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| Lucy as Emily Wild, complete with investigation kit |
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| and a brilliant Drift badge |
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| Lola as Drift, with perfect face paint - one black ear, one white with brown spots! |
I had a great week, with visits to some of my favourite schools.
Here are a few of the things I got up to . . .
Tuesday at Litcham School in Norfolk
Led a workshop on travel writing with a Y8 group. Students pitched their ideas for new travel books based close to home, including, Rubbish: One student's quest to throw a piece of litter in every bin in Norfolk and Dave: One student's quest to meet every man called Dave in South West Norfolk. Then we journeyed farther afield. Inspired by extreme quests like Tony Hawkes' Round Ireland With A Fridge, how about From Little Mileham to South Africa with a Sloth but no Sugar. Playing the part of editor, the ideas were so great, I commissioned them all, and sent everyone off on their imaginary travels with super-generous imaginary expenses. I really enjoyed running a poetry workshop on the theme of Home with a Y7 group too - so many great ideas and lots of thoughtful, interesting work. Well done, everyone!
There is a lovely write-up of the visit on the Litcham Library blog. Thank you for your kind words, everyone!
Wednesday at Princethorpe Junior School in Birmingham (by video!)
Recorded a video to play in the WBD assembly tomorrow, announcing the winners of their hundred word story writing competition and reading out the winning story. I got to growl in the voice of a monstrous brute with the head of a lion and the body of a bull and wave a sword around. Well done, Logan! Logan's story can be seen on the Story Showcase on the Young Writers page. As an extra prize I'm going to write a short mystery featuring the winning children as the intrepid investigators.
Thursday at Coton Primary School near Cambridge
Almost cried in assembly. As the children began singing I am the Lord of the Dance I was ambushed by the accumulated memories of the long-ago nativity plays, harvest festivals and leavers' assemblies I attended when my sons were there.
Helped a Y3 class invent tarantula cars and hedgehog bikes and unicorn planes and a supercars called the Lamborghini Big Pancake.
Met aY3 girl- called Emily -who had dressed up as Emily Wild. As if that was not enough joy, her little brother in Y1 was dressed up as Emily's dog, Drift!
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| Meet Drift the dog! |
Accompanied the head and seven children - one winner per year group of the 'design a book cover for your favourite book' competition - to choose their very own book prize in lovely Liverpool Waterstones.
Created dangerous writing suspense scenes with Y6 - including much discussion of hero cats, killer hamsters, ninja dogs, being sucked into TVs, exploding cities, failing WIFI signal . . . the list goes on!
Saturday at home
Collapsed in a heap on the sofa . . . with a good book of course!