Joss Abbs Brown shares his thoughts on MCBF 2015

By Joss Abbs Brown

In 2015 Manchester held their yearly celebration of children’s books at Manchester Children's Book Festival (MCBF). Last year in 2014 it was a great two weeks of events but this year they surpassed themselves. It was a brilliant programme of events that I and many other families enjoyed.

There were many inspirational authors such as Alex Wheatle and James Dawson who each rose and battled their own personal obstacles to achieve their dream which shows how we can do or be anything we want to be when we try. Alex Scarrow also had to overcome personal difficulties. At first he had no job or qualifications as he dropped out of school at the age of 16, but finally managed to secure work as a game designer. In a few years he rose and started to preview his own game designs and had to try and persuade his bosses to create his games. However his ideas were all rejected so eventually he gave up his job and began to write. He soon became the great author we now know him as. He used some of his game ideas in his now famous series Time Riders.

There have also been poetry events where poets came to hold open mic events. The floor was open for adults and children to read their favourite poem. I also performed at this reading “I opened a Book” by Julia Donaldson which for me sums up what books and poems are all about, becoming immersed in an imaginary world.

One of the poets, Dominic Berry, believed I did very well which shows how supportive Manchester Children's Book Festival is. I am hoping that next year will be just as brilliant. I really love coming to the varied events and it is very good how it inspires young people to read. I have really enjoyed the Poetry sessions and have written my own poem in which I have tried to sum up some of the great authors I have met and stories and poems I have been introduced to. I would like to thank the organisers, James Draper and Kaye Tew. I hope you like my poem.

A WRITER’S WORLD

(To celebrate the Manchester Children’s Book Festival/MCBF)

A pen, a quill,

A windowsill,

To look upon the world,

A word, a page

A powerful mage,

A new world unfurled.

Travelling through time, travelling through

Wars, opening hidden mysterious doors,

Travelling to a long and distant land.

Saved from hell, saved from death,

Saved from a fatal, chilling breath,

Rescued by a powerful, wizened old hand.



A tear, a laugh,

An uncertain path,

With one desperate choice.

A trapped liccle boy, a monster’s

Toy, with no public voice.



A scared boy, a boy who is gay,

A boy who has something important to say,

A boy who has a deep but forbidden love.

A boy who wants friends, a boy that has hope,

A boy who needs an escape rope,

To fly finally free like the dove.



A Goblin boy, A Goblin Wizard,

Who could conjure up a blizzard,

His powers only work by kindness

To another.

His powers will falter, his powers will fail,

Like a piece of food gone stale,

If he does not show compassion said his Grandmother.



A tale about a strange girl,

Which would make you hurl,

With some strange creatures that lurk,

A figment of imagination, an illusion,

An intrusion, hidden in her mind’s

Darkness and murk.



Poems a song of love, a symphony of words,

A flock of flying, beautiful birds,

Created by a powerful mind.

A land to escape, a place to refresh,

To escape the encumbering mesh,

And to leave worries and problems behind.



Joss Abbs-Brown

Age 11

Young Journalists Blog Multi-cultural Manchester

 

By Taha, Areeba and Atiya from Whalley Range High School
 

Multiculturalism throughout Manchester has been expressed through the form of written art and has been shown in the Manchester children’s book festival on 30^th June. The cultural diversity has been expressed through the city in many different ways and on 30^th June, many activities and events took place.

The audience was filled with excitement and chatter as Mandy Coe first took the stage by sharing her experiences, saying that poetry should be for children than for adults and that poetry for children is running out and not expressed as much. She then introduced Poetry By Heart where young poets read out poems by heart. She then welcomed four young poets on the stage. Personally, I think this was the best part, listening to other people in our age group reading out poetry, which potentially could inspire us in the future.

Next was the first female poet Laureate Dame Carol Ann Duffy. She read out inspirational poetry including the poetry that was banned for the use in schools. The poem talks about violence: a teenager killing, however it has nothing negative but we have to interpret in a positive and meaningful kind of way. She read out a poem that involved the audience: Elvis, Shakespeare, Picasso and Virginia Wolf, adding, “Probably one of the highlights of my life as a poet is standing here and watching people scream Virginia Wolf at me.” 

Next up was Imtiaz Dharker. Her poems had a very wide span of unique topics, ranging from pomegranates to being ‘Over the Moon’, which kept the audience hooked to them. Some of the poems she read out were quite amusing, such as the ‘Dabba Dialogue’ or, ‘Tiffin-Box Talks’. This poem in particular was written from the point of view of a tiffin-box. Her choice of words make her poems really interesting and fun to listen to. I personally thought it was a really good experience and a very engaging event. 

After the poetry event we went over to the other event taking place. There we watched a one-woman play about a girl called Gabrielle, who lived on a small island in the Caribbean. It portrayed how Gabrielle’s life was like in the Caribbean’s, and how drastically it changed after she travelled to England, on a boat ride that took 20 days. Her new life in England was already off to a rocky start, being cramped on a ship for 20 days, so you can imagine how it must have been later on. It showed her struggle to find a proper job and home amongst the racial Britons of that time.

All in all, it was a very inspirational day. I learned new things, and I’m very happy that I had the chance to take part in such an event.

Avani Reads Shark in the Dark

Avani Richardson aged 22 months reads one of her favourite books Shark in the Dark by Nick Sharratt.

  

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Letting in the Stars of Children's Poetry at Wellfield Infant and Nursey School Book Club Group

MOONSHINE

The sun lights the moon to make it shine
Moonshine,
Moonshine,
Moonshine shine.

A mouse ate the moon,
It made it fat
Moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine shine

Werewolves come out and howl at the night
Moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine shine.

Spirits creep through dark midnight
Moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine shine.

You go blind if you stare at it
Moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine shine.

Moonshine sets and the sun is bright
Moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine shine.

By Wellfield Infant and Nursery School Book Club Group


***


THIS IS THE END 
This is the end,
Where horses gallop
And poetry sings,
Where mountains blow
To the rhythm of oceans,
Heartbeats thunder,
Flowers drift
Midnight stops.
This is the end.

By Wellfield Infant and Nursery School Book Club Group

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Pigs Can't Fly Or Can They?

Pigs Can’t Fly is a exciting new picture book, written by Anand S and illustrated by Izzy Bean. It is a heart warming tale about a a little pig, named Zig. Zig wants to fly more than anything. But Zig is repeatedly told, “Pigs can walk, pigs can run, but pigs can’t fly.” The question is: ‘Will Zig prove the doubters wrong?’

Anand S tells us,

“I am excited about the release of book as it conveys an important message in an entertaining manner. The message is that dreams can come true if you put the effort in. I hope that it will help children see their abilities as something that can be developed through effort. I would like to thank my family, my friends, the writers’ club and the illustrator for helping me to create this book.”

Anand S was born in India, in 1985. He moved to England aged 10. Anand S studied Medicine at the University of Cambridge. While training to be a surgeon, he discovered a passion for writing so he exchanged the scalpel for the pen.

“For me, making the learning experience enjoyable is important. I believe that children are more likely to learn, if they are having fun. This is why, I try to create stories that are funny, humorous and imaginative.”

Pigs Can't Fly is available for purchase from the Amazon bookstore. For more information on the author and/or activities inspired by the book characters visit www.storytime.website.

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Ciara Reads Her Favourite Book

Here's a video of Ciara reading her favourite book The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids - an oldie but a classic!

Ciara is 8 years old and has started to enjoy reading for pleasure. She particularly likes to read to her little brother.

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Joss Reviews the RNCM Musical Family Fun Day

By Joss Abbs-Brown, age 11

On Sunday 28th of June 2015 the RNCM held a great event linked with the Manchester Children's Book Festival, consisting of various different workshops and activities. It was a wonderful day for families of all ages and races. 

My Mum and I enjoyed one of the hilarious high-lights of the day as Nick Sharratt (a famous illustrator for over 50 Jacqueline Wilson books and many Julia Donaldson stories) took to the stage to entertain. 

There were many jokes and laughs as we sang, danced, and drew with him on our special journey. On the way we met honking elephants, cool koalas and animals playing instruments; listened to music performed by a small but talented band of players and sang with Nick Sharratt. We met a rocking caterpillar and some very funny sheep and found some very peculiar pants!

At the end we managed to get some books signed and got some friendly advice about becoming an illustrator. The overall event was interactive and a great start to the Manchester Children's Book Festival; a huge thank you to everyone who organised this event!

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, event and book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Fairy Cloaks

 

By Alicia Wright

Do you read fairy tales? I do. For one thing, they are often quite silly and thus great parody fodder. But another reason is that they are an interesting window into the cultures of the past.

It is particularly fascinating to me when the same tale crops up in different times and different countries. One such tale involves a fairy cloak. The basic version goes like this;

A man is walking in the woods when he comes across some fairy women bathing in a pool. The fairies' cloaks are hung up on a tree nearby. He steals one and hides it. He's a jerk like that.

The fairies get out and get dressed, but one is left behind, searching for her missing cloak. The man approaches her and asks her to marry him. She has little choice but to accept.

(Most versions do not tell you this but if you take a fairy's cloak they have to do as you say. This was probably such a basic fact to the original storytellers that they did not include it, as one would not bother saying why a vampire would be stopped by a barrier of garlic today.)

Years later, the fairy woman figures out where her cloak is hidden from the songs of her children. She takes it and flies back home.

This legend exists in many forms all over the world. In Britain we have tales of selkies and swan maidens who have cloaks made of seal skin and swan feathers respectively. In Scandinavia there are valkyries with cloaks made of raven feathers. In Japan, there is the tennyo or 'heavenly maiden' and her hagoromo or 'feather mantle'. In African tales, it is an elephant skin cloak.

As fairy tales and folklore are the basis for much of my work I have several cloak-using characters. One of them is Erlina, a fairy princess from my book Miss Prince. I have made a replica of her cloak as a raffle prize for the Manchester Children's Book Festival Family Fun Day this Saturday! Come along to my stall to buy tickets, Miss Prince and other goodies.

Alicia L. Wright is the author of YA comic fantasies Eggs, Butter, Sugar and Disaster, published in 2011 and Miss Prince, published in 2014. You can download free samples of both books from her publisher's website. In her spare time Alicia also draws a webcomic based on Miss Prince and its sequels called Vampires Don't Belong in Fairytales. You can find her on: Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, deviantART and Tumblr.

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Meet Astro Fred!

This is the story
of Astronaut Fred,
who travels the stars
in his spaceship bed.

Meet Astro Fred, a daring young adventurer who travels through space meeting mysterious monsters and exploring exciting new worlds. Join his first escapade as he reaches the moon – but who does he meet and what dangers will they face?

Designed to be read at nighttime and educate during the day, Astro Fred is an innovate story that has been created to spark the imagination and inspire young minds. Furthermore, with literacy rates consistently lower for boys, it is hoped that Astro Fred can help to address the balance and get more boys interested in reading.

Author Paul Tildesley says that the key inspiration for writing Astro Fred was his children: “My kids are always running around with these wonderful ideas and creating imaginative games. I wanted to make something to feed this imagination and give back some of the fun they’ve given to me.”

With the act of reading aloud to his children being a key part of Paul’s day, he wanted Astro Fred to be a book that the whole family can enjoy. With illustrations inspired by 1980s graphics and retro toys adorning the pages, the book will appeal to parents as much as their children.

Paul has also created Fred to be a good role model that children can relate and aspire to. Given how much the behaviour of young children is influenced by the world around them, watching Fred help others in need and his good deeds will show children the importance of kindness. 

Astro Fred is running on Kickstarter throughout June 2015. To buy your copy and discover the fun pledge rewards, visit the page here. Astro Fred is also on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

Book of Acts by Tashi

Six year old Tashi van Ommen shares a short picture book that talks about the Book of Acts. 

Tashi's dad tells us, "He enjoys making picture story books based on the Bible. He loves the stories in the Bible very much."

If you have a story you would like to share please get in touch!

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Hello I Am Yeshi

Yeshi and Tashi enjoying the sunshine.

Yeshi, four, shares a video of him telling his big brother Tashi a story about Pocoyo. This video was taken on our their way home in Manila. They are traveling on a rickshaw known as a 'pedicab.'

Yeshi and Tashi's dad tells us, "In Manila it actually more common to have the motorized ones - they are called tricycles. In Tashi and Yeshi's neighborhood motorized tricycles are not allowed as they are noisy and are good sources of pollution - so it's rather unique we have these pedicabs in our area."

Yeshi and Tashi on the footbridge near their home.

If you have a story you would like to share please get in touch!

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

D is for Dahl

By Chelsea Klaassen

One of my favourite children’s authors is Roald Dahl because of his absurd and creative stories about brave and extraordinary children. When I was an English teaching assistant in a Dutch primary school I created a lesson series about Roald Dahl, which I would like to share with you. This lesson series is great for an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) class, but can also be used in any class.

What you will need:

• D is for Dahl workbook  
• A computer, a projector and access to YouTube
• Pens, pencils and colouring pencils
• Space to perform
  

Lesson 1

The aim of Lesson 1 is to introduce Roald Dahl the author. This is especially important when the children you are teaching are not British, because they might not know that much about Dahl and his work.

For Activity A, I have made a PowerPoint about Roald Dahl’s life. You can find a lot of information about the man online. You can use my questions or make up your own. The answers for my questions are: F(alse), F, F, T(rue), F, T, T, T, F, F, T, T, T, F, F.
 
Activity B, C and E can easily be done by the children without a lot of help. You can allow them to work in pairs if you like.

For activity D you can use a YouTube video in which the poem is read out loud:

Lesson 2

The aim of the second lesson is to learn more about the characters and to learn about adjectives.

Activity C can be done without any extra help. Exercise B is an exercise about adjectives and in my workbook I have used Dutch adjectives because I was teaching Dutch children. You can change this into an exercise in the language of your choice or maybe and exercise about synonyms.

For activity A you need two descriptions of characters. You can write these yourself or you can use mine:

The Witches

A witch is always a woman. When you meet a witch she is always wearing gloves.  A witch doesn’t have finger-nails. She has got claws instead. They also don’t have toes. 
Another weird thing about them is that they don’t have hair. She is as bald as a boiled egg.  
Also, a witch has very big nose-holes. And I am not ready yet. A witch also has eyes that change colour and her spit is blue. Scary, isn’t it?

BFG

The BFG, also known as the big friendly giant is very big. He is much bigger than a normal person. He is wearing a long coat and holding a suitcase and a trumpet. His face looks funny and wrinkly. His nose is as sharp as a knife and his ears are very big. His eyes are also big but they look friendly. The BFG is not mean.

Lesson 3

For the first activity you can use this YouTube video of the Oompa Loompa song: 

For the second part of lesson 3 you will need this video in which the poem 'Little Red Riding Hood' is read out loud:

Important: In order not to give away the ending (which is important for the rest of the lesson series!) you need to stop the video at 2.33 minutes.

Lesson 4 and 5

For these two lessons you just need the poem up to ‘I am going to eat you anyway’, which can be found in the workbook.

The children will use lesson 4 to learn the sentences and to practice their individual endings. Each child (there are groups of three) will be one of the characters from the poem. Make sure to tell them that all of them need to be and say something in the play.

The first 10-15 minutes of lesson 5 (depending on how many groups you have) can be the final practice time before the rest of the lesson is used to perform the play. If you really want to make something special out of it you can encourage the children to bring or make their own costumes and props.

Download Chelsea's 'D is for Dahl' Workbook here

I hope you will have fun teaching about Roald Dahl and his wonderful worlds!

After her teacher training Chelsea Klaassen studied Children's Literature at Reading University to learn more about the wonderful worlds of children's books. After her degree she decided to start a blog on which she posts creative reading and writing ideas and exercises for teachers, parents and carers to use. You can find her blog here. Follow Chelsea on Twitter at @Chelseamorag1.

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Happy Anniversary Alice in Wonderland!

By Chelsea Klaasen

This year the literary world celebrates the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The story, or at least a version of it, was once told to three little girls on a boating trip. After that Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll was his pseudonym) planned to expand and publish it. One of the first manuscripts was given to one of the girls (Alice Liddell) as a Christmas gift. For this little book, Carroll made his own illustrations and he called it Alice’s adventures underground. Later versions of the book have been illustrated by John Tenniel, he made the images we all know and love. The title of the book also changed slightly and now we know this story mainly as Alice in Wonderland.

Nowadays, many different publications of this book exist as well as films, musicals and plays. I have decided to celebrate this loved children’s book myself and that is why I made an Alice in Wonderland workbook for you to use in the classroom. It can be used as a whole, but you can also pick the activities that suit your age group best. Of course, I also encourage you to add your own activities.

For some of the exercises it is important that the children have read the story. For others they can use their knowledge of the book or films and for some they can just use their creativity.

I hope you like this workbook and please let me know what you think of it or how it went down with the children you teach.

I have not included the answers to any of the activities because I am sure most of you can figure it out. If you would like some help, or you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to leave a message.

Download Chelsea's Alice in Wonderland Workbook here

Enjoy!


After her teacher training Chelsea Klaassen studied Children's Literature at Reading University to learn more about the wonderful worlds of children's books. After her degree she decided to start a blog on which she posts creative reading and writing ideas and exercises for teachers, parents and carers to use. You can find her blog here. Follow Chelsea on Twitter at @Chelseamorag1.

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

How Stories Are 'Supposed' To Go

Miss Prince by Alicia L. Wright

By Alicia Wright

Miss Prince, my latest book wasn't supposed to be about vampires. And it isn't, really. But with all the arguing about how vampires are supposed to act in recent years, I got to thinking about it.

Who decides how stories go? You may argue that it is the writer, but is it really? Anyone and everyone can influence a story. It happens in real life all the time. People worry if they will get into trouble or if bad things will be said about them if they don't do what others expect.

In the Otherworlds, it's not much different. Things go according to how stories say they should. You might think you'd be lucky to be born a princess, yet it seems there's not a single princess who won't have to face being cursed or kidnapped, and the less we say about wicked step-mothers the better. And princes? They have a grand old time of it, fighting monsters and villains without even breaking a sweat – until they get married. All of sudden, they aren't allowed to rescue people any more. Kings just have to sit around while their daughters get kidnapped.

The Otherworlders argue that this how things should be and it stops the really bad things from happening - like the bad guys winning. But it's all very well to say that sort of thing if you're not a princess or a king or a vampire.

I always got very annoyed when I was child whenever anyone told me I couldn't do something because I was girl, for example. People would be very angry if we said characters had to act a certain way because of their gender, social status or race. So I thought... how would the vampires feel about it? And the princesses, and the princes and the witches and the villagers for that matter?

I feel very strongly that you shouldn't let other people decide who are.

And I hope that other people feel that way, too. Even about vampires.

Alicia L. Wright is the author of YA comic fantasies Eggs, Butter, Sugar and Disaster, published in 2011 and Miss Prince, published in 2014. You can download free samples of both books from her publisher's website. In her spare time Alicia also draws a webcomic based on Miss Prince and its sequels called Vampires Don't Belong in Fairytales. You can find her on: Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, deviantART and Tumblr. 

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

My Favourite Childhood Books

By Adam West

Such is the list of my childhood favourites it’s really quite tough choosing a winner from the pack. From early memories of my mum doing all the characters in different voices in Winnie The Pooh, to loving the beautifully detailed illustrations of Jill Barklem's Brambly Hedge series, I could happily write a whole book on the topic. But I think the books you treasure the most are the first ones you read by yourself. For me, like so many, they were written by Roald Dahl.

His genius, like that of his modern day contemporary, the equally revered J. K. Rowling, was to create worlds of sheer fantasy that suck the young reader in, completely immersing them in the tale. Where they differ is that Roald Dahl was able to abandon one world and reveal another time and again. Reeling some off in my mind now (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, James & The Giant Peach, The Twits, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, Matilda, Danny - Champion of The World), I realise another similarity with Rowling; all these titles and more have been plundered by the film industry, thirsty for the kind of ready-made fantasy world only the fertile mind of a creative writer can bring to life.

Roald didn’t have the kind of happy childhood I was fortunate enough to enjoy, and his books are pure escapism; heaven for a young, over-active imagination. Perhaps he found it cathartic, perhaps his goal was to provide escape for kids having a tough time like he did. Whatever, he left behind an incredible body of work which is still loved internationally today and speaks to the child in all of us.


The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.