29 Mar 2012

Vernon Primary School SK12 1NW

'The children were so excited for the rest of the day'
I gave a talk and slideshow to the children in KS2 about using pictures with questions and imagination for creative writing and read some of my Kernowland in Erthwurld story.

I visited a class after the talk to see all the maps the children had made using the Kernowland books for inspiration and to share ideas on making maps with them.

Teacher, Lauren Williams, kindly wrote to Campion Books with a review of the visit. This helps other schools to know what happens so they can decide if they would like a FREE Jack Trelawny author visit to their school...
Can I take this opportunity to thank you on behalf of all the children and staff at Vernon for the talk by Jack yesterday. The children were so excited for the rest of the day and there was a really buzz as they were all sat reading their books, so thank you for organising this.

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See you next time in the Story House.

Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...
 

27 Mar 2012

Nelmes Primary School RM11 3BX

'I love the idea of the 13 objects book series'
Durer's Rhinoceros
I gave a talk and slideshow to the children in KS2 about my Kernowland in Erthwurld books.

In Question Time after the talk, I also told them a little about his new series of stories, Thirteen Things, which is inspired by 13 of the 100 objects in the BBC's 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'. The 13 Objects for children can also be seen if you visit the British Museum in London.

The first story in the new Thirteen Things series will be called, The Emperor's Rhinoceros. I'll be offering free visits to schools to show the children how I took the real object, Durer's Rhinoceros, and turned it into a story. Then teachers will be able to go straight from the talk back to class to look at the BBC website Lesson Plan (one plan for each of the 13 Objects).

The teacher who organised the event wrote to Campion Books with a review of the visit. This helps other schools to know what happens so they can decide if they would like a FREE Jack Trelawny author visit to their school...
I just wanted to say how much the children and staff enjoyed Jack's visit - the children were completely engaged and went away with some great ideas to use in their own writing! (Some teachers too!)
I love the idea of the 13 objects book series - please keep me informed about when Jack is available to give presentations linked to these books. 
Kind regards, Kamaldeep Dhillon

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See you next time in the Story House.

Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...
 

25 Mar 2012

Ideas for kids - Themes - Mutants

Jack Trelawny's Story House - Ideas for kids - Themes - Mutants

A Snowtapaws drawn by Ryan Charles of Westfield Primary School

A 'theme' is a big or main idea in a story that 'recurs', which means it keeps appearing again and again. One of the themes in the Kernowland in Erthwurld stories is 'mutationeering' - the science of making mutants. The scientists who make mutants in Erthwurld have been doing it for a thousand years. This allows my imagination to run wild as I try to think up the creatures the mutationeers might make by mixing up all the animals, plants, birds, fish, and insects from the real world. This gives me lots of creature and monster characters for my imaginary world. Sometimes I even add in mythical creatures to the mix, like dragons, so that I can get even more strange characters for the story.
 
This is Monstro, the Brazilian Brainboiler, a 'guard tree' mutant
who has twelve eyes to see in all directions, long branch arms to grab intruders with,
and a steaming cauldron for a belly with which he boils the brains of his victims.
This is Danglefang, the WolfSpider, a specialist mutant bred for hunting and catching runaway slave children.
He has eight eyes and eight legs, like a spider, and the nose and jaws of a wolf. 
He can run fast, climb walls, and spin a web to ensnare his victims in a sticky cocoon.
If Danglefang is after you, there is little chance of escape.
This is Octogon, the Octoplus, a giant mutant octopus
which attacks The Revenger when Tizzie is aboard. 
Octogon has eighty-eight legs and a giant beak for devouring his victims.
This is the Ratphael the Dungeon Master and his pack of rattweilers. Ratphael is part human, part rat.
He has infra-red eyes and a rat nose which help him find escaped children in the darkness of the tunnels.
His rattweilers also have infra-red eyes and a very keen sense of smell for sniffing out hiding children. 

When I go to school, I show children lots of pictures of imaginary creatures that could be made by mixing things up...

like a lepeagle...
...or a turtlekitten.
The children often make up their own mutants for their story writing after the visit to school.

Some of the children from Westfield Primary School sent me their mutant pictures. Their teacher helped them to make proper slides of the pictures with descriptions. You've already seen Ryan's 'snowtapaws' ...
How about these mutants to give you some ideas of your own (click on the images to make them bigger)...
 
 
 
 
 
 

To help you make your mutant character, it's often useful to first ask some important questions...

Which real animals, birds, fish, insects, or plants are going to be part of the mutant?
Which pretend creatures or monsters are going to be part of the mutant?
Will the mutant be nice and friendly and helpful?
Or will it be nasty and ferocious and deadly?
Where would the mutant live? A jungle? A desert? A cold place? A hot place?
Would the mutant crawl, walk, swim, or fly?
What would the mutant eat? Is it a hunter?
What would eat the mutant?

You could answer some of the questions by finding out as much as you can about real animals, birds, fish, insects, and plants. And you could find out about mutant creatures and monsters from stories to give you even more ideas. Don't forget to look at lots of pictures. If you get stuck trying to find the information and pictures, ask your teacher or another adult to help.

Good luck with searching for all your ideas for mutant characters.


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See you next time in the Story House.

Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...
 

21 Mar 2012

James Bradfield Primary School PE33 9QJ

'The pupils really enjoyed his talk'
I visited James Bradfield Primary School near King's Lynn, Norfolk, and gave a slideshow presentation and talk followed by a 'Meet the Author' booksigning event.

Afterwards, the school kindly reviewed the visit on their website. This helps other schools to know what happens so they can decide if they would like a FREE Jack Trelawny author visit to their school...

The author Jack Trelawny came to the school to discuss his books and characters. The pupils really enjoyed his talk.

Source: James Bradfield Primary School

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See you next time in the Story House.

Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...
 

16 Mar 2012

Holmemead Middle School - Pupil reviews

'Jack’s talk was a very imaginative presentation to help children create unusual characters and to write interesting stories.'
Holmemead Middle School
I visited Holmemead Middle School in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire on 9 March 2012 and gave a slideshow presentation and talk followed by a 'Meet the Author' booksigning event.

Afterwards, the school children and a teacher kindly reviewed the visit in their newsletter. This helps other schools to know what happens so they can decide if they would like a FREE Jack Trelawny author visit to their school...

HOLMEMEAD MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWSLETTER - 16.03.2012


Jack Trelawny visited our school on Friday 9th March. He came to get more children
into reading and writing better stories of their own. Jack Trelawny has been to over 700
schools. He started by introducing himself to the year 4’s (from Southlands), 5’s and 6’s. Jack then showed us some pictures of animals and plants. These were some of the pictures
that inspired him to write stories. Before he wrote stories, Jack went to the Eden Project
(Cornwall). This inspired him to create different animals and creatures, for example, the
cat-shark (half cat and half great white shark), and the elephant-seal (which was a seal
with the head of an elephant). I thought that Jack’s talk was a very imaginative presentation to help children create unusual characters and to write interesting stories. It helped me to make up strange and interesting characters for a story.
Written by: Matthew Pittkin (6CMA)


On Friday the 9th March a writer called Jack Trelawny came into school to tell Key Stage 2 about the stories he has written. These are based on two children called Tizzie and Louis who are brother and sister. Tizzie is nearly 11 and Louis is 7 and 3/4. The stories are set in Cornwall on the beach whilst they are on holiday, Louis finds a cave and that is where the story begins. Jack Trelawny’s books are very mythical and he told us how he comes up with the mythical creatures. He researches things that people don’t know a lot about and mixes them together, and then he creates his mythical characters. Some of his books I recommend are... Darkness Day, Pigleg's Revenge and Slavechildren.
Written by: Olivia Whitby (5LH)

Our World Book Day author visit went extremely well, many purchased Jack Trelawney’s books on the day, which were personally signed. Following his visit pupils are now well into reading the ‘Kernowland’ series, they are enjoying them thoroughly. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who purchased a book from Jack. His visit was a 
voluntary one, so the book sales were the icing on the cake. If anyone would still like to purchase any of Jack’s books you can get an order form from the Library.
Mrs Sharp

Website: Holmemead Middle School


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See you next time in the Story House.

Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...
 

14 Mar 2012

Ideas for kids - Origami

Jack Trelawny's Story House - Ideas for kids - Origami
Akira Yoshizawa with some of his origami models

Akira Yoshizawa (14 March 1911 – 14 March 2005) was a 'grandmaster of origami', which means he was one of the best ever at making models from paper. He said he had probably created more than 50,000 models. Only a few hundred of the designs were put into his 18 books. Today, 14 March 2012, a Google Doodle has been made to celebrate the 101st anniversary of his birth.


Mr Yoshizawa started folding paper as a very young boy. Later, when it was his job to teach people geometry, he used origami as a teaching tool to make the lessons easier to understand. How cool is that?!


To get started on a story, it's always useful to first ask the important questions...

Who is going to be in the story? (Characters)
Where is the story going to be? (Setting - Place)
When is the story going to take place? (Setting - Time)
What is going to happen? (Plot)

You could answer some of the questions from Mr Yoshizawa's real life, to give you ideas for the story before you start writing. You could get some information about Mr Yoshizawa's real life from doing a search on the internet. Don't forget to search 'Images' as well so you can see some great pictures of the origami models he created. Looking at lots of pictures can often give you good ideas for a story. There are some great videos to watch, which show you how to make some of the origami models. You could ask your teacher or another adult to find a good origami video for you.
Now that I've found out lots of the real facts about Mr Yoshizawa's life, I've started my story below. I've made a 'working title' (which I can always change later if I think of a better one). I've also decided what type of story it's going to be - it's going to be a fairytale. And I've found out what is usually included in fairytales, such as, special words at the beginning, an innocent good person (hero), talking animals or objects, a royal person (like an emperor or a queen), some magic, monsters (dragons, ogres, creatures), a very evil villain, and a 'twist' or two to surprise the person reading it. I never worry that I'm getting all the words right to start with because I know that I can change things later. The important thing is to get started on writing something that I like reading back to myself. If I like it, the chances are there will be some other people who like it as well! So, here goes...

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Akira and the Origami Monsters

A long time ago, in a land of many mountains called, Japan, there lived a boy who made monsters by folding paper into shapes.


Akira had hundreds of monsters, and they all lived with him in his bedroom. Some of the monsters sat on the shelves, others stood on the floor, whilst those with wings were suspended on threads from the ceiling. A few of the monsters, those that Akira was least proud of, were hidden away in an old wooden box under his bed.


Akira was very happy at school and a very good student, but, every afternoon, he ran home as fast as he his legs would carry him, so that he could make as many new monsters as possible before bedtime.


Then, one stormy day, something happened when Akira came home from school that would change his life forever...

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You might like to continue this story using my beginning or start a completely different story of your own with a different title. If you chose to continue this story, do you think an evil villain might use magic to make the monsters come alive? If so, would the monsters in the box feel cross with Akira for making them live in the dark box under the bed?

Whatever you choose to do, I think a really important thing is to have fun doing it.

Try having a smile on your face when you are writing about good characters or happy events, and a nasty frown on your face when you're writing about evil characters or terrible events.



See you next time in the Story House.

Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...