Book Week 2011 Keith Charters

Primary 6 pupils were the hosts when Keith Charters came to chat about books, writing, publishing and anything else interesting. A great time was had by all, as we were royally entertained, informed, and read to - all just perfect for a Friday afternoon.

Keith has a new book of his own out this year, Lee on the Dark Side of the Moon. This is the fourth story about the irrepressible Lee and his daft adventures. This time Lee is on a trip to the moon because he won a competition on the back of a cereal packet. Lee obviously eats more exciting cereal than I do! After an uneventful flight, Lee and his fellow astronauts find that all is not well on the surface of the moon - someone (or something!) else is also on a lunar trip....

As usual, the book is exciting, funny, silly and great fun to read, and includes a lot of fascinating facts of interest to every budding space traveller - well ,what is the food like? and how do you go to the toilet in zero gravity? All this and more is explained as Lee gets to grips with life on board the rocket.

Keith also told us about some of the new books his publishing company has recently brought out and we will be looking out for these soon too. There may also be another Lee book, but no date on that one yet!

Book Week 2011 Katie Grant

We were delighted to welcome Katie Grant back to school this year to speak to Primary 7 pupils about writing, and story, and ideas, and the power of words. We had a very entertaining morning, with plenty of information about stories and how Katie goes about writing and working out plots, and all the research that goes along with making a book historically accurate - or as accurate as possible.

The de Granville trilogy, Blood Red Horse, Green Jasper and Blaze of Silver are regularly borrowed from the library, although after Katie's talk the hangman Ned Skinslicer had by far the longest waiting list!

Belle's Song is Katie's newest book and has only just been published. This one is set in the time of Geoffrey Chaucer and looks at his life from a rather different point of view, as the heroine Belle joins a pilgrimage to Canterbury....

Book Week 2011 Alan Burnett

For a wee change from authors of fiction, we invited Alan Burnett along to school to talk about his information books, in particular, his biographies of famous Scots. Primary 4 and Primary 5 children are studying the Scottish Wars of Independence and Mary Queen of Scots, so Alan's visit was perfectly timed to give us all an insight into some of the important people involved.

Alan did two tremendous sessions, full of fascinating facts about people in Scottish history and the times they lived in. Everyone loved his version of a timeline - with year 0 at the library window, Ancient Egypt across the playground, and the dinosaurs miles and miles down the road! All the children were fascinated by his talk, and Alan kept them all awake and involved by firing out questions - and there were some brilliant answers! He was very impressed.

Alan has two new books coming out in the summer. Both deal with true stories from Scotland during the First and Second World Wars. We are looking forward to seeing these books soon.

Book Week 2011 - John Fardell visit

John Fardell visited us on Tuesday to talk to Primary 3 children. He showed us his book of ideas and drawings where he writes down everything that might be useful in a book later. We all heard the story of Jeremiah Jellyfish, who wanted to do more than just drift with the shoal and ended up flying rocket planes. One of the best bits according to the audience, was being able to make up a story together starting with one picture, then another, and another!

John gave us an inspiring talk which was taken to heart by all his listeners. Some people took his advice to start their stories with pictures first and then writing. Others have tried their hand at comic books, or inventing gadgets for use by Manfred the Baddie.

Ross Collins came to play with Primary One and Primary Two children on Monday 28th February. What an amazing start to our Book Week for 2011! My Amazing Dad was perhaps the most popular story we had read before the visit, and it was lovely to see Ross draw Snip for us, and read the story and explain how he had had the idea for this character and how the story had changed since his first drafts. And yes, Snip's Dad is amazing.

Everyone helped Ross read the story of Billy Monster and his terrible daymares about children - horrible-looking creatures who hide under the bed. Ross asked for help because he can't scream very well and he was pretty sure that P1 and P2 could - and they did! At the end of the story, our ears were ringing, but we had made sure that everyone knew that Billy had had a very bad dream indeed.

Everyone had a lovely time with Ross, and he signed books and we all drew our own pictures of monsters and crocodiles and ghost pets - but that one is another story.

Royal Mail Book Awards

The Royal Mail Book Awards for 2011 were announced on Tuesday 22nd February.

The winner in the books for 0-7 category is Julia Donaldson What the Ladybird Heard. This is the story of how all the animals work together to prevent two thieves from stealing the farmer's prize cow. Each page has a sparkly ladybird to find too.

The winner in the books for 8-12 category is Barry Hutchison for Invisible Fiends: Mr Mumbles. This is the first in a series of very scary stories, not to be read after dark!

Thank you to all of our pupils in P2, P3 and P5 who took part in voting for this year's winners.

For more information on the Royal Mail Book Awards and a look at the awards ceremony go to http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/

Book Week

Book Week 28th February - 4th March 2011

We are all very excited about our School Book Week next week. An amazing group of authors and illustrators are coming to visit us.

Ross Collins will be drawing with Primary 1and 2 on Monday.
John Fardell will be chatting with Primary 3 on Tuesday.
Allan Burnett will be enthusing Primary 4 and 5 on Wednesday.
Katie Grant will be enthralling Primary 7 on Friday.
Keith Charters will be entertaining Primary 6 on Friday.

Primary 6 O will be performing a special World Book Day Assembly, with treasure chests from each class. Remember to bring your pirate hat!!