Schools Week 2008 at The Shrewsbury Children's Bookfest

Schools' Week 2008

Andy Cope

Harlescott Junior School and Prestfelde School were both lucky enough to welcome Andy Cope, author of the hugely popular Spy Dog series, to Shrewsbury for the first time. Sadly Lara, Andy’s dog, upon whom the stories are based, was unable to meet the children, as she was unwell at home. But Andy more than made up for Lara’s absence, encouraging the children to imagine what their pets might get up to while they are at school. Whether it was their guinea pig having a guinea pig party and arresting baddies, dressed in a superhero cape, or their dog sitting at the kitchen table, eating food with a knife and fork, no one will ever look at their pets in quite the same way again.

Andy inspired all his audience to think about their ‘HUGG’ – ‘Huge Unbelievable Great Goal’. He explained the building blocks that he had put in place to achieve his HUGG of getting his first children’s book published two years ago.

He set the children in both schools the challenge of writing the first chapter of a story, entitled ‘My Pet Gorilla’. The winners will receive a pre-published copy of Spy Dog Superbrain before it appears in bookshops in August 2008.

As one Prestfelde teacher commented the next day, ‘Already, five of my class have brought in their stories… how’s that for an inspirational speaker?!'’

Malachy Doyle

Children at Greenfields Primary, Baschurch Primary, Prestfelde School and Mount Pleasant Junior School had the opportunity to meet Malachy Doyle, author of a wide range of picture books and fiction titles (Granny Sarah and the Last Red Kite, When a Zeeder met a Xyder, The Barefoot Book of Fairy Tales, Big Pig, The Football Ghosts, The Hound of Ulster and Jack the Giant-Killer).

Malachy entertained large audiences, reading from his own work, and sharing some of the inspiration for his stories. He regaled his audiences with hilarious tales of growing up as one of 11 children in an Irish family through his book One, Two, Three O’Leary – a bedtime story about the ten O’Leary children who bounce out of bed one by one, told entirely in nonsense words drawn from traditional Irish rhymes.

In The Dancing Tiger, he even managed to get a shy little girl to dance up and down with a toy tiger, while he told the story of magical nights full of dreams as a little girl dances through the seasons with a quiet and gentle tiger.

Chris d’Lacey

The Children’s Bookfest were delighted to welcome back Chris d’Lacey for his second visit to Shrewsbury. Chris had an action-packed couple of days, with visits to Oxon Primary, Baschurch Primary, and St George’s and The Grange Junior Schools.

He delighted the children with hilarious tales from his childhood and his first job, and he recounted the imaginary journey that he went on after buying a Marks and Spencer cuddly polar bear for his girlfriend.

Chris shared his love of wildlife with the audience, introducing the children to ‘Gregory Peck’, a homing pigeon, who having been rescued by Chris with a broken wing, went on to live with him for 14 years and was the inspiration behind Fly, Chrokee, Fly.

Chris had all the children eager to read Icefire, one of four of his hugely successful books about dragons.

Kevin Brooks

The Shrewsbury Sixth Form College were lucky enough to have the award-winning author Kevin Brooks pay them a flying visit amidst his hectic schedule. He regaled his audience with tales of life before his writing career allowed him to escape the ‘real’ world and do what he always wanted full time: a route that had taken him through various roles of crematorium handyman, railway ticket office clerk, hotdog seller at London Zoo and musician. This kaleidoscopic career path has no doubt coloured his amazing ability to truly get into the minds of his teenage characters. As one particular fan enthusiastically commented, ‘Kevin writes in the way teenagers think’. His titles are all hugely popular – Lucas, Being, Candy, Martyn Pig to name but a few. His latest title, Black Rabbit Sunday, has just been published.

The discussion session proved very popular, with Kevin continuing to answer questions to camera for the forthcoming pod-cast. Watch this space for the links!

Kevin was very relaxed and allowed the session to be lead by his obvious affection for his art and his desire to pass on his experiences to the next generation of students.

Sarah Dyer

Sarah Dyer visited Sundorne Infants and Longden Primary for her first taste of a Shrewsbury Bookfest event. Sarah is another award-winning author, scooping the Smarties Bronze award with the now classic title Five Little Fiends, which began life part of her degree coursework. She has continued this success with Clementine and Mungo and the follow-up, Princess for a Day, just out in paperback.

The children were treated to a story-telling session before designing their very own monster, complete with pointy teeth and ten arms! Plenty of scope for the imagination to run wild – we are looking forward to seeing some of the monsters on this site very soon.

The older children loved being shown Sarah's original little paper book of pencil sketches for ‘Little Fiends’ and following the sequence of how she worked on it and improved it until it became the version that was eventually published. And they were thrilled to see some of her beautiful original illustrations. Inspired by her enthusiasm and encouragement, the children then had fun making their own little books, complete with a monster character. Again, they came up with some fantastic ideas.

Sarah conveyed her obvious love of illustrating to a very keen audience and managed to persuade even the most reluctant artist to have a go at drawing something and feel proud of their efforts. We are really hoping she makes a return trip to Shrewsbury very soon.

David Gilman

David Gilman addressed two groups at Prestfelde School: years 5 and 6; and years 7 and 8. The children had already been on his website www.thedangerzone.co.uk , where they had tried to solve a survival quiz and locate the missing father of hero, Max Gordon. So they were full of eager anticipation for his visit. And it was wonderful!

David Gilman was able to connect with this wide-age range of children and inspired both boys and girls to buy his book, The Devil’s Breath, which has been read avidly by all since. He told tales of his eventful life as a fire-fighter, ambulance driver, lumberjack and photographer, and explained to the children how all life’s experiences enrich us and can come out in a novel. He described his own overcoming of fear in an African township in which his compassion and an affinity with humanity saved him. He encouraged children to read, read and read to help them with their writing, and to write, re-write and re-write if they wanted to get published.

His survival quiz, including how to deal with poisonous snakes, was won by a group of girls in the first session and by younger boys in the second, who said the secret was not to go for the obvious answers!

Now all the children are eagerly awaiting his next novel involving extreme skiing!

Get your school involved next year email schools@shrewsburybookfest.co.uk

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