BINSTED
Looking forward to seeing Years 3,4,5, and 6 on January 19th. If the weather continues to be mild I may bring some visitors in with me when I come in ….. visitors of a rather slippery nature! You have been warned.
HERNE JUNIOR SCHOOL
I’m also looking forward to a visit to Years 5/6 in January at Herne Juniors in Petersfield. We’re going to talk about how we as a family began to write and the problems many children have with planning stories. I may have a visitor or two with me. With a bit of luck we’ll talk about the lifecycle of snails and one or two might still be awake. If the snow comes in the meantime you can be sure they’ll be snoring their heads off by January.
ROPLEY VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS FAYRE SNAIL WINNER
9-year old competition winner Phoebe will take delivery of her snail this week – just in time before it goes into hibernation. Or will it?
SLITHERING NEWS
I have friends who have friends who have African land snails and their snails are asleep! Are mine so active that they do not wish to sleep? It can only mean that we are in for a mild winter – they do make the most excellent weather vanes.
SELBORNE ARTS AND CRAFTS FESTIVAL
We have just finished a good weekend in Selborne. People were very interested in our books and we sold many copies of The Secret Scroll. There seemed to be good awareness of the school book. Many people said they had read about it in the press, whether in the Alton Herald, the Petersfield Post or the Alton Post Gazette; others had seen our bit on ITV News on Friday evening’s Meridian broadcast. ITV gave the piece a beautiful treatment – all Once upon a Time and soft focus kind of treatment – and we shall be for ever grateful to Kim Hewitt and Rachel Hepworth for working with us on getting this out before Christmas.
WATERSTONE’S
We took a group of children into the Alton branch of Waterstone’s on Saturday. It was fun, if a bit daunting, for them. Selling to a ‘cold’ audience can be quite frightening, but their charm won many people over and, operating within the children’s book section of the store, we were allowed much freedom to ‘sell’.
What do I mean by a ‘cold audience’? I don’t mean they were horrid or literally quite cold; I mean the children had to speak to other children and adults whom they did not know or who had never heard about the school’s writing project. It was a good lesson in selling and I think it showed the children how hard it is to try to interest someone in a book they have never heard of. The children all did very well. We sold eight books and the store kept seven to sell on. Those books we sold were all signed by the children and I know that gave them a bit of a buzz.
‘I feel like I’m famous!’ said Karyee.
‘Can we do the film of the book now?’ asked Jonathan.
Jonathan from Newspaper Group was the last child to leave. He was lucky enough to find out where our books were going to be placed on the bookshelves and to see the ‘Signed by the Author’ stickers go on. Jonathan and I share a secret here, but I am sure he won’t mind me telling you: it wasn’t just me who got to sign those extra copies, was it Jonathan – Jonathan did too!
Our school project is coming full circle: fourteen months ago at Newspaper Club some children asked if I could help them to write and to publish their own fiction book. That book has now been published. It’s sitting on its shelf in Waterstone’s. People are ordering if from the internet; people are buying it at craft events; people are walking into bookshops and ordering it direct. It’s almost come full circle. The question is, what do we do next? More of that later.
FOLLOW OUR TRAIL ……
Where am I this week? Where can you buy madaboutsnailbooks? We’re going to be popping up somewhere, so watch this space.
HOT NEWS!
We’ve just heard that Newsround has been in touch with the school about The Secret Scroll project. Now the children might get a mention on national TV! What a wonderful Christmas present that would make indeed.
INTERESTED IN WRITING PROJECTS?
If you are interested in hearing more about our school writing projects then please email Sarah Lucas on sarah@madboutsnailbooks.com