My earliest reading memories are built on Roald Dahl’s books. His books brought joy and fear to my childhood and today I shall share those memories and my fondness for his characters.
Roald Dahl’s birthday is 13 September 2018. Each year during September activities are planned close to his birthday to celebrate his books. Find out how to celebrate on his website.
My memories
As a child he was one of my favourite authors and his books will always hold a special place in my heart.
The first novel I stayed up to read
As a little girl, my dad read me a chapter of a book each night at bedtime. One night, we started the BFG (Big Friendly Giant).
He finished the first chapter, tucked me in and turned off the light. But, I couldn’t sleep as I wondered, what happened next to the kidnapped little girl in giant land?
Their was a dim glow coming from my nightlight and I sat up and took a sneaky peek at the next chapter… – Next thing I know, it is morning. The book was finished and I hadn’t slept a wink. I think I had to take the day off school to recover from my reading marathon.
I wasn’t a fan of the film. The little girl wasn’t as I remembered but it may be that it was a long-time since I read the book.
The scariest book I never finished
After that, my dad thought I was able to read before bed on my own. He reminded me of the importance of sleep and tucked me in.
One night, Roald Dahl engrossed me in a world where terrible child-loathing withes existed. It was so real and terrifying, I never finished the book.
I have since watched the film and loved it but the book is still too much.
My all time favourite
It has to be Matilda. She’s a likable character that is strong and determined and doesn’t let her misfortune hold her back. She has telekinetic powers and uses them to make things right. I wanted to be her.
The film is great fun for kids. All the characters look exactly as I imagined, especially, the villain, Ms Trunchball.
https://youtu.be/XuyElRs_48Q
Final thoughts…
I am looking forward to sharing Roald Dahl with my children.
We’ve had free books from MacDonald and my 4y old has enjoyed his samples of The Enormous Crocodile, Willy Wonka and The Witches (he’s braver than me).
He has recently started picking chapter books from the library (Thank you Dennis The Menace from bringing the term ”bum face” into our home), so, I think he is likely ready for a Roald Dahl novel. With his recent love of toilet humour, I think The Twits would be a good place to start or George’s Marvellous Medicine. What do you think?
Can you remember the first book that kept you up all night and which Roald Dahl book is your favourite?
Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post listing literary festivals taking place in the UK throughout the UK that have caught my eye. To read the full list, please click here.
This post is to remind you of those taking place this Autumn.
You can attend individual days or the whole weekend. The event has been running for twelve years at the university and includes workshops, one-to-ones and helping writers getting an agent or with publishing independently.
This event is run by Norwich Writers’ Centre and I think this is its fifth year. You pay for the events you wish to attend (some are free) which range from author talks to workshops.
This year, they are celebrating their 20th anniversary as Scotland’s National Book Town.
There are hundreds of events and you by tickets for those you wish to attend. There are free events for children and if books aren’t your thing you will find other arts featuring at the event such as music, film and theatre.
At the time of writing this years date and prices were yet to be confirmed. I included it because last years line up was full of house hold names (like Julia Donaldson, Jacqueline Wilson, Miranda Hart, etc). I’m sure this year will be just as promising – this is one to watch!
The information for the site is currently about last years event which was aimed at families and young adult. I recognised a lot of the names and books in attendance and the event is supported by The Times and The Sunday Times. I expect it will be very promising again this year.
Once called Manchester Poetry Festival, this event has grown year upon year. It now hosts a wider range of events. The main events take place in October but there are literary events outside of this window. You pay for the events you wish to attend.
Held by Liverpool University is a weekend of literary events in this cultural city full of history. It is a varied programme with some big name in attendance and you buy tickets to the events you wish to attend.
Literary events are planned over the weekend and you can by a day ticket to attend all of them that day. It’s a small event but with good variety. Plus, Southwold is a beautiful seaside town to visit.
Originally, I hadn’t bought a ticket to this event, at Felixstowe Book Festival 2018, as I thought it was only for children and accompanying adults. When I discovered I could attend, I bought a last minute ticket and I am so glad I did.
This workshop covered different techniques for making books. We were given paper, pens, needle and thread.
We were shown three different techniques. First we created a simple folded book and they showed us how to use this technique to create a thin long book or a short wide book.
Then, we made a shaped book. The design they taught us was in the shape of a house. Inside we cut out doors.
We were encouraged to fill in our books. I choose to turn the ‘house’ book into Noah’s home with easy words for my son to read. Another attendee theirs into a row of beach huts, someone else had the house changing through the seasons and a girl drew each house belonging to her best friends. It was great to see how universal the design was for each person.
For the folded book, we were asked what our favourite word was. Mine is “banana”. We were then challenged to fill our books based on our favourite word. I decided to write about different colour bananas to the tune of “one potato”. Later, I gave the book to Noah to colour in. He was able to read the colours and word banana easily. As a minion fan, he found it funny that it was about bananas.
The final technique we were shown was a stitched book. They taught us how to gather a suitable number of pages and the right size cover. We were shown how to safely make the holes for binding and the pattern to use for the stitch using a waxed thread.
We then had time afterwards to try making any of the methods again or to continue decorating and filling in our books. I made another stitched book and used floral paper from their scraps box. I plan to use this as a notebook to records ideas for a best selling novel!
The scraps box was full of all sorts of different bits of paper ranging from left over card/paper to gift wrap and gift bags to wallpaper. For the cover you need something thicker than the paper used inside. It really demonstrates how creating your own books is very sustainable as you are repurposing stuff you may have otherwise thrown away.
Around the room were several books for anyone wanting to learn more about making books. They recommended:
The event was brilliant. Emily and Jeni worked well together to deliver an engaging and interactive workshop. I hope they continue to return to Felixstowe Book Festival to share their knowledge and enthusiasm of making books.
*****
I had planned to create a video to illustrate how to make these but haven’t had the time. Hopefully, I will one day.
Have you ever made a book – what style do you make and what did you use your creation for? I am hoping to do this with my son to encourage his writing. Please let me know if you’ve got any tips.
I discovered Arty Mouse last year at Felixstowe Book Festival (2027) and been a fan ever since. I was pleased to see them in attendance again this year and again offering amazing deals on their brilliant books. Click here to see my post on their event.
Here are a couple of reviews on the titles I’ve brought and used with my son:
Play Clay
This book is box shaped and inside is a plastic tray with all the bits you need to complete the pages. There is plasticine and cardboard cut out shapes (for example eyes, legs, hat). You then use the plasticine and shapes to complete the image and can draw with a wipe clean pen. Each page has a prompt, I.e a birthday cake that needs so many candles. This encourages counting as well as being creative.
My son had really enjoyed this book and it is easy enough to follow that he can do it independently on his own. When finished all the parts tidy away inside the book, ready for another day.
The only issue we’ve had is we lost some of the cardboard shapes so at the event I suggested they sell add on or replacement packs to increase the longevity of their reusable product.
Printing
This book is another box shaped one and inside is a plastic tray with all the bits you need to complete the pages. There is a stamp and foam shapes. You then use them stamp the shapes to complete the image and can draw with a wipe clean pen. Each page has a prompt, I.e a Loch Ness monster with missing humps. This encourages them to think about the shapes around them and how they make pictures.
My son loves this book too and on the last page he enjoy the freedom to make his own stamp picture. He is confident to use this without supervision due to clear easy to follow instructions.
My only suggestion to Arty Mouse would be to enable add on packs to collect more shapes and maybe even different colour ink pads.
I love how easy it is to tidy away, store and it’s a whole activity in one. Sometimes the plastic tray gets in the way of pressing down on pages on the left, so it might be nice to be able to remove the tray and reattach it afterwards.
Flash Cards (Numbers)
These are classic flash cards and store neatly in a box with the pen and cloth for wiping the cards clean when you are finished.
The cards have the familiar Arty Mouse characters. One side has the number for children to trace and can be found within the numeric picture. The other side has the number written as a word to practice writing. This is a great set to practice hand coordination with a pen and is really good quality.
At the FBF event, Noah had fun using their Words pack. The image below shows him using the pack -ignore the cat scratch on his face, he learnt a valuable lesson about not getting in the cats space that morning too.
Sticker Doodles
This was a book I bought at this years FBF and as soon as we got home Noah was straight into it.
I was a little hesitant about buying this book as it’s not reusable like the others. This book encourages children to draw in it with the wipe clean pen and at the back is a selection of sticker shapes that children can use to finish the pictures on the pages.
Noah has enjoyed playing with this book and has only torn one sticker – they do sometimes need a little help getting them off the pages.
Here’s a little video of Noah using the sticker book as soon as we got home.
They also had a book for cutting that I almost bought Noah as he is very into scissors at the moment. Maybe, I’ll get that next time…
My thoughts…
I also bought two more of the box sets but put them away for Noah’s birthday or Christmas. The box style books do make beautiful gifts.
All the titles I have bought have been of a high quality and the characters are appealing to preschool and early years children.
I hope they attend future FBF, as I would go to their stand. I also would be interested in buying more from their range. I am a fan, especially of the titles that can be reused.
*****
Have you tried any of the Arty Mouse titles? Do you know any similar books that I should check out – I’d love to hear your recommendations.
This was the second event of the 2018 Felixstowe Book Festival that I chose to attend.
It was hosted at Felixstowe Library and they put on a selection of nibbles. The sandwiches were really good and I got a glass of fresh orange juice in a wine glass (very sophisticated). Not so sophisticated was trying to juggle my paper plate, glass, mobile phone, notebook and pen but I somehow managed.
A post shared by Hayley Long (@hayleylongevity) on
The format of the event was Hayley interviewing Virginia about her book and chatting a little about her own too – like they were two authors hanging out. It was very informal between the pair. It made the event very personal as they told us about their books and what inspired them to write these stories.
Afterwards, we got to mingle and I had a wonderful inspiring chat with Virginia.
More about Hayley and her new book “Being a girl”.
Hayley was inspired to write a book that gives teen girls advice on how to survive puberty, however, there are lots of useful tips that would benefit women of all ages. She describes her book at ‘How to make life easier’.
Hayley showed us some pages from her book with illustrations by Gemma Correll (famous for Pugs, not Thugs) and that some text is small like a whisper and some text is big and loud. It looks like a fun book by about an awkward subject.
I was delighted to hear that Hayley is a local girl and went to school here. It is really inspiring to hear that someone with similar roots made it and that it is possible.
Writing about such a personal topic was quite scary to publish as she wasn’t sure what reaction she would get. Of all the complaints she envisioned, she had not anticipated people would complain about a tampon on the cover.
I didn’t buy her book today but if it is still around when my little girl is starting high school it sounds like the kind of empowering book I would want her to read. She has also written other stories that are based around the Suffolk area that sound really good.
More about Virginia and her new book “Who Runs The World”.
Virginia is a very passionate woman who talked about how much the world has changed in the past 100 years for women, like being able to vote and how she feels there is still more to be achieved. She discussed the recent equal pay success but that she thinks the next step is to change the culture and is supportive of the ‘me too’ movement. It’s not just about changing the law but about changing the way we think towards each other about what is right and wrong.
The idea for this book was sparked whilst chatting to someone studying Tess of the d’Urbervilles at school. She has also studied this book 30 years ago. I’ve never read the book so I had to try to follow what it was about by what she was saying but it sounds as if the main character is repressed by a man and although she liked it in school she now looks back and sees how wrong it is.
Virginia’s imagination then began exploring the idea of a world where women were in control and how this comes about. She didn’t want to simply switch society over, she wanted to create something new. Then she came up with the idea of a virus that only affects those with the Y chromosome.
Killing off all the men made me giggle. It made me think about a warning I read once about why you should never piss off a writer. I couldn’t find the quote online so I made my own (see image above) which captures the gist of it. Virginia doesn’t want men to die but this quote makes me feel there are few men that may have made her virus deserving list.
Virginia is very animated when she speaks, especially doing typing hands when talking about writing. It made her a very likeable person to listen to. She told us about how difficult writing this novel was as she kept worrying about what people would think and if she has portrayed women without men’s influence in their life correctly.
She questions how gender is portrayed and spoke about how strong women are always made out to be masculine and asks why this is. Why can’t women be allowed to be strong and still accepted as a woman?
Virginia likes to make people think “How do you want the world to be different” and is often impressed at school visits how much the children are aware of what is wrong with the world and how they want to change it.
After the interview there was time for us to eat some more food, buy the books and chat to the authors.
I waited patiently and then had a lovely chat with Virginia. I asked her about whether people had judged her for writing SciFi. Most people I know, judge me for writing fantasy. She was very encouraging about writing what you love and never giving up.
I asked her about how long it took her to find the right agent. She told me that a few years ago she had been writing scripts and had an agent but when she wrote The Rain she found a publisher quickly and was picked up by an agent too. She told me never to take rejections personally and to keep trying. She also pointed out that self publishing has come a long way and especially for Sci-Fi and Fantasy it can really expand the market for writers.
She encouraged me to find local writers groups as these can be really useful to critique your work. Another lady overheard us talking and introduced herself. She does a leisure learning course at a local college on Creative Writing and encouraged me to come along and meet the other students who often form their own group once the course is complete.
I bought Who Runs The World and Virginia signed it and wrote a nice message to me inside to encourage me to never give up.
Parents with children aged 2 to 6 years old were able to drop in between 10am and 12noon to try out the Arty Mouse range. This is ideal for their age group.
This was a free event (no ticket needed). However, the books were available to buy at half price and I couldn’t resist.
Representatives of Arty Mouse (I think from Top That Publishing) and volunteers of Felixstowe Book Festival, had prepared tables with different activities for the children to try. The children were able to move freely between the tables.
Here is a pic of Noah trying out their Arty Flashcards. These cards enable children to practice their writing and develop their reading skills.
Afterwards, children were rewarded with a certificate and some Haribo sweets. Sadly, I left behind Noah’s certificate and drawing of a cat, although, I think I would have been in more trouble with him if I had lost the sweets (luckily I put them in my bag).
The Arty Mouse products are a little bit special and make lovely gifts (especially the box kit books). I told Noah he could have two for the summer but the box ones I’m saving for his birthday and Christmas. He was very good about me taking them away as I could tell he wanted them most.
Noah was excited to get started in his book right away and really loved the themes in the book. He’s very into anything with wheels and robots are trending with him at the moment.
As I mentioned earlier, I am already a fan of Arty Mouse after discovering the fabulous books during last years Felixstowe Book Festival. I can’t believe I haven’t written a review of those we bought last year and I will make up for that later this month.
I have bought a ticket to an event and plan on attending some of the free activities. I will attempt to fit in as much as I can.
I love that each year the festival gets bigger and the events get better. Here is a flashback at my posts on previous years to give you an idea of what to expect:
Alwyn Hamilton talked about her book Rebel of the Sands being traditionally published and gave great insight into the process and what to expect. She talked enthusiastically about her novel and gave some teasers of what is coming soon. I think everyone bought a copy.
Top That Publishing gave an amazing talk on the picture book publishing industry and truly demonstrated their breadth of knowledge. I still have my PowerPoint slides from the event.
Top That Publishing also ran a free Arty Mouse event which my son loved. Children were encouraged to try out their interactive activity books – I ended up buying two (review coming soon).
This year
I am confident it will be another amazing year as there really is something for everyone and I promise to share with you what I get up to this year.
Are you going or wish you were going? Let me know which book festivals you recommend.
This is the second book in The Wildcat series. Please click here to read my review of the first book “Lion’s Share”.
This title can be read as a stand-alone title so you don’t need to read the previous book in this series, however, if you do, it will help you understand the ‘shifter’ world. This is my review.
This book is about Robyn, the first known case of a female surviving scratch fever and her adapting to the shifter world. Robyn is feeling like a bit of a prisoner at the home she cannot leave during her training and sees an opportunity to escape.
Titus is a stray Alpha, seeking recognition for his pride by the council. This will enable strays to travel more freely around America as currently they cannot enter certain territories.
Skip to ”What did I think” to avoid spoilers.
How it starts
Discovering his stow away, Titus knows this is not going to bode well for his struggle to gain recognition for his pride. He informs the council and agrees to return Robyn in 2 weeks. He promises to keep her safe whilst in his care.
The middle
A newly infected stray is brought to Titus’ home. They wait for the stray to shift so they can get the scent of the person that infected the stray which is a crime, punishable by death unless it happened as self defense.
When the stray shifts, the scent smells like Titus. Titus cannot deny the damming evidence. He steps down as Alpha as he knows the council will not accept a pride run by a law breaker. He appoints a new alpha and decides to take off to give the new alpha some space to rule.
Robyn sense that Titus didn’t do it but it doesn’t make sense why the new stray has his scent. Robyn insists he must take her with him – as he swore to the council he would protect her. Titus confides in her that he is worried that his brother has been infected and is responsible for the new stray.
Titus and Abby then take off to find his brother, Justus and reveal who actually is responsible for this mess. Whilst working together things get hot between the two even thought there are a lot of political barriers as to why they can’t be together.
How it ends
When Abby & Titus finally catch up with Justus they discover the scent of the infected is Titus’ best friend who he has left in charge of the pride. His now ex-friend has been manipulating everything to get Titus exiled and to take over the pride as the new Alpha. He tries to kill Titus with a gun but Abby is in cat form and rips out his throat. During the investigation Justus accidentally killed people as he didn’t know what he was doing & Abby killed the ex-friend before he could stand trial for his crimes. The council set their punishments and Titus will lose them both. At the last minute they discover a loop hole in the laws and Abby & Justus join the Stray pride instead of going back to the council for punishment.
What did I think
This title wasn’t as steamy as the first. Robyn is attracted to Titus (and vice versa) but she isn’t interested in being used to boost his position in the shifter world by being his dam.
The book is very much about the two discovering clues and uncovering what really happened and locating Justus.
The ending is was very satisfying. I felt everything was resolved and there was a decent amount of action throughout.
I would recommend and I look forward to reading more of Rachel Vincent’s books.
Here, I share my collection of pop-up books and what makes them unique and special.
The hardest thing about pop-up books is that they do tend to be a little fragile and because they are very exciting this can cause children to damage them unintentionally. In addition, some younger children may not have the skills to operate the pop-ups without causing damage which can be upsetting.
You will have to judge when your child is ready for them and may need to supervise the books. For example, only share them at special occasions or as a reward rather than leaving them out for you child to explore alone.
Some of these books are aimed at children specifically and are more hardy. Others are designed to show off the artwork of the author or the beauty of pop-up books.
The Tickle Book and The Bedtime Book
Author: Ian Whybrow
Illustrator: Axel Scheffler
These books are designed especially for young children. They have a rhyming story line that they’ll enjoy listening to. The book has tabs to pull to cause parts of the story to move or pop-up. With ‘The Tickle Book’ I tend to tickle my son every time the tickle monster pops up. ‘The Bedtime’ book is probably better for bedtime as there is no tickling.
Snowman and the snowdog
Father Christmas bought this book for my son so it is no surprise that it is magical. The first part of the book is a normal picture book following the classic story of The Snowman and the Snowdog. However, when you reach the last page you are in for a surprise.
The book has a sensor that causes built in lights to switch on and cause the stars in the sky to twinkle and a scene of London at night to pop up. It is a beautiful ending and my son loves London so he points out the famous sights from the scene.
How to Find Flower Fairies
Author: Cicely Mary Barker
This pop up book is written as a collection of discoveries about faeries. The pages are very elaborate scenes that pop up and have notes and journals entries about the faeries. The front cover and camera on the last page has a holographic image that moves. It truly is a beautiful book about faeries with so much thought and detail gone into every page. However, I wouldn’t recommend this be shared with young children.
I’ve created a little clip on Instagram to show how clever and beautiful this book is as seeing is believing…
This tatty old book was produced in 1983 by my favourite artist. I fell in love with his work which inspired the film Labyrinth (his son was cast as the baby kidnapped by the goblin king).
It is a first edition and I bought it second hand. I probably paid too much for it considering that some of the tags are very fragile but I am so pleased to have a copy. I do share this with my son on his birthday or if he has been really good and he loves it. Sadly, he tore the goblins nose on the last page to see the goblins underneath.
There isn’t much of a story but each page has so much detail and the artwork is amazing. My son loves the last page where you can turn the book upside down to discover more goblins due to how they are drawn – it is genius. I’ve checked many times to see if this book has been re-released but it hasn’t.
*****
Have you read any of these? Is there a pop-up book that you think I need to add to my collection – I’d love to hear your recommendations.
