Christmas Stories from Lawley Primary School

Before Christmas I spent a wonderful day with pupils at Lawley Primary School in Telford. It was great meeting so many eager readers, and keen and enthusiastic writers (and amazing illustrators too).  I just wanted to say a huge hello and thank you to everyone in Year 4 for sharing their wonderful stories with me. 

After reading my Fiction Express book - The Thought Snatcher - Year 4 have been busy writing their own stories featuring the young genius, Ellie, and her 'not-so-genius' younger brother. I love the way some of you gave her brother a different name - making the stories your own. I also love the way you have given the stories a nice Christmas theme. That's always a fun thing to do when writing at Christmas. I thought readers of my diary would be interested in reading some of the stories - and seeing some of your amazing artwork. 

Click HERE to read Lola's "Christmas Saving Day" (that's where the first brilliant picture on this page comes from.

(If viewing the stories on your phone, they may save in your downloads folder instead of opening)

The second picture (above) comes from "The Christmas Enter Ring" by Ruby. A great idea for an invention Ruby. Click HERE to give it a read.

Click HERE to read "The Bad Guy" by Poppy. I was scared too when the men in black suits appeared. Well done Poppy!

Aishah has made a great start to her story... I can't wait to find out what happens next. Will James Rixton get caught? Click HERE to have a read.

I love Olivia's idea for a new invention in this story. I think I should think of a new story and invention for Olivia too. Click HERE to read "A Crazy Christmas."

Annabel has given her story and even bigger Christmas feel to it by involving a trip to the North Pole to help a certain famous person. Now... I wonder who that could be. Read her story by clicking HERE.

I really enjoyed reading Sienna's story which has lots of nice little touches - like having some characters wearing matching Christmas clothes. My wife, Vicky, was trying to get us matching pyjamas for Christmas this year. Read Sienna's Christmas tale HERE.

Lewis has combined great artwork with his own ideas to made a very exciting story involving a prison escape... You can read "The Christmas Disaster" HERE.

Thank you once again for sharing you wonderful stories with me. It was a real pleasure meeting you all last year... I hope you keep on having lots of fun with your writing.

Bye for now...

World Book Day and More

As a writer I spend most of my time sat at my laptop - either at the table or on the sofa/settee/couch. There's more room at the table so it's ideal for working when I need to do research at the same time and really spread out. At other times I can just sit with my laptop on my knee and make myself comfortable.

When I'm not sat writing I can be found traveling around visiting schools and libraries all over the place. This time of the year is an especially busy one as next week is World Book Day and everyone will be celebratig books and reading. This year I will be travelling thousands of miles to visit different schools and also fitting in a bit of writing wherever and whenever I can. Over the next few weeks I will post pictures here in my diary and on my twitter @damianjharvey account so you can see where I've been.

This week I will be spending the day with everyone at Compass Primary Academy in Kettering and then at Malvern Parish C of E Primary School in Malvern... I can't wait to meet everyone.

And here's a huge hello to everyone at Mosspark Infant School in Trafford, Mossy Lea Primary School in Wrightington, St Winifrede's RC Primary School in Neston, Kingshott School in Hitchin, St George's Primary in Chorley, St Anne's Primary in Nantwich, Sandilands Community Primary School in Manchester, St Andrews International Schools in Bangkok...

See you all soon.

Malodorous Hippo Water and Visiting Schools

As a writer you traditionally spend most of your working life sat quietly at a desk typing, pulling out what remains of your hair and banging your forehead on the wall for inspiration (other sources of inspiration are available and strongly recommended). But being a children's author gives another side to the job that's completely different - that of the school visitor (and this in itself also has two sides).

One is that of storyteller, performer and entertainer - while it's not something that all authors enjoy, I for one love it. I love the excitement of visiting a new school and introducing a whole new audience to my work. I share poems and stories, show how a book is made, answer lots of questions and even try out new work in progress... there's nothing like reading something out loud to see if it works. These days are fun and exciting and I love the feeling that by the end of the day I might have inspired someone to pick up a book and read - either mine or someone else's. 

The other side to school visits is that of the writing workshop. These can last for an hour if moving from one class/group to another but the best and most productive sessions can last for a whole day (or even longer). Rather than coming along with the start of a story for everyone to work on I like to start with a clean sheet, a blank page... That's how it is for any author setting out to write a story and that's what I like to show the children. This way, the children get to create a character and build up a story from scratch which gives them complete creative ownership of it. 

Yesterday I spent the day at Monks Coppenhall Primary Academy in Crewe, working with a group of year four writers - and we were joined by other eager writers from Beechwood Primary, Underwood West Academy, Leighton Academy and St Oswald's Worleston Academy... around 30 children in all.

Having the whole day together meant that so much more could be done, and at a better pace, than in a typical classroom environment with time constraints. Using a flip chart and pens we go on a story journey together - creating a character and marking out the rough map that our journey will take. 

The children get to see the reason why I don't illustrate my own books as I draw a character and add a bit of background that can be the cover of a book. The children are soon chomping at the bit and eager to get started on creating their own character and they all take great joy in making a cover for their book. Even the shyest and most self conscious of the children dive in once they realise how much fun it is and how no one is being judged or marked on what they do. 

Stories are made to be shared so I encourage anyone that wants to, to show what they have done to the rest of the class. A couple may be a little reluctant at first but it's not long before they are the ones wanting to share each new part of their story with the class.

Yesterday's story journey followed a little girl/boy whose adventuring parents had got themselves lost in the depths of a swamp. On the journey our hero encountered, amongst other things a giant talking frog - and there were far too many variations of this creature to go into here - some wore clothes, some had eaten the parents, one had the parents trapped in a giant pea pod and one was robotic...

It really was a joy to see how the children grew in confidence throughout the day and to see how much they really enjoyed writing and illustrating their own stories. Needless to say, there were a few tears shed, though that's what happens what you laugh so much. I can only apologise for the running mascara Miss. 

The story word of the day was "Malodorous" suggested by "R"...
The odd thing of the day was "Hippo Water"
The special type of person of the day was "People That Wear Underpants" (and just to clarify - that means superheroes).

A huge thank you to everyone that took part... it was a truly fun and inspirational day. Have fun writing and drawing...

Visiting Schools

As an author I spend most of my working time sat on my own with my laptop or my notebook writing. Sometimes I'm working on very short stories for young readers and at other times I'm working on something bigger... right now I'm doing a mixture of both. As well as writing I love going out and about to visit schools and libraries so that I can tell stories and get people excited about books, reading and writing. 

Last week I visited my first school of 2017 - Heygreen Primary School in Liverpool. I was made to feel really welcome and had a wonderful time sharing stories and talking about what I do. Working together with Key Stage 2 we came up with some great story ideas... I hope you have fun finishing them off. 

Click here to see a picture of the day on Twitter...

This week I will be visiting Holy Trinity C E Primary School in Bury so here's a HUGE HELLO to everyone there... See you all soon.

My Visit to The British School of Tashkent

Last week I had a wonderful time with everyone at The British School of Tashkent in Uzbekistan for a school visit arranged by Authors Aloud. At over 5000 miles from home it's easily the furthest I've ever travelled and I really didn't know what to expect. Here's a little map of my journey...

At seven o'clock on Sunday morning I was already up and getting ready to start my journey. My bags were packed and in the car from the night before as I didn't want to risk forgetting anything or having to rush around on the last minute. There's was time for a cup of coffee and then I was on my way to Manchester airport feeling sure that I had forgotten something. 100 meters down the road I made a u-turn and headed back home. I'd forgotten my phone which was still charging in the kitchen. Good job I realised...

No more delays and I'm off down the road and at the airport in less than an hour. I check my case in and then it's through customs and passport control with a couple of hours left until the plane is due to depart. Time for breakfast. Full English... (sausage, bacon, egg, beans, tomato, mushroom, little fried potatoes and toast - plus a coffee) yum!

There's plenty of room on the Turkish Airways plane and I have an aisle seat and an empty seat to my left. Room to stretch my legs a bit... Nice!

This leg of my journey takes me to Istanbul, Turkey. Turkish airlines hand out pieces of Turkish Delight to all the passengers on board (delicious), and as we take off I settle down to listen to some music and read my book - Rick Wakeman's 'Grumpy Old Rock Star and Other Wondrous Stories'. It's a great read and one that I will be dipping into again.

The flight is pretty smooth and we touch down in Istanbul at 17.00 they are two hours ahead of British Summertime so it's taken about four hours to get here. Istanbul Airport is big and busy... its also very warm. I'm not here long though as my next flight leaves in just over an hour.

Another smooth flight though not quite as much room as last time as the people next to me keep wanting to get up and sit down. I listen to my Ipod (Tom Hanks and then Francesca Simon @Simon_Francesca on Desert Island discs... I also watch Jack Black playing R.L. Stein in Goosebumps (a good fun film). 

We touch down it Tashkent, Uzbekistan at 1.05 in the morning... (another two hours ahead of Great Britain so four hours ahead altogether. It takes quite a while to get through customs and passport control but I eventually meet the driver who is going to be dropping off at the hotel. A relief to know I don't have to make my own way there. By the time I get to my room, unpack and get into bed it's after three in the morning - my alarm is set for seven as I will need to get up, shower, have breakfast (cold meats, cheese, bread, olives and other delicious things) and meet the driver again... he has the unfortunate job of taking me to and from school all week. I love driving but wouldn't want to have had to drive myself this week. Drivers in Tashkent have 'an interesting' way of navigating the roads so I was glad of his expertise. 

It's been raining heavily during the night and some of the roads have huge puddles - some very deep ones too - but this doesn't slow anyone down and we plough on through busy traffic towards the school's upper campus.

As soon as I arrive in school I'm made very welcome by everyone I meet... all the children know I'm coming and everyone says hello, shakes my hand or waves... I've never had such a friendly welcome before. Right away I know that I'm going to like it here.

That day is the start of Book Week and everyone gathers in the auditorium for a fun assembly and book quiz. Almost everyone is wearing their pyjamas and carrying a cuddly toy and their favourite book. It's great to see that all of the teachers have their favourite books too (and pyjamas). The teacher's show their favourite books and tell everyone a bit about them... a great way to get children interested in reading is showing how interested in reading you are too. I have the copy of Flat Stanley with me that I had when I was in Primary School and tell everyone a bit about it.
I love the handy seats in on of the libraries...

I'm in school all week and it is a great experience. I get to share stories with everyone, talk about what I do as an author and also try and show everyone how I come up with ideas for stories. Everyone is keen, interested and eager to talk about their favourite books and to show me what they have been doing in class.

As it's Book Week, every class has decorated their classroom doors with a book theme, and they are fantastic. Here's just a few of them.

Above you can see Anthony Brown's Café door and David Walliams' Billionaire Boy and below is pre Nursery's Dear Zoo (the boxes oven up just like in the book to reveal the animal that's inside. there are lots of other great doors and I will post pictures of those later in the week.

Unfortunately, I didn't really get chance for a good look round Tashkent while I was there as I was so busy in school (and so tired afterwards) but I did go out for a nice meal one evening. One thing that strikes me about the city is how green it is, how relaxed it feels and how friendly everyone is. This view from the back of the hotel will give you an idea of how green the city is...

The buildings are a mixture of old and new which gives the city a lot of character... Here's another view from my hotel window. It was roasting out there but thankfully there was air-conditioning in my room so I could keep nice and cool.

 Even though I spend the whole week with everyone it's amazing how quickly the time flies by. On Friday morning I'm up at 5am (1 o'clock in the morning in Britain) so I can shower and head downstairs ready to be taken to Tashkent airport to start my journey home. At Istanbul airport I have an hour or so to wait for my next flight so stop off to buy some Turkish Delight to take home with me...

It's another long flight back home so I read Harlen Coben's excellent thriller 'Fool Me Once', watched Kung Fu Panda 2, listened to lots of music and more Desert Island Discs on my Ipod - Stephen King, Dawn French, Jack Dee, Stephen Fry - and listened to Rhod Gilbert and Alan Davies talk about the way they write their comedy. By the time I got home it was about 5 o'clock and I was worn out... It had been a long day.

I had a fantastic week with everyone at the British School of Tashkent - I made lots of new friends their and had lots of fun. Huge thanks to everyone for looking after me and making me feel so very welcome. Hopefully I will be able to go back again... Take care everyone - have fun reading, and keep in touch.

The British School of Tashkent

This week I'm at the British School of Tashkent in Uzbekistan.  I'm having a great time with everyone and will be writing about it all when I get back home...