Month: January 2013
The Kitschies and Other Tentacles
A month ago, my boyfriend and I went on a shore dive in Madeira. The water was cold and foggy with silt, and the swell was fierce, doing its best to grate us against the rocks. We didn’t care – when we came up again we were grinning.
We’d just seen our first wild octopus.
Maybe this was a good omen, because a couple of days ago I found out that A Face Like Glass is on the shortlist for the Kitschies‘ Red Tentacle award!
Here you can read a Guardian article written in admiration of the Kitschies. (There’s also a fine picture of the Kitschies’ patron monster, the Kraken, in the process of devouring a galleon canapé.)
The (wonderfully varied) 2012 shortlist itself is here. The other books on the list look fascinating…
Kid’s Literature Quiz Final – 6th December
My role at the Kid’s Literature Quiz Final was very easy. I just had to support a team from a school in my area. (‘Supporting’ involved smiling hopefully on the sidelines whilst the team did the hard work, and trying to pretend that I would have been able to answer all the questions.)
I was lucky enough to be supporting the team from The Cherwell School, shown here looking surprisingly chilled despite the fact that the quiz was about to start.
All teams involved were razor-sharp, and gave a good account of themselves. The Cherwell School team were awesome, pouncing on the buzzer to give correct answers on books like Michael Grant’s “Gone” after mere fragments of the question, and identifying Ebeneezer Scrooge from only seven words of the description. After an incredibly closely fought contest they took the second prize.
Congratulations also to Cockermouth School for winning the contest, and to all the other teams for a bravura display of literary knowledge. Many thanks to everybody who helped to organise such an enjoyable event!
Northern Children’s Book Festival
In mid-November I headed north for two days, to take part in the Northern Children’s Book Festival.
The Thursday was spent at Castleview Enterprise Academy. You can tell the building has been built recently, because it’s got that clean, shiny, new-building look, like unscuffed shoes. The main foyer has a zigzag path marked into the carpet, a bit like the Yellow Brick Road, which makes you want to follow it even though you don’t have to.
I talked to three different groups of students. (Some even sat through it twice, without yawning.) Lots of good questions.
On Friday morning, I visited St Joseph’s Highfield. After my talk I ran a workshop, in which the group of thirty-one students rose to the task of creating a setting with huge enthusiasm and inventiveness. Soon we had a volcanic island featuring a legendary firebird, a cave of zombies, pirates, Swedish-speaking hunters whose chief rode a Tyrannosaurus Rex, sacred bananas, miniature people living in treehouses, monkey-infested jungle, a giant parrot, a beach where the Statue of Liberty had washed up, and much more.
My last stop was at Heworth Grange, where I was placed on a very grand auditorium stage. While two hundred students filed into their seats, a loudspeaker played ‘Rolling in the Deep’ on high volume (which made me a feel a bit like a rockstar gearing up for a gig).
Fortunately I didn’t sing, so there were no riots. (Actually the audience treated me very well, and had lots of good questions.)
