Air cannons, slime-making and giant smoke rings may not be quite what you expect to find in your libraries, but while it may raise a few eyebrows, they’ve actually played a crucial part in our Library Service’s creative efforts to inspire more boys to get into reading.

During October, our Children’s Librarians invited the likes of Tommy Test Tube, Dynamite Dave and Mad Mike to turn our libraries into hives of scientific experimentation – much to the delight of more than 100 local primary school children who took part.

Fun

The team of aptly–named entertainers are from an organisation called Mad Science - the world’s leading provider of ‘fun science’. And although since launching in the East Midlands in 2006 the team has delivered their science shows to more than 300 schools, more than 500 birthday parties and a range of corporate events, they admit that performing their crazy experiments in libraries was certainly a first.

Jonny Neutron, aka Mad Science’s Managing Director, Jonny Longfellow, is a former bomb disposal expert who ironically now creates controlled mini-explosions during fun science sessions. He said: “It’s not the typical thing you imagine to happen among the bookshelves, but working with the libraries to get boys into books has been an absolute pleasure - they offer first rate facilities and the staff are always friendly.”

Interest

But while it’s obviously great fun, with national figures showing that boys are ten percentage points behind girls in English at Key Stage 2*, and that only 23 percent of boys read stories and novels every day compared to 41 percent of girls**, serious issues lie behind the smoke and the slime.

Nottinghamshire County Council’s Senior Librarian for Children’s Services, Mary Buttolph, explained: “It’s about tapping into the things that boys enjoy - such as science - and inspiring them to find out more.”

So after displaying their lung power during the air bag test, or riding on a homemade hovercraft, the young scientists are introduced to a display of books designed particularly with boys in mind.

Mary said: “We’ve been introducing them to books like the best-selling Horrible Science series by Nick Arnold.

“After seeing the Mad Scientists, their enthusiasm is at a high, so the books have been virtually flying off the shelves.”

Mary added that other popular genres for boys included action adventures, spy books and fantasy.

Government initiative

The sessions are linked to our Library Service’s support of the Department for Children, Schools and Families’ Boys into Books campaign. Extended to primary school aged boys during National Year of Reading 2008, the national project aims to improve boys’ reading habits and enables libraries to provide their local schools with titles from the campaign’s Riveting Reads booklist for free: www.boysintobooks.co.uk/primary/booklist.php

Mary said: “Encouraging children to read and get more involved in their libraries has always been part of what we do as a library service, but Boys into Books has enabled us to focus on an issue and create a programme with extra pizzazz.”

And pizzazz is certainly the word to describe Mad Science.

Dads

As part of the project, the Mad Scientists tailored their sessions to include activities that appeal to boys and their dads, and most were held on a Saturday to give working fathers more opportunity to come along and find out about books they can enjoy reading together.

And with children as old as 12 saying they wished they were read to more often, and evidence showing those who are learn more quickly, it’s a crucial effort.

So what’s the verdict? Dad, Ashley Marriott, who took his nine-year-old son to a session in Bingham on 18 October, said: "It was really nice to open up the library to be used in a different way, and the event brought a new dimension to the library service.

"The children thoroughly enjoyed it and so did I."

Eight-year-old Callum Davey, who attended the Arnold session on 25 October was equally impressed. He said: "I thought it was good and I liked it when they let us make the coloured goo.

"I like reading - mostly history books and books about tornados. I took some books home with me, some on history, one about dinosaurs and one on tornados."

But it wasn’t just a source of inspiration for the boys. The Mad Scientists themselves were so impressed with how well the programme worked, they decided to make reading a theme in all their own shows.

*Department for Children, Schools and Families
** National Year of Reading

For more information about Mad Science East Midlands, and for bookings, contact Rebecca Longfellow, Mad Science, on tel: 0115 922 1113 or e-mail: Rlongfellow@madscience-em.co.uk or visit their website at: www.madscience.org/locations/eastmidlands