Virtual Author Visits

Welcome to our Virtual Author Page 
 
At Hawridge and Cholesbury we have loved meeting with lots of different authors through the brilliant 'Our Bookshop, Tring' Virtual Events.  It has been so exciting and inspirational to meet authors and illustrators and have the opportunity to ask them our questions. 
Please scroll down to see all the wonderful experiences we have had. You can watch any of the events again by clicking on the YouTube links.

On Thursday 24th November 2022, we welcomed Christian Darkin into school, who is an author of books for children and an animator for children's TV (CBeebies/CBBC). He started off the day with a whole school assembly, where he talked to us about creating animation and movie visual effects, as well as his job as a children’s author. The assembly was followed by class workshops. After school, Christian sold and signed some of his books.

Here are some ‘Five Minute Creative Writing Prompts’ from Christian. Please share any creative writing that you do at home with your class teacher

Unleash Your Creative Monster: A Children’s Guide to Writing

with Andy Jones and Olaf Falafel  October 2021

In October 2021 our Key Stage 2 classes loved the session 'Unleash Your Creative Monster: A Children’s Guide to Writing' with Andy Jones and Olaf Falafel.  There were three local schools involved and we got lots of chances to ask questions. We learnt how to find our creative monster ... Have you found yours yet? 
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In June 2021, Year 5 met Micheal Morpurgo through an online author visit.
'His Life, His Farm and Writing'
In June, Mrs Walker and Cherry Platts were delighted to join Michael Morpurgo for an online author visit hosted by 'Our Bookshop, Tring' as they had been reading 'Butterfly Lion'. Both the Year 5 children and the staff found the session totally inspiring and found the advice about creative writing extremely useful and interesting.
During the online workshop they were so lucky to get one of their questions put to Michael Morpurgo. 
Mrs Walker and her class asked '"Why are your books so sad?" 
 
Michael Morpurgo replied saying "That is a very good question. It is a serious question so I am afraid you are going to get a serious answer. The truth is as you know life can be joyful and life can be sad.  When you are writing you have to write truth. You don't write to fool people...I write about what I care about and what I care about is what is wrong with this world. That is the suffering that goes on, the refugees, the wars, the difficulties that we all live through. Now there was a time when I was little when children were protected form all that. There were no phones, you just listened to children's radio and what your parents wanted to tell you. Children nowadays are much more sophisticated ...so if you are writing stories that you want children to read, you cannot patronise them...everybody watching this has had sadness in their lives. So when writing books you have to deal with the joys and the sadness. I tell you what I try to do I try to find something at the end of my stories always to find something positive to say...I think hope at the end of a story is really, really important"
 
Host Ben, from Our Bookshop Tring, said the question stood out from all the many questions asked by other schools. So well done Year 5!  Mrs Walker said that the fact that their question was chosen left the class in stunned silence; they felt like they were being addressed personally, making the experience even more special.
 
After the session Year 5 were inspired to read more of Micheal's books and started 'Farm Boy' as their class reader.
 
Watch the whole session  (aimed at Key Stage 2 children) again use the You Tube link 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS1UZHTUjoQ
or clickon the video below.
 
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