Chewton Mendip Primary School

I am reading patron to Chewton Mendip Primary School!

I’ve just finished reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo. It’s about a china rabbit called Edward Tulane, who belonged to a little girl called Abilene, who adores him. But one day he is lost, and the story is about how he is found and lost, and found again, several times. I really enjoyed his adventurous journey of personal discovery, and I recommend it if you enjoy adventure stories, stories set in other times (it is set in the 1930s) and stories containing just a little bit of magic!

Julia, in year 5, squirrel class, has been inspired to make her very own poetry book – here is one of her poems. This is fabulous, Julia! You have really captured the power of the wind, and an extraordinary feeling of place, in your line ‘a great big landmark of its will’. And what a wonderful couple of lines ‘and when the trees come into sight, the wind will dare them to go and fight’. Excellent imagery of the tree branches tussling with the wind! I look forward to seeing your book when I next come in.

Here are the answers to a questionsI have been asked!

Harry from Year 6, Fox Class, wanted to know what some of my favourite books are. Here is a list! These are all books for around your age group.

Books I loved when I was young:

Five children and It by E. Nesbit. It is about a psammead, a sand fairy, who grants wishes. Those wishes get the Pevensey children into a lot of troubles.

All of the Narnia books, my favourite being The Magician’s Nephew. My next favourite is The Silver Chair because it has a Marsh Wiggle in, my favourite character in the whole series. I read these books over and over again.

All of the Famous Five, and The Adventure series by Enid Blyton.

My brother’s books which included Biggles who flew aeroplanes.

The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier, this is a book about a refugee child. It is very exciting.

The Mystery Series by Alfred Hitchcock (who was a well-known film director), called things like Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators and the The Mystery of the Screaming Clock, or The Mystery of the Shrinking House! These were great fun.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (I got this from the library, and when I had to take it back I’d wait for it to go back on the shelf and take it out again!). This is science fiction, and was the strangest book I had ever read. But I loved it.

The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin – this is fantasy – set in another world, where there are wizards and dragons.

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner – ooh, this is magical realism. Our own world, but with magic. Harry Potter is magical realism, when he is in the human world!

When Marnie Was There, Joan G Robinson – this is a story about loneliness and it has a… but no, I can’t tell you that, it’s a surprise!

Catseye or Trillians, both by André Norton – science fiction for young people, again!

Just some of the books that I have read since I was grown up and loved:

How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant by Elen Caldecott. I love all Elen’s books , especially her Marsh Road detective mystery series, but this one is special because she wrote some of it on an MA we did together in Bath. There really is an MA on Writing for Young people, and it was the best year of my life. MA is short for Master of Arts and it is what you do if you want to get really good at what you love doing, after taking a degree at university. Elen’s books are about young people who take matters into their own hands – and all the things that happen after that!

Maurice Gleitzman is always funny, there is one called Bumface I recall…

Aquila by Andrew Norris – I loved this book, which is about two boys who discover a space ship after falling down a hole on a geography trip.

Mark of the Cyclops by Saviour Pirotta. Saviour was born in Malta (no, that does not mean he is a malteser), but now lives in England, and he writes mysteries and stories set with historical backgrounds. When I was young I enjoyed the stories by Henry Treece, and Saviour’s writing reminds me of his. They are very exciting.

Mondays are Murder Tanya Landman. Tanya is another writer whose books are exciting and hard to put down.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (the very first line in this book made my son laugh and laugh!)

Eager by Helen Fox. There are several in this series about a little robot. They made me laugh. And want a robot.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. I have just finished this – it is about a china rabbit called Edward Tulane, whose owner, Abilene, adores him. But sadly Edward gets lost at sea – the book is all about the adventures he has, the owners he finds, and the love he discovers along the way to finding his miraculous way back home.

Charles Darwin’s on the Origin of Species by Sabina Radeva. This is a factual picture book about Charles Darwin’s theories. He was one of the very first people to realise that all life adapts (evolves) to live in the particular place that it lives. This is a beautiful book, and very interesting.

Skellig by David Almond. This is a strange tale about a young boy whose family life is in the middle of a crisis. He is in a no-man’s land where his comfortable, safe past is no longer, and where he cannot see the future. He finds a creature in his garage who helps him survive during this tricky time. I wrote a poem about the theme of this book – here it is:

In the dark,

between

what is going to be,

and what is,

I found him.

He was almost

too far from hope.

I told him mine.

He was nothing,

he had no fear.

I brought him mine.

He came from nowhere,