In your book You Are a Champion, there’s a chapter called Never Stop Learning. They are both full of adventure and have been really well received by the children at Button Lane. That said, the first two books we chose are brilliant – Pooja Puri’s A Dinosaur Ate My Sister, which is wonderfully illustrated by Allen Fatimaharan, and Tom Percival’s Silas and the Marvellous Misfits. I want to put these writers on a pedestal and show children that although they came from a similar place, a similar background, they have made a great career for themselves doing what they love, and where they grew up has not stunted them. I’m looking for authors and illustrators to inspire the children – creatives who have come from similar backgrounds, are of the same race, religion… all of that is important. Tell us a bit about the books you chose for the club this year …įor me, the books are actually secondary to the bigger picture when we go through the selection process. The belief that they can be anything they want to be. Now, we have children dreaming of being artists, architects, vets. Then, most of the children told me they wanted to be a footballer like me.

The one thing that stood out for me, though, was how their aspirations had changed since the club first launched. They were engaged, and that is what we’re looking for – for children to use books as an escape when faced with daily challenges to be inspired, motivated and ultimately dream about what they could be one day. It was brilliant to see the children’s faces light up when they talked about books, and each and every one of them had taken something slightly different away from their reading. I visited Button Lane a few weeks ago it’s my old primary school and a recipient of my book club. What effect has your book club had so far? Next year, Rashford will release his first children’s fiction book, The Breakfast Club Adventures, co-authored by Alex Falase-Koya. In June he launched the Marcus Rashford Book Club in conjunction with Magic Breakfast and Macmillan Children’s Books to encourage a lifelong love of reading and give free books to underprivileged children. One of five siblings raised by a single mother on minimum wage in Manchester, Rashford has become one of Britain’s leading campaigners against child poverty. M arcus Rashford, 24, plays football for England and Manchester United and is the author of this year’s bestselling children’s nonfiction book, You Are a Champion, written with the journalist Carl Anka to inspire young people to reach their full potential.

You Are a Champion by Marcus Rashford