SCBWI Presents an Afternoon of Silliness with Oliver Fibbs Author Steve Hartley

At the Manchester Children's Book Festival Family Fun Day, author Steve Hartley entertained an audience of parents and children, bringing on fits of giggles all round! He shared his stories and gave us tips on how to write our own. This event was brought to the Manchester Children's Book Festival by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, an organisation that supports the authors and illustrators of literature for young people.

"Nothing I say today will be a fib," Steve began, before continuing to describe his home - a golden palace on top of a dormant volcano in Lancashire. "You didn't know about the dormant volcano on the Pennines did you?!"

He then proceeded to tell the story of how he had made it to today's event after falling through the sky with a pair of gigantic alien knickers acting as his parachute. To prove he was no fibber, he produced the underwear and invited his audience to try them on!

Steve assured the children they were in safe hands, declaring, "I am a DOPE! Defender of the earth!"

The audience were treated to a lively reading from his novel Oliver Fibbs and the Clash of the Mega-Robots, the latest in the Oliver Fibbs series, which features a young boy who tells extravagant lies to make his life seem more exciting. Steve Hartley said that he and Oliver are alike because he also enjoys telling fibs.

"I get to tell fibs and get paid for it. That's what stories are, just fibs."

The children then played games to spark their own imaginations and set them on the path of story writing. Steve challenged them to think 'what if?' by taking something ordinary and changing it into something extraordinary! Ideas were popping up all over the room from excited minds as children asked, "What if there were ghost velociraptors here today?" and "What if the MCBF helpers were all robots?"

Steve then presented his steps to storytelling using this 'what if?' method as a starting point.

1. Idea: Change something ordinary.
2. Start with a problem, "Always get your stories off to a cracking start!"
3. Make the problem worse.
4. End: Solve it!

This was followed by a game of 'Fib or Fact' where Steve read off the wall statements to see if the children could work out whether or not they were true or a fib.

At the end of questions were he referred to The Twits as his favourite book for its silliness. Steve described why he enjoys taking part in events like Manchester Children's Book Festival.

"I love meeting my readers. It keeps my ideas funny and at the right level for the age group that I write at. And it inspires kids to read hopefully. If you can bring books to life, which is what I try and do, hopefully they'll go away reading more."

Would you like to share a story - or fib?! Take part in our International Reading and Writing Relay. You could write your own short story or tell us about your favourite book and why you love reading.

- GS

Jack Andraka Visits Reddish Vale High School

Jack Andraka with Theo Hudson, a student from Reddish Vale High School.

Year 6 pupils from Abingdon Primary celebrating British Science Week, joined pupils from Reddish Vale for a visit from very special guest, the inspirational Jack Andraka.

18 year-old Jack was touring to promote his book, Breakthrough, which tells the story behind his revolutionary discovery. Jack started investigating new, cheap tests for early detection of certain cancers when he was just 13, the same age as many of the pupils in the room.

Henry, a student from Abingdon Primary, said, “It was very inspiring to meet someone who has had so much success.” Elizabeth Teague, a pupil from Reddish Vale, added, “It was amazing to meet such a talented and inspiring person. It’s made me want to be like him.”

Jack demonstrated an experiment from his book, which had everyone enthralled. He answered questions from the audience about his work and his life at school. Manchester Children's Book Festival Director Kaye Tew said,

“The pupils were so attentive throughout Jack’s talk and I was amazed at the detailed questions the pupils asked Jack at the end. Some of the questions were very scientific, delving into the detail of some of the processes he had described. Other students asked ethical questions, about how Jack would ensure that large corporations didn’t make money out of his work when his intention is to create cheap and simple tests that will benefit everyone. Others took us into the realm of science fiction, with what-if scenarios about the Nano-Bots that Jack had described."

Jack told the audience about some of the problems he had growing up, “Being a bit of a geek and then realising I was gay didn’t exactly mean I got an easy ride in school.” He immersed himself his work and now is a bit of an urban legend in his school. Theo Hudson, a student from Reddish Vale, commented, “Jack is very inspiring and it is nice to see that he faced the same problems in school as we do."

Lisa Carter, an English teacher at Reddish Vale, said, "We chose to use the event as a reward for those pupils who’ve shown great achievement or effort in science. Jack Andraka was a brilliant role model for them, and he clearly fired their imagination and engaged them in his talk.

"The best aspect, in my opinion, was the amount of time Jack spent on their questions, and in talking to students afterwards. The pupils were fascinated by his experiences and I think they enjoyed the challenge of the content – and not being patronized. 

"The primary pupils probably understood less of the science, but were awed by the event and the quality of our pupils’ questions – making it an aspirational event for all the children. All the adults involved were also very positive and want to know when the next one is!"

Compton Valance conducting Experiment #7

Compton Valance took some time out of his Manchester Children's Book Festival duties and tried out Jack's Experiment #7 The Sucking Glass. Try it yourself and send us a picture to be published on the International Reading and Writing Relay.

Compton Visits Z-Arts

PuppetCraft: Presents MONKEY! at Z-Arts

When our very own cheeky monkey, Compton, heard that Manchester Children's Book Festival was teaming up with the fantastic Z-Arts to bring you 'PuppetCraft: Presents MONKEY!' he just couldn't wait to find out more. Check out Compton's Z-Arts adventure in the video below.

Written specially for PuppetCraft by the wonderful poet, Michael Rosen, 'PuppetCraft: Presents MONKEY!' is a puppet show for the whole family featuring the comic adventures of a fantastical superhero, inspired by the classic Chinese epic story. 

Stunning string puppets, antique shadow puppets and live music tell the story of the birth and comic escapades of MONKEY … the trickster who … hatched from an egg … can fly on a cloud … and can transform into anything…!

For more info visit:

www.z-arts.org/events/monkey

MCBF Young Journalism Prize

Young Journalists tweeting from the 2014 Manchester Children's Book Festival

Do you love reading? Do you have a passion for writing? Would you like to see your work published on the official Manchester Children’s Book Festival blog and be in with the chance of winning a £100 Amazon voucher?

The first Manchester Children’s Book Festival’s Young Journalism Prize invites young people attending our fantastic MCBF events – at MMU, at partner venues across Manchester, or in your school or local library – to write about them for our Reading and Writing Relay. If you can’t make it to Manchester for our events, don’t worry - you can write book reviews of your favourite children’s books or even send us an opinion piece (for example, what do you think about libraries, or your favourite authors?).

Send your blog to mcbf@mmu.ac.uk. The best pieces, received before the end of August 2015, will be published on the MCBF Reading and Writing Relay, with extracts from the best appearing in our MCBF Festival News, a printed brochure that will showcase what went on at the 2015 Festival. The overall winner, our MCBF 2015 Young Journalist of the Year, will be presented with an Amazon voucher worth £100, and four runners up will each receive £25 vouchers.

The competition is open to young writers of any age but you must be no older than 16 at the end of August 2015 to qualify. Winners will be announced in September 2015, at the start of the new school year.

See the Reading and Writing Relay for example posts and more information.

This competition has been kindly funded by Mr Mohammad Habeebullah OBE.