and the winners are...

Who says boys don’t read?  Dewsbury Town Hall was teeming with them last night and it was an all-boys squad from Roundhay School in Leeds that won the Yorkshire heat of the Kids’ Lit Quiz  with a whopping 78% of questions answered correctly.  That’s impressive - some of those questions were obscure and impossible (in other words, I didn’t know the answers).

The result wasn’t quite how I’d planned it, obviously. The cup was meant to be waved about in a happy but non-triumphant manner by readers-cum-Huddersfield Town supporters (i.e. Kirkburton School) but it was not to be.  Roundhay were just too good on the night. I hope it’s not an omen. We play Leeds soon…

What a great event  though.  If you don’t know what happens at these things, here goes.  First of all, schools need to get a team together so librarians pounce on any kid walking down the corridor who has borrowed more than two books from the library that term and asks them ‘Who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? If they get the answer right, they’re in the team. It’s as simple as that.

On the day there’s a minibus to take them to a town hall/arts centre/suitable venue. If they’ve got a kind librarian, she’ll have a packet of Rich Tea biscuits to keep you going through the quiz. You’ll need them. Trust me on this one.

On arrival, the organisers (in this instance, Kirklees Library Services) welcome you with more Rich Tea biscuits and a carton of Kia Ora (no expense is spared at these things) and you are escorted to your table. In the Yorkshire heat, because we’re posh in the north, the tables had white tablecloths.

Danum School, Doncaster at the ready. With table cloth!

Then the man in the black hat, Mr Wayne Mills, the Kiwi brain behind the KLQ, picks up his microphone and we’re off.  The first of ten questions on a specific category - lets say Books by Famous Children’s Authors with a Polish/Russian/Yorkshire background for example - are belted out.  Answers are scribbled down, crossed out, written down again and before you know it Wayne’s asking for the sheet to be ripped from the booklet and handed in.

Librarians suddenly loom from every corner of the hall, snatching the sheets from the team captains’ hands faster than mechanics changing tyres at a  pit-stop before dashing to other, less fit, librarians waiting at a long table by the stage to mark the answers.

While they tick and cross and guffaw, Wayne asks a bonus question to keep the teachers watching at the back from texting and thumping each other.  They love it but take an inordinately long time for them to answer some of the questions (told you they were hard). Then the winners of round one appear on a screen. The tension mounts but not too much because it’s time for Round Two which may or may not be on the subject of Books about Giraffes.  And so it goes on for TEN rounds with a 20 minute break in the middle for teams to finish their Kia Ora and stare at the guest author.

A mere three hours later the scores are totted up, the top three teams are announced and everyone congratulates them.  The winners come up to receive their awards and the teams return to their minibuses for more Rich Tea biscuits muttering ‘I told you it was Michael Morpurgo!’ to each other.  Apart from the winners, of course, who need to start swotting straight away because they go through to the grand final of the regional heats at the end of November in Oxford.  ‘Never mind polishing that cup!  What’s the S stand for in CS Lewis? their librarian fires at them as she pulls on to the M62.

Best of luck, Roundhay.  Win it for Yorkshire, lads. No pressure.

Huddersfield Town

I’ve never been a big fan of Bonfire Night - you’re either freezing cold or boiling hot depending on your distance from the fire - so I’m happy to be doing something way more exciting. I’m attending the Kirklees heat of the Kids Lit Quiz in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

The Kids Lit Quiz started in New Zealand and has been going for a few years now. Basically, it’s like junior University Challenge but all the questions are about children’s books.

I’ll be rooting for all the schools tonight but will aim to fix it so that the team made up of the most Huddersfield Town supporters wins. You read it here first, folks. Stay posted.

A massive hello to everyone from Holy Family Catholic Primary and St Gregory’s Catholic Primary who came to see me in Borders bookshop yesterday.  What fabulous classes you were!  You listened when you were meant to be listening, you didn’t get distracted by all the other things going on around us and best of all you laughed at my rubbish jokes. I like that!

I was impressed by everyone who joined in, too, especially the headteacher from Holy Family who made a fabulous cheerleader and the boy from St Gregory’s who demonstrated the Cruyff Turn to perfection.  And Charlie… sorry about the Danny Ogle Justout thing. Hope you’ve recovered.

Thanks also to the staff at Borders, especially Hazel and Colette, for looking after me so well and putting on such an arresting display of posters and books. It made my day.

This is what I looked like last time I was in Preston!

OK, this is what you might call ’short notice’ but I’m at Borders bookshop in Preston tomorrow talking to school kids about my two new Girls FC books ‘Who Ate all the Pies? and What’s Ukrainian for Football? from 1.30 - 2.30 then hanging around looking needy and desperate, perhaps dusting a few shelves for another hour and a half after that i.e. until 4.00pm - ish).

Come and say hello.  Or better still, come and say hello, buy a book, have a signed postcard AND get some leftover Halloween sweets.  Yes, leftover - nobody came trick or treating this year. I guess the Rottweilers outside the gate worked then, huh?

This is the second Girls FC title being released this week and it’s the one that made my editors cry.  Now that’s an accolade!  I’m proud of this one, too. It’s my first novel using a real event from the past; in this instance a football match that became known as The Match of Death.

In my story, Nika and her family have come to live in England from the Ukraine so they can look after their ailing Uncle Stanislav.

Nika finds some of the language and customs in England difficult to grasp but she is happy in school and even happier on the football team. When Hannah, the coach, invites her to join them on a ‘World Cup’ tournament at the seaside, she is delighted.

As the draw is made for which team will get which country, the tension grows. Naturally, all the Parrs want England. Instead they get… Ukraine. Jenny-Jane is especially cutting about their given team. ‘Lame Ukraine,’ she says, ‘what have they ever won?’

Upset, Nika phones her uncle. ‘What have they ever won?’ he thunders. ‘Something more important than the world cup!’ he tell her.  What unfolds is the heartbreaking story of FC Start. When Nika re-tells her uncle’s version to the team, the atmosphere changes. Even Jenny-Jane can’t believe what happened in the name of football.

Read it and weep.  Walker Books November 3rd £4.99.

For grown ups, the story of FC Start is told by Andy Dougan in ‘Dynamo, defending the honour of Kiev’ (4th Estate).

Who Ate All The Pies?

I love this book!  It’s about ten year old Holly Woolcock. Holly is the Parrs’ stalwart defender; tough, solid and resilient at the back. She lives with her dad Andy a lorry driver and her step-mum Tracie who is a lunchtime supervisor at a primary school.

Holly has a great relationship with her dad - after all, it was just the two of them for years until he met Tracie.  They go everywhere together including the home games at Leicester City every other Saturday.  The best bit, as far as Holly is concerned, being the fish and chips before the match, the sweets during and the Chinese take-away after!  The treats are all part of the ritual.

The trouble is all those take-aways add up and both Holly and her Dad are overweight.  ‘We’re just big boned,’ Dad says. ‘Yeah, big bones covered in chocolate,’ Holly laughs.

But when one of the opposition team calls her names during a match Holly is upset, even though she hides it. To make matters worse, she thinks skinny-bones Tracie is trying to trick her into dieting and as if that wasn’t bad enough, Holly arrives at training one day and instead of drills she finds they’re having a talk on - guess what - HEALTHY EATING.  Was everybody ganging up on her?  If so they could get lost because she liked being like she was, didn’t she?  As far as Holly is concerned everybody can butt out and concentrate on other things, like voting for the end of season players’ player of the year for instance…

This is a great book that covers a sensitive issue.  Read how Holly deals with having ‘big bones covered in chocolate’ and let me know what you think.

Out November 3rd.  Walker Books £4.99