Matt Whyman Explains Why...

                                             

Matt Whyman reads from his novel The Savages.

The Savages author Matt Whyman talked to Book Award participants on Friday, explaining how he wasn't very good at school(!) but why reading was so important. He also discussed some of the difficult subject matter in his shortlisted novel and why the issues it deals with are so relevant for young people.

Here are some of the other things that we found out along the way:

Matt Whyman spends his days writing, playing with the sausage dog and writing some more.

He realised that meat responsibly sourced is quite expensive, and, as the family food bill was quite high, he decided to change to being vegetarian. He found a recipe for pinto bean chilli and made that for dinner; everybody loved it. After a while of vegetarian dishes he told his family what they were eating and why, needless to say they didn't fancy it any more. This made Matt think about food and how we view it, wouldn't it be funny to have a family to totally focused on food, but what sort?

This was the inspiration for The Savages with a twist; of course, having read the book, we know what happens.

To follow on there is now another book called The American Savage.

Lots of brilliant questions were put forward by the students from both the Weald School and primary partners, and each student who asked a question got a post card in return which they were able to get Matt to sign after his talk

Matt Whyman is also one of the four authors confirmed to attend our Book Award Celebration Evening on the 3rd March.

Speedy Books Just Sped Past

Thank you to all the schools who came last night to make Speedy Books fast and furious and fun.

Pupils got the chance to talk about the books they'd already begun to read for the Weald Book Award and came away inspired to read more.

Happy reading - and don't forget to look out for more details of all the extra activities and competitions that are running this year to make the 2015 WBA the biggest and best ever.

Speedy Books 2014

It's here!

We are meeting on Wednesday for our Speedy Books Event - the first time all the participants will be meeting together - how exciting!  It’s a really fun event where we all get to talk to each other about which books we have been reading and to say what we think of them.

We hope to start between 3.45 and 4.00pm and finish around 4.45pm - there will be time for squash and biscuits too.  Look forward to seeing you all there!

The 2015 Shortlist

Many thanks to all who contributed to last night's meeting, either in person or suggestions via email.

Drum roll, please, because here comes the 2015 Shortlist:

The Savages by Matt Whyman

The Middle of Nowhere by Geraldine McCaughrean

Scarlet Ibis by Gill Lewis

Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

Rage of the Rhino by Bear Grylls

A Boy Called Hope by Lara Williamson

We hope to make a few changes this year, including setting a few challenges along the way.  Watch this space for more details.  

Happy reading!

And The Winner Is...

Here at the Weald it seems we have barely had time to catch our breath, what with all the celebrations for Weald Book Week and of course, the culmination of the Weald Book Award with all the wonderful presentations from our primary friends and the announcement of the winner.  Mrs May's costume is a clue...though we're not entirely sure if she's holding her bokken quite right...

Huge congratulations to our winner as voted by you: Chris Bradford with Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior.  A worthy winner!

Here's what some of you said:

"It was a great celebration to finish off a great book award."

"It was a real treat for our pupils to perform in front of so many people. We all thought the Weald’s ‘Great British Book Off’ was very entertaining, too."

Well done to all the students who took part, read the books, had such wonderful ideas and opinions, and stood up to share them all at the presentation evening.

We're already looking forward to next year's event.

Presentation Evening - 6th March

Things are going well with the Book Award here at the Weald - we have a great theme which the students have come up with (which remains top secret for now!) so are looking forward to our presentation evening on Thursday 6 March - World Book Day.  

As usual we have a great introduction to the evening and hopefully each of the primary schools will have some sort of presentation too.  We will be holding the event in the School Hall again as numbers have increased to bursting point for the LRC!  There will be space for your displays too.

Can you please let us know what you have planned for the evening (a 5-10 minute slot) and also if you require any display boards/computing facilities.  Don't forget there is a large screen so if you have a memory stick you will be okay.    

We try to limit the numbers to immediate family only please - there is a glass of wine/juice at the start. This year there will also be some special nibbles!!  

Looking forward to hearing from you all - it is sure to be another great evening.

2014 Nominee Chris Bradford Visits the Weald

Chris Bradford is a true believer in ‘practising what you preach’ – this made his visit to The Weald a much anticipated event.  Since one of the titles in his award winning Young Samurai series has been nominated for The Weald Book Award he was invited to come and talk to Year 7 participants and pupils from Year 6 feeder primary schools.  

He explained that he trained in iaido (samurai swordmanship), karate, ninjutsu and earned his black belt in Zen Kyu Shin Taijutsu.  Previously he had trained in judo, muay thai and kickboxing.  He wore full Samurai robes and wielded his very own Samurai sword.  Students were invited to discover the skills needed to become a young samurai at Samurai School and treated to an authentic samurai sword display and a dynamic all-kicking, all-punching book reading.

His best-selling books are published in over 20 languages and have garnered more than 25 children’s book award nominations.   Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior was deemed one of Puffin’s 70 Best Ever Books, alongside Treasure Island and Robin Hood.