The St John’s passion for books and reading was confirmed once again across a wide range of book-related activities, all designed to increase the children’s enthusiasm for all things literary. The Byron House Book Week and the Senior House Literary Festival is a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and, most importantly, of reading.
Author Tracey Corderoy was a huge hit with the Byron House children. She brought her stories of Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam alive with puppets, props and games. With tips from Tracey’s illustrator Steve Lenton, all the children had a go at drawing ‘Sam’. Tracey explained that her editors are a bit like teachers saying, “I wrote my first Shifty story 19 times before my editor was happy with it!” Tracey introduced the children to her new book The Aliens are Coming! before it had hit the shops!
Cambridge-based author and illustrator, Chris Priestley, discussed his first ever book Dog Magic and talked about some of the historical non-fiction he has written and his Maudlin Towers series, posing the question, “What would the school be like if your teachers were pirates?” He discussed people’s fascination with creepy, spooky stories and read from Maudlin Towers and the Curse of the Werewolf Boy. He also led a Q&A session and signed his books at the Heffers Book Fair.
Write and animal lover, Inbali Iserles, enthralled with tales of her childhood and her love of pets and all animals. One of her inspirations came from her many encounters with foxes in London who seemed brave and bold and misrepresented in literary fiction. She asked the children to tell tales of their own fox sightings. Inbali introduced the children to the world of Foxcraft and all the magical powers a fox possesses in her stories before reading passages, followed by a Q&A where children eagerly tried to win bookmarks and badges!
Author and filmmaker, Peter Bunzl, engrossed the children with his Cogheart series and his tales of 'attending' the world’s most famous school – Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! He talked about some of his favourite books he read as a boy and the many places he found inspiration for writing his first book from old black and white photos of children who became his main characters, to the books and films of his childhood, including Star Wars and some amazing clockwork machines he saw in a French theme park, Les Machines. He got minds whirring as he explained how everyday objects can be used as inspiration for story starters and encouraged the children to think up magical powers for the things they had in their pockets. They also took part in a deportment lesson and an interactive robot quiz!
Jennifer Bell described how she initially disliked reading as a child and shared photographs of her defaced childhood books with her comments inside, much to the amusement of the school! She spoke about her time working at Foyles bookshop and the famous people she met and their reading purchases. She discussed how she became a writer and that it was reading the book Eragon by Christopher Paolini that inspired her to read more children’s fiction and then eventually write a book herself – she wanted to write a book that she would have wanted to read when she was young. The highlight was when she talked about the uncommon objects in her books and asked the children to choose an item they would use to escape being eaten by a wolf! Several children and a staff member were tragically eaten alive!
Senior House children were encouraged to take part in a sponsored read to raise money for the Read for Good charity and all the children enjoyed taking part in the inaugural ‘Shelfies’ competition (guessing the person using a 'selfie' of their bookshelf), as well as author masterclasses in the library, the extreme reading competition and dress as a book character day to round off an exhilarating literary week.
