Strange as it sounds, writing is only part of writer’s life. For children’s writers,

library visits and school events are as important as publishing

the books.   I average between twenty and  forty school visits a year.  Mostly I can

get to the school and back home in a day but sometimes, like with my visit to

Ballymena, that’s impossible and I have to stay in an hotel. I don’t mind; it’s part

of the adventure but there’s always the problem of what to do after the sessions have finished.  I

am usually back in my hotel by half past three. What then?  I know for some writers it means getting straight

back to their work in progress but I’m too shattered. Instead, I go for a walk, buy the local newspaper and

find a cafe somewhere. No offence to the schools I visit but usually the coffee is instant and I need

an Americano with cream somewhere along the way.

After that, if the weather’s OK, I have a look round.  Ballymena town centre is a strange place in that

it doesn’t seem to have a centre; no natural point to which you gravitate. It did have a lot of barbers’ shops

though!                          

Back in the hotel, I’ll go to the restaurant and have my evening meal. Sometimes I

I am aware I’m the only woman dining on my own but I’m usually too engrossed in

a book to let it bother me.  I began ‘Then’ by Morris Gleitzman before my starter on

Wednesday and finished it over a pot of tea in the lounge by 8.00pm. I hope

nobody saw me crying at the sad bits!

At the end of a good visit I feel a sense of loss. School Librarians tend to be such warm-hearted

people and easy to get along with; David, Pamela, Jenny and Valerie were no exception this time. In fact,

everyone was really welcoming and I even got a proper coffee and a pancake at St Pius X school.

I must   apologise to the pupils at Slemish Integrated College because I didn’t get a photograph of

them.  I would also like to thank the two pupils at Groggon Primary, Chloe and Steven, for giving me their

precious stories to take home with me.  What an honour.

Chloe's story

Steven's diary

Things I’ll remember most about my three days in Ballymena:

1. Not understanding poor Ben when he told me his name. I kept calling him Berne!

2. The friendliness of the taxi drivers taking me to and from the cinema.

3. Having a whole row to myself in the cinema when I watched Slumdog Millionaire

4. The amazing display Alice put up ahead of my visit to St Pius X

5. The fit of giggles from my ’statue’ during the Danny Ogle extract at Carnaghts School

6. The great converstation with some of the Maine Integrated PS pupils about being scared

7. Miss McCosh’s name. I am so pinching that for a character!

OK. World Book Day next… Harrogate here I come!

I have just returned from three fabulous days of school visits in Ballymena. My thanks to the library services there for inviting me and looking after me so well.  Here are some pics to share:

Pamela from NEELB library services on the left and Alice, the librarian at St Pius X on the right

St Pius X pupils

8R Cambridge House Grammar School, Ballymena. Hello to 8A too!

P5,P6 & P7 at Carnaghts Primary School

P6 & P7 Maine Integrated Primary School

P6 & P7 Crumlin Primary School

P6 &P7 pupils at Groggan Primary School with teachers Mrs Hodsman and Miss McCosh

invitation to the launch

Do you know what? I’m not doing too bad for a girl who only got a grade 6 in GCE English Literature. That’s what I told myself last night anyway when I attended the launch to the updated edition of the Ultimate Book Guide.  If you haven’t come across this book in the reference section of your school library, check it out now. It’s a great resource for choosing a book or discovering a new author and jam-packed with reviews and tips on what to read next. There’s a website, too, on www.ultimatebookguide.com.  I’m proud to say my Simone series is included in this one and Saturday Girl (listed under its original title of Getting Rid of Karenna) in the version for teens. I also contributed to the Ultimate Teen Guide with reviews of Keeper by Mal Peet and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

The launch was held at the Groucho Club on Dean Street in London. Even the words ‘Groucho Club’ filled me with excitement (I don’t get out much). I had visions of high-backed leather chairs and men in smoking jackets but actually it was just a pleasant venue with bars and stripy carpets. But the people in attendance - now that was another thing altogether - that did exceed expectations. Had a bomb fallen on the Groucho Club that evening half the country’s top authors and illustrators would have been wiped out and I’m not even kidding…

It would be inappropriate, not to say boastful,  to run through the whole list of authors who were there but the highlights for me were meeting Jan Pienkowski and chatting to Yvonne Coppard and Cathy Hopkins.

On tonight’s agenda - a toss up between the ironing and Supersize v Superskinny on TV. Reality sucks.

Last October I was invited to speak at the launch of the Reading Champions initiative at the Nottingham Forest ground. Reading Champions was established by the Literacy Trust to encourage more boys to read. Ideas include using role models such as sports personalities to show what a cool thing reading is (for those who don’t already know!). The initiative is full of great ideas such as ‘Extreme Reading’ events, special assemblies where teachers, schools staff, parents and invited guests talk about their favourite books etc. It’s all good stuff.

Anyway, I gave my talk at the launch and offered the teachers in the audience an unpublished short story I’d written. The story, Go, Jordan, Go, is about a boy who doesn’t have a ‘thing’ when he scores a goal. The rest of his team do - they either zoom like an aeroplane or perform a cartwheel but Jordan doesn’t. He simply runs back to the centre spot to start again. ‘Use it in any way you like,’ I told them, ‘get the children to make it into a ‘proper’ book with a cover, illustrations, blurb etc or perhaps they could act it out/ make it into a film…

Two schools so far have taken me up on this offer. The first, Heathfield Primary & Nursery in Basford, invited me in to work with the Year 6 class. They wanted to present Go Jordan Go as a comic strip. Quite a challenge! Boy, what a busy time we had. My photocopied story was chopped up, glued down, chopped up again. Names were changed. Pictures were downloaded. There were debates about the cover; frustrated faces when printers wouldn’t work. It was noisy. It was terrific.
A few weeks later the class teacher, Mrs McQueen, sent me copies of the comics. I have them on my desk in front of me now. The class clearly put a lot of effort into the project. The illustrations are delightful, showing the kids have understood the text but it was the extra details I liked the most, such as the mini biographies on the back covers. Best of all there’s a sense that everyone enjoyed the project. Result!

The second school, Whitemoor Primary and Nursery used Go Jordan Go differently. Each year group participated this time and came up with their own way of presenting the story.   I was then invited to take a whole school assembly to present prizes. How proud the winners looked when I held out their work to show the rest of the school.  Quite right too. Wide and wonderful were the variations.  There were pop-up books containing footballs and goalposts that sprang out at you when you opened the page, some incredibly sophisticated drawings  and one class had acted out the story and used the digital images to make a photo-strip. Outstanding, guys!

This is what it’s all about, isn’t it? Enthusing kids? Making reading and writing a fun thing to do?

My thanks go to Heathfield and Whitmoor schools, not only for taking me up on my offer but in the wholehearted way they embraced it. I bet both schools produce the most reading Champions in Nottingham before the year’s out!

More information about Reading Champions can be found at www.readingchampions.org.uk

This week, Newcastle United footballer Charles N’Zogbia threatened to go on strike because his manager, Joe Kinnear insulted him by calling him ‘Insomnia’ in front of the nation on live TV. I watched that interview. What happened was Joe Kinnear, who, let’s face it, is no Barack Obama when it comes to speech-making,  became tongue-twisted. He had a stab at saying N’Zogbia, fluffed it, had another go, fluffed it again, changed N’Zogbia to ‘Insomnia’ and finally, with a rueful grin at his own ineptitude, resorted to ‘Charlie….’  My reaction, as a viewer, was to smile and to sympathise - with both Kinnear and N’Zogbia.

There’s no two ways about it; it is awkward having a foreign surname.  The unfamiliar combination of consonants and vowels scares people, especially people who have to introduce you to an audience. Librarians work themselves into quite a tizz about Pielichaty. ‘How do you say your name again?’ they ask with an anxious glint in their eyes. Responding ‘With difficulty’ isn’t helpful. ‘Pielichaty’ I tell them ‘Pierre as in the French for Peter, li- hatty.’  ‘Oh, not Peeli-chatty then?’  ‘No, not peelichaty or pearlichatty or pelickity. Pierre-li-hatty.’

After they have introduced me, I’ll give them a mark out of ten for effort.  I make a joke of it and if they get it wrong, I don’t mind because at least they had a go.  If I threatened to walk out of every school hall, library or festival where I was wrongly introduced, I’d never get to perform (no bad thing, some might mutter).

Now Kinnear’s interview may well have been the final straw for N’Zogbia. Who knows what else has been going on?  But if I were N’Zogbia, I’d cut the guy some slack. And look on the bright side. However many times people get your surname wrong it’s better than being called Pratt, isn’t it?