27 Apr 2012

Bank Leaze Primary School BS11 0SN

'Staff and children all enjoyed the pirate themed day'
I visited Bank Leaze Primary School in Bristol and gave a slideshow presentation and talk followed by a 'Meet the Author' booksigning event. Many schools choose to have a 'Pirate' theme on the day of the visit as this is an opportunity for the children to dress up, have some fun, and learn something at the same time. I think the teachers quite like dressing up too!

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...

This year, for World Book Day, Bank Leaze had an extra special guest to share World Book Day with. The whole school was lucky to have a visit from author Jack Trelawny who shared an extract from one of his books and spoke to the children about where he finds inspiration for characters and storylines. Jack also took time to sign copies of books for the children. Staff and children all enjoyed the pirate themed day from the assembly with Jack Trelawny to the pirate themed activities in class.

Source: Bank Leaze Primary School

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See you next time in the Story House.


Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...
 

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Location: Bank Leaze Primary School, Corbett Close, Lawrence Weston, Bristol BS11 0SN, UK

26 Apr 2012

Seven Stories - a charity promoting children's literature - support needed

Seven Stories is a charity promoting children's literature. If you can, once you've read the article, you may like to support them...
Former Children's Laureate, Jacqueline Wilson
Seven Stories is Britain's gallery and archive that celebrates the wonderful world of children’s books. It is the national home of children's books.
The centre takes its name from the idea that there are only seven basic plots in stories (What happens - see fourth floor of the Story House), and the fact that its home is a renovated Victorian mill with seven levels.

Established authors, such as Michael Rosen and Jacqueline Wilson, support this charity.
Former Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen, engaging a young reader
The following is taken from the Seven Stories website...

Seven Stories celebrates the art of children's books, their place in our childhood and in our culture.

The centre opened on the 19th August 2005, to showcase a national collection of manuscripts and illustrations of some of the UK's finest authors and illustrators for children.

They select original artwork and manuscripts - from first scribbles to finished work -  to make their exhibitions, events, and learning programmes.

Exhibitions currently on show are - A Squash and a Squeeze: Sharing Stories with Julia Donaldson and Daydreams and Diaries: the Story of Jacqueline Wilson.

Seven Stories is a registered charity, supported by Arts Council England and Newcastle City Council, and relies upon grants and voluntary donations. If you would like to support their work, find out how.

The main Seven Stories website is here
http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/

For a more detailed description and explanation about Seven Stories (The Centre for Children's Books), visit the following link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Stories

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See you next time in the Story House.

Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...
 

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Location: Seven Stories, Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2PQ

The Paragon Junior School BA2 4LT

'presented a wonderful slideshow' ... 'an amusing and inspiring presenter'
I visited The Paragon Junior School in Bath 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...

27.04.2012
Jack Trelawny, the author and 'Edutainer' visited us this week and presented a wonderful slide show to the school. He was an amusing and inspiring presenter and we hope the children are further motivated in their own story writing!

Source: The Paragon School - Junior School


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See you next time in the Story House.


Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...
 

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Location: The Paragon Junior School, Bath and North East Somerset BA2 4LT, UK

23 Apr 2012

World Book Night - 23 April 2012 - One Million Books being given away

Tonight is World Book Night - 23 April 2012 - A million reasons to read a book
About World Book Night
The following text is taken from the World Book Night website...

World Book Night is a celebration of reading and books which sees tens of thousands of passionate volunteers gift books in their communities to share their love of reading.

In 2012 World Book Night will be celebrated in the UK, Ireland, Germany and USA on April 23.

In the UK, 20,000 passionate readers will gift 24 copies of one of their favourite books to encourage those who don't regularly read to fall in love with reading. In addition World Book Night will be giving a further 620,000 books over the course of the year directly to the hardest to reach readers through prisons, care homes, hospitals, sheltered housing, homeless shelters, libraries and through other partner charities.



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See you next time in the Story House.


Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...
 

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Stories by kids - The Mysterious Egg by Jack Weir

Jack Trelawny's Story House - Stories by kids - The Mysterious Egg by Jack Weir
I received a great story written by Jack Weir from Jellyfish Class. I've scanned it for everyone to see below. (If you can't read the text, click on the image of the page and then you can zoom to see it better.)
I liked the fact that the story is typed because that makes it easy to read all the words. A long time ago, someone very wise advised me to learn to type properly. I did a special course to learn to type using all my fingers. This has turned out to be very good advice because a writer needs to be able to type quickly.

Even if you don't want to be a writer, learning to type using all your fingers is great for computer work.

I really enjoyed reading Jack Weir's story. It made me want to read on to find out what happens next. I think that's one of the important features of good stories, they make you wonder what will happen next so you want to read on and turn the pages.

The story has a good structure - a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning and end are shorter than the middle. 

I also liked the fact that Jack has used line spaces between blocks of text to show when there is a new paragraph.

Jack had found some great pictures to illustrate his story and chosen the places in the text that he wanted to put the pictures.

I also think Jack has used adjectives and adverbs very well. If you don't know what those words mean, ask your teacher or another person who might know. Or you could try to find out what the words adjective and adverb mean by yourself.

I wondered what the story should be called, in other words, what should the title be? Because Jack used the word 'mystery' at the very beginning of the story, just before he found the 'egg' (the object or thing that the story is mainly about), I thought 'The Mysterious Egg' would be a good title. Of course, it's Jack Weir's story and he should be the one to give it the proper title; but that one will do for me for now until I hear from Jack.

When this story was given to me there wasn't any more information about Jack Weir, like which school he's from or which year he was in when he wrote the story. If you know, could you send me an email and tell me so I can put his school and year group on this Story House article.

If you have a story, letter, or picture you'd like to send me, you can email it to: jacktrelawny@gmail.com


Or, you can post things to:

Jack Trelawny's Story House
Campion Books
2 Lea Valley House
Stoney Bridge Drive
Waltham Abbey
Essex EN9 3LY
United Kingdom



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See you next time in the Story House.


Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...
 

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Location: London, UK

22 Apr 2012

Ideas for kids - London Marathon 2012 News story

Jack Trelawny's Story House - London Marathon 2012 - A 'News' or 'Reporting' type of story
A golfing friend of mine has a grown-up daughter who is a teacher. She is running in the London Marathon today to raise money for charity. Things like this, happenings and experiences (see the second floor of the Story House) in your own life, can give you ideas for stories. In this case, it's a chance to do a News or Reporting type of story - like a journalist.

For all types of story, whether they're about real people and events or pretend things, I use the Story House to remind me of the elements (parts) that might need to be included in the story.
Jack Trelawny's Story House - click image to enlarge
It's a real story about real people and events, so I need to find out some real facts (see the second floor of the Story House).

Who (see top floor) - I made a list of the 'characters' who might be included in the story...
1. Who is the oldest runner?
2. Who is the youngest runner?
3. How many people are taking part?
4. Are there any unusual or newsworthy characters taking part?

Where (see top floor) - I started asking where or 'place' questions...
1. Where would the runners run? In other words, what is the route of the marathon?
2. Where are the different starting places for different types of runners - fast athletes, amateurs, disabled?
2. Where in the world (that is, which countries) do the competitors come from?

When (see top floor) - 'time' questions...
1. What date will the marathon take place?
2. When is the exact start time?

Other questions...
There are lots of other questions I would ask and lots more facts I would find out about before I started my news report story. In this type of story, it's important that anything you write down as a fact is actually true and real, so be careful to make sure you find out your facts and other information from good sources.

Some of the things I found out for my News Report story...

1. The oldest runner starting the London 2012 Marathon race was Mr Fauja Singh.
Fauja Singh - 101 years old
Some people writing about this story wondered whether (see third floor) Mr Singh was actually 101 years old. He did get a telegram from the Queen for his 100th birthday last year so he may indeed be that age.

2. More than 35,000 people were going to run the race.
3. Lots of runners were running to support a good cause, such as the disabled children's charity KIDS.
4. Some people dressed up in fancy dress to run the race.
5. Lots of celebrities took part, including singer, Will Young.
6. Member of Parliament, Ed Balls, ran to raise funds for the charities Whizz-Kidz and Action for Stammering Children.
7. One of the the contestants, wheelchair athlete David Weir, won for the sixth time.
8. The man and woman who won the men's and women's races were both from Kenya.
9. Prince Harry was there to congratulate the winners.

IDEA: Someone very wise once said that 'practice makes perfect'. In other words, if you want to become very good at something, you need to practice, practice, practice. You could practice writing a News Report story about the London Marathon 2012 by starting with some of the ideas and information above. When you've had a go yourself, you could show it to your teacher so they can tell you how you have done.

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See you next time in the Story House.


Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...
 

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Location: London, UK

20 Apr 2012

Ideas for schools - Objects from Shakespeare's world

Jack Trelawny's Story House - Ideas for schools - Things from the time of William Shakespeare
'Things' or 'objects' from museums (see the first floor of the Story House) can provide lots of ideas for stories. The exhibition of 13 objects for children at the British Museum - from the BBC4 radio series, A History of the World in 100 Objects - is the inspiration for my forthcoming series of books, Thirteen Things.
There is a series of podcasts on BBC Radio 4 at the moment that brings Shakespeare's time to life using objects.
It's called Shakespeare's Restless World and is presented by British Museum Director, Neil MacGregor.
The 20-part series of podcasts looks at the world through the eyes of Shakespeare's audience by exploring objects from that turbulent period in history.
Each of the podcast episodes is quite short, generally less than 15 minutes. The series is essentially aimed at adults but there's potential for story ideas in school (see other links below).
Other Shakespeare links:
BBC / British Museum - Shakespeare's Restless World - Video clips
BBC - Primary History - Famous People - William Shakespeare
BBC - KS3 - English - Shakespeare - Set scenes

A History of the World in 100 Objects / 'Thirteen Things' links
CBBC Relic: Guardians of the Museum A video game involving a hunt for 13 of the 100 Objects
BBC Primary History - World History - 13 Objects - Lesson Plans
Schools Factsheet - a teacher's guide to how schools can get involved in the joint BBC / British Museum 'A History of the World' project

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See you next time in the Story House.


Happy writing... and reading!

Jack
Links...
 

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Location: London, UK
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