalists Rebecca Nicolson and Aurea Carpenter, Short Books has carved out its own distinctive brand in a crowded market as a publisher of bright, innovative non-fiction – with bestsellers including Amo, Amas, Amat... And All That: How to become a Latin lover by Harry Mount and The Good Granny Guide, by Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall. They have won numerous awards, and are noted for their stellar publicity.

About the Aldridge Foundation
The Foundation was established in July 2006 by Rod Aldridge, the founder of the Capita Group, to further the work of his charitable trust.  The Foundation is primarily focused on the effects of educational underachievement and social exclusion on the young, but also in removing the barriers to the reform of public services in general.  Further information can be found at www.aldridgefoundation.com.

About v
v exists to inspire a new generation of young volunteers (aged 16-25) in England and enable a lasting change to the quality, quantity and diversity of youth volunteering.  Further information can be found at www.wearev.com

About TimeBank
TimeBank is a national charity inspiring and connecting a new generation of people to volunteer in their communities, and enabling charitable organisations and businesses to develop innovative and effective volunteer recruitment programmes. Further information can be found at www.timebank.org.uk