Reviews

There are so many incredible books available at the moment that it is impossible to read them all, no matter how hard I try! Here are my thoughts about some of the books I have read and how I think they could be used in school as well as Q and A sessions with authors and illustrators.

Bath Children’s Literature Festival 2023

Bath is a gorgeous city with so much to see and enjoy and every year since it started (with the obvious exceptions!), I have joined many other book lovers at the Children’s Literature Festival held there every autumn. Always a wonderful occasion, so many wonderful poets, illustrators and authors take part in this joyful event, making it a pleasure to return year after year!

My festival adventure this year started with a drawing session with Nadia Shireen and Sophy Henn, compered by Steven Butler. Full of fun and fabulous drawings, the illustrators were challenged to create pictures inspired by words selected from the audience. There were giraffes in space, secret agents doing karate in the woods with a goose side kick, scientist rabbits and secret agent guinea pigs! Sophy and Nadia rose to every challenge whilst Steven constantly challenged them with extra details!

The audience were also encouraged to draw along and it was amazing to see just how creative and inventive they were too! It was a brilliant way to start the day…

My next event was with Nikita Gill who was sharing her new book, ‘Animal Tales from India: Ten Stories from the Panchatantra’ (review here). These are stories that Nikita grew up with, told to her by her grandmother, and her love of them was very evident! It was a joyful session of storytelling.

Loving myths, legends and traditional tales, I knew that ‘Mythical Adventures of Greeks and Gods’ was also going to be a session I would really enjoy. Joanna Nadin was talking to Tom Holland about his book, ‘The Wolf-Girl, The Greeks and the Gods’ (review here) - and he was absolutely fascinating! He took his young family to Greece with him for 6 months to be able to visit all the locations and immerse himself in the story, using the character of Gorgo to keep his young daughter engaged on their travels.

Rocket is one of my favourite picture book characters so it was a joy to hear Dapo Adeola (again!) as he read the latest story, ‘Speak Up!’ (review here) and taught us all how to draw Luna the cat. The children in the audience were excellent with their answers in the quiz and also asked some great questions. Dapo gave lots of good advice, reminding children that ‘there is a lesson in every drawing’ and encouraging them to persevere and have fun!

After drawing with Dapo, I was fired with enthusiasm for my next event, ‘Heavy Metal Badger’ with Duncan Beedie. Having listened to the story, the rock music generated the perfect atmosphere for creating some heavy metal band names and designing their logos. Some of the adults in the audience got even more carried away than their children at this point!! Duncan then showed everyone how to draw Badger sliding on his knees, loving the heavy metal!

My time at this year’s festival finished on an absolute high. Ana Sampson is responsible for gathering the poems for the most amazing collection, ‘Gods and Monsters: Mythological Poems’ (review here), which has been brilliantly illustrated by Chris Riddell. This has very quickly become a favourite of mine and it was a joy to listen to Ana (and Chris!) whilst Chris drew constantly. There was a battle of the monsters as the audience were asked to vote in a number of rounds to discover which monster they thought would be the winner! It was the perfect way to end the day.

Today is the last day of Bath Children’s Literature Festival 2023- and I’m already looking forward to next year!

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Bath Children’s Literature Festival 2022

On Saturday, I went to the Bath Children’s Literature Festival, one of the book-ish treats I enjoy every year. Being limited by my crutches, I only managed one event this year, but it was lovely to be back and the perfect place to meet up with book-loving friends.

The Festival fills Bath with a lovely atmosphere- and you never know who you might bump into, particularly when you pop into Toppings for a few sneaky purchases between events! Jacqueline Wilson was as lovely as ever and once we had recovered from the shock of seeing her, she kindly signed Sally’s school author autograph book. I was not surprised that she didn’t remember having had dinner with me when I helped at Bournville Bookfest a few years ago!

The Guildhall is a lovely venue for events. Grade 1 listed, this spectacular Georgian building’s opulent interior is full of beautiful details and portraits. Held in the Banqueting Room, a wonderful space with glorious 18th-century chandeliers and intricate plasterwork on the ceiling, my event was ‘Magic and Mystery with Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Lucy Strange’, two excellent authors.

In a completely absorbing session, which flew past all too quickly, Lucy and Kiran discussed how they had come to writing. Both loved books when they were younger, but as most of the books she read were by ‘dead people’, Lucy felt that books came from the past and didn’t realise that writing was something you could do. Both had gone into ‘the hardest job in the world’ (Kiran’s description of teaching!) before coming to writing. Kiran felt that being married to an artist had a part in her becoming an author as he made her realise that you could follow your passion. He also helped in that he told her she didn’t have the patience to write and she was determined to prove him wrong! Cats are also useful as they ensure that you don’t move for long periods of time once curled up on your lap! After teaching for 15 years, Lucy found herself working in the Middle East and she started writing out of homesickness, writing about what she knew helped.

It was particularly fascinating to hear about the amount of words each lady had written which never made it to the final version of the book. Lucy’s editor helped her to cut 46,000 words from her first draft of ‘The Secret of Nightingale Wood’, getting rid of those bits Lucy described as ‘an indulgence’ whilst Kiran told a similar story about her writing, particularly ‘The Girl of Ink and Stars’.

Lucy told us that ‘Sisters of the Lost Marsh’ was inspired by Romney Marsh, which she described as having a feeling ‘like the sea wants it back’ and the poem, ‘Overheard on a Saltmarsh’ by Harold Monro. With her background in acting coming to the fore, Lucy read the poem so well- it was captivating! Giving advice for those who want to write, she suggested that ideas need to ‘simmer like a casserole’ and said that it helps if you really want to be the character you are writing about.

Kiran spoke of her love of mythology and how this has sparked ideas for her writing. Offering advice to writers, she explained how she doesn’t feel like a ‘main character’ herself- someone who’s always looking for adventure. She’s very content being at home, but if anything threatened those she loves then she would spring into action and do anything she could to save them. These are the sort of character she likes to write about.

It was the most inspiring session with some excellent questions from the audience. The relationship between Kiran and Lucy was warm and relaxed, making their conversation very natural and light-hearted.

Having had my books signed (my copy of ‘Leila and the Blue Fox’ was the first Kiran had signed), Sally and I bumped into some more familiar faces- James Carter and Cerrie Burnell.

My day ended in the perfect way. Having had a little stroll along the canal, I enjoying the afternoon sun sitting in the Pleasure Gardens by Holburne Museum, enjoying the beauty of the surroundings and the joy of a good book!

The Festival continues this week with lots of events for schools and again, next weekend with a programme full of interest for all the family.

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