My First Report

I did a Y7 school visit on Monday and here is the report that three of the children wrote for their school newsletter. Hot off the press....

Camilla Chester’s presentation on Jarred Dreams
On the 4th of July, we were excited to greet the new author of Harpenden, Camilla Chester. In period 6, all of us in year seven left our English class to engage in a fun afternoon with Camilla. When we got to the hall, Camilla introduced herself and her books and talked about her writing, she told us about where she writes her books, and her inspiration, which she gets from walking dogs, and one of them actually writes a blog! And this, she told us was her valid “thinking time”. She also told us that her inspiration comes from JK Rowling and that she mainly writes on her kitchen table.
She was a very enthusiastic about her book and the fact she could tell us about it. It is about the dream thief who steals dreams from children at night. I was intrigued to read more after the extract from the book that she read - it was part of the first chapter. This book was inspired By the BFG in a way, because the dream thief steals dreams and the BFG gives dreams to kids.
Camilla showed us how using simple ideas you could make a story and that you can use objects and animals as main characters - not just humans! We all chose elements of a story, for example a protagonist, a scene and the protagonist’s secret that is preventing them from doing something, and made our own story, which ended up being slightly weird, with a platypus that was really a slug trying to talk, although this was hard as he could not, because he didn’t have a mouth!
She played a game with us which I think she could have made more interactive with everyone rather than just the 2 chosen. She also kindly donated a copy to the library so those who did not bring in money could read the entire book. I think was a very interesting and gripping presentation with lots (but not quite enough) fun participation! Overall, I really enjoyed listening to Camilla and I am certainly inspired to write more and read her book.

I'm going away now to have a think on how to make my game more interactive.