Promoting Scots - Itchy Coo

Cover of the Itchy Coo publication 'The Hoose o Haivers'

The Hoose o Haivers, one of Itchy Coo's titles. It contains Scots versions of tales from Ovid's Metamorphoses and is aimed at readers aged 9-13.

Founded in 2001 with the help of a grant from the Scottish Arts Council, Itchy Coo is a partnership between Black and White Publishing and the Scots language specialists Matthew Fitt and James Robertson.

The thinking behind Itchy Coo is to provide accessible, lively, and contemporary titles in Scots from pre-school and primary levels right through to Higher.

So far 14 books, a spoken word CD and a sampler in braille have been published. Further titles are in preparation.

For the early years and lower primary there are the beautifully illustrated titles the Animal ABC and Sweetieraptors, which introduce some well-known and less well-known Scots words in a fun way. Vocabulary building is also a feature of Eck the Bee, an activity book suitable for middle primary.

Itchy Coo takes account of different varieties of Scots such as Dundonian, Doric and Shetlandic, all of which are all represented in Pure Ghosters, an anthology of ghost stories suitable for lower secondary ages and above.

For older readers, A Scots Parliament, a lively history textbook written entirely in Scots, demonstrates that writing in the language is not limited to fiction or verse.

The recently published Tam O Shanter's Big Night Oot, using themes from some classic Scottish texts, supplies a need for short play scripts suitable for use in the classroom.

Matthew Fitt, Itchy Coo's National Schools and Communities Scots Language Development Officer, uses his experience as a teacher to promote the language through school visits and in-service events.

Itchy Coo's non-doctrinaire approach to promoting Scots will appeal to many teachers who have previously lacked confidence in using Scots in the classroom. The Itchy Coo website even includes downloadable teachers' notes for many of the titles.

What permeates all of Itchy Coo's publications is an infectious delight in the variety and expressiveness of Scots words – a vocabulary which is part of the nation's heritage. As Matthew Fitt points out, knowledge of Scots has been so eroded over the years that many Scottish people now find the national bard Robert Burns 'like reading a foreign language'.

With its fun and imaginative approach to introducing Scots to younger readers, Itchy Coo is doing much to redress this.

Itchy Coo

Itchy Coo
Visit the Itchy Coo website for a full list of titles and downloadable teachers' notes for many of them.