World Book Week - My Diary,

What a fantastic week, World Book Week turned out to be..It almost feels that we are there...well almost.


On March 1 I kicked of the tour with a visit to Armitage School in Ardwick Manchester and had a really enjoyable morning reading to the pupils and teachers...it was the same format as before, starting off safe with a reading of the HPM before hitting them right between the eyes with Golden Arm. I have noticed that three stories and questions fills about 30 mins, and it was possible to visit at least 5 classes in the morning...with the elder children being treated to a reading of Commander-in-chief-of the-World. ( Which raised a few eyebrows amongst the teachers). Unfortunately there was also a booking at the school with a drama teacher, so use of the hall was restricted as was reading to the Year 6's...regardless it still went well....I couldn't help smiling as one of the year 4 girls, asked me :





"how famous are you?, cos I've never heard of you"...as I walked into the classroom, and at the end she surprised me by asking for an autograph




March 2nd and I had my first library session for the week in Warrington, where I managed to find the central library with only seconds to spare. In I raced, and immediately set about my repertoire with gusto. Honor Giles (the story teller and Lymm Festival Coordinator) came down to "check out my wears" and to see if "I could walk the walk" with regards to the material being suitable for a festival, and hopefully I made the grade...in all the excitement I forgot which school came to visit - but Chris Everette - The Children's Library Coordinator did manage to get some pictures which I will post as soon as they are forwarded on to me. After another successful reading we moved over to Padgate Library, only to find that they had booked the school in for Thursday instead of Tuesday. C'est la vie..



Chris and I decided to visit the school instead and give an impromptu reading, rather than miss the opportunity altogether - so after gatecrashing a maths lesson, we rounded up 2 year 5 classes and read the HPM and the two Ghost Stories to the unsuspecting pupils. Again they lapped it up and again were left with the shivers.



After the reading I met up with Mum, and we went for some dinner - before meeting up at Orford Library to read again to some Year one classes from a nearby school.....(apologies again because I have forgotten the name). I even brought out Be Careful Ethel, which I had omitted from my "set" because I thought it was a bit tame, but everybody seemed to like it, and the children found it quite amusing.






Wednesday March 3rd was my big trip to the seaside and spend the day with the delightful Lynne Cowat-French, the Children's coordinator for Blackpool Library Services. Our first stop was at Thames Primary School, situated directly behind the pleasure beach and they even had one of the ancient roller-coasters bordering the playground, which must be quite surreal in the summer months.




Thames was originally an old Victorian school, and the acoustics in the hall were superb and added to the suspense. As Lynne was the ex-headteacher for nearby Arnold School, she had organised for them to attend as well, so the small hall looked really packed. Thankfully, they were not disappointed as over the course of the hour, I read the HPM and HPM G2Town, Be Careful Ethel and Golden Arm.



At the end of the reading, Lynne conducted a poll for a repeat performance and the result wasn't really a surprise. The children all wanted Golden Arm again - I was a bit worried that reading it to the children again may not have the same impact, but I was wrong, in fact I was very wrong....even though every one in the room new what was coming, I raised my voice slightly and paused the punchline for about 5 seconds longer......and guess what?





We then went a mile further down the road to Hawes Side Primary School and repeated the performance to another 100 or so children with an encore, and had exactly the same results. I have to admit, I was feeling rather "awesome" knowing that over the week I had perfected a performance formula that enthralls and entertains children for nearly an hour. 4 poems interspersed with the occasional anecdote and an open question and answer session.





I was even treated to lunch with Lynne, before making my way to Our Lady of the Assumption RC School for the afternoon session. Just like before the reading went well although the kids in the hall were taking advantage of the fact that there were no teachers (only supply teachers) and it was left to Lynne to impose a bit of order on the children - saying that though...Golden Arm got their attention with little effort.







It seems all I have to do is say " Who wants to hear a ghost story?"



We did have a walk in session at Palatine Library, scheduled for 3.45 and although I turned up, there was a distinct shortage of children, so in the end I only read to about three children individually before Lynne suggested that we call it a day and go and get a cup of tea.


Thursday 4th March and this time I was at Manley Park in Whalley Range Manchester, for World Book Day, I had been looking forward to this as the booking was made in January and after getting the girls ready in their fancy dress costumes, (Arisha as "Miranda" complete with a home made dress she had designed totally out of socks, while Maya had snakes made out of material weaved in her hair to look like Medusa). I had overlooked the fact that I hadn't got a costume.



This became more obvious, when I arrived at Manley Park and saw that everyone, even the teachers had dressed up - leaving me to think fast on my feet and tell them that I had come as "Charlie Bucket"



The readings at the school had been scheduled for 20 minute slots and I was ushered through about 6 classes in the morning and 2 performances in the neighbouring upper junior school before at least 200 pupils (some of which were bigger than I was).



I knew straight away when the older kids came in that reading "The HPM" and other material wasn't going to cut it so I relied more heavily on The Commander-in-Chief of the World and Golden Arm to bail me out.



It was also strange to note that one of my usual answers I give to people when they ask about why I became a writer got possibly more interest than questions about the stories themselves.



When they ask "Why do all your stories rhyme?" I tell them about spending 25 years as a songwriter and writing over 200 songs - which are all "rubbish" ( this isn't true of course - because a lot of my songs are pretty damn good - but I will save that for another blog) and I tell then that I decided to cheer up and write songs for children, which then turned into stories in a rhythmical form.



Anyway the children at Manley Park were very much interested in my career as a wannabe "pop star" ,





Friday 5th March, after one week of solid readings all over the North West, my final appearance was in the charming village of Tottington just on the outskirts of Bury, where Alison Davies was my companion for the day - joined briefly with Alison Bond in the morning. I started off reading to Tottington Nursery and found that two stories is more than enough for pre-schoolers before being treated to a brilliant rendition of " Baby Sharks" by Alison Bond.



Mid Morning we were joined by year 4's from the nearby Tottington Primary School and without wishing to repeat myself - it was a resounding success....during the telling of Golden Arm I even made on of the kids jump so much that he literally fell over. Proof in anyone's eyes that the story is definitely destined for bigger things..

We then paid a visit to Tottington Primary in the afternoon and gave reading to another 5 classes starting from the nursery - reception and on to years 1, 2 and three.

my efforts were rewarded with the Head asking me to sign 71 books before I left. Amusingly I sat in the staffroom repeating the mantra;

"I must not write popular children's books if I want to go home early on a Friday".

Finally to round off a very busy week in anyone's eyes, I headed off to Waterstones in Bury to give a reading, only to find that there wasn't any children - so after an hour of reading "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" to myself in the corner, and selling a few books to the store owner Rachel, I finally got to go home and pour myself a well earned glass of wine.

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