TEACH READING & WRITING
27
Nowthat’sa
funnyquestion
Questions from children over the
years have been everything from
“Why do you sweat somuch?” and
“Have youmet the Queen?” to
“What time do you have your first
drink of the day?” and “Do you know
JK Rowling?” The most common
question for any author is, “Where
do you get your ideas from?” and,
requiring Size-16 footwear, often
I’m asked, “Where do you buy your
shoes?” The questions, “Do you base
your characters on real people?”
and “Do you put things that happen
to you in your stories?” seemmore
relevant, but all questions can lead
to interesting answers. And don’t be
fooled by ‘funny’. The opposite of
‘funny’ isn’t ‘serious’. The opposite
of ‘funny’ is ‘not funny’, and you can
tackle the hardest of subjects with
humour. In fact, funny is a great way
of accessingmore complicated ideas,
because funny can’t mean difficult
can it?
One last question. Yes, you at the
back. “Can I go to the toilet?” You’ll
have to ask your teacher that one,
but it’s fine by me. Happy reading.
shout out their suggestions,
they’re that engaged and excited.
After the events, some children
have then gone away and,
through their own initiative,
finished the story, or edited it,
or re-told it theway
they
think
it should have gone. All three
approaches arefine byme!
They’re using their imagination;
writing; planning; making the
stories their own.
This year (2016) Axel and I
opened the festival with two
events in Essex, which involved the entire
Year 4 fromacross all the schools in Canvey
Island. What a reach! All of whomhad copies
of TheGrunts andwere clued up before I even
openedmy (lovely) mouth. So the books have
a life before, during and after the event, where
pupils and teaches can domore reading and
more projects based around the books. What
has been amazing has been the feedback. Yes,
Manymay have drawn pictures or done
some off-shoot writing of their own.
Then comes the event: Powerpoint
pictures, Axel drawing on aflipchart and,
in the forefront, me running aroundwaving
my arms about, and talking, talking, talking.
I’mforever asking questions, answering
questions and getting the children as
involved as possible. Though centred
around TheGrunts, we get to discuss
reading andwriting in general too.
Tips. Hints. Ideas. Advice.
At some events, I’ve even had children
come on up to act out elements of a story,
usingmyWhat If…? approach (“What if this
happens, then thatmight happenwhich then,
logically, leads to this…”) based on ideas
fromthe audience, shaped and guided byme
as the story progresses. To beginwith, it’s
usually the brave oneswho hesitatingly put
up their hand tomake a tentative suggestion.
Tenminutes in, and there’s generally a forest
of hands, and it’s hard to get themnot to
it’swonderful to hear
things fromteachers,
school librarians,
classes and individual
students, but Pop-Up
also has the statistics
to prove the success of
such initiatives. After our
visits toHackney, both
reading andwriting levels
improved in literacy tests
to such a degree that I
generated the heat of a
five-bar heater, suchwas
my glowof pride, whilst
Axel doodledGruffalos on his toes.
Pop-Up puts books in the hands of children
frommore deprived and oftenmore ethnically
diverse areas, and really helps themto get
themost out of what’s between the covers.
Long after we’ve been and come and gone, the
benefits of the fun of reading and the power
of words live on. And that’s no illusion.
In association with
