It's Roald Dahl Day, Hooray!

Today, Friday 26th September, we are celebrating the life of the wonderful children's author, Roald Dahl.
  Here are 10 facts about him, some you may know and perhaps some that you didn't:

1. He was born on 13 September 1916, in Llandaff, Cardiff. His parents were Norwegian.
2. He did not start writing for children until he had children of his own.
3. He wrote all of his children's stories in a small hut at the bottom of his garden.
4. He was a Hurricane fighter pilot during World War II.
5. He had two steel hips and six operations on his spine.
6. He wrote the screenplays for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Bond movie You Only Live Twice.
7. He originally wrote short stories for adults which were later published as Tales of the Unexpected.
8. He loved chocolate, but not chocolate cake or chocolate ice cream.
9. He always wrote in pencil on yellow paper.
10.  He died on 23 November 1990 and is buried in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's Church, Great Missenden.             

      Roald Dahl wrote 17 children’s novels and 3 children's poetry books.  In total he has published  48 books (not including published screenplays and plays).

Today everyone in our school will be dressing up as their favourite character from one of his many stories.

 Who will you be?

          

Meeting Kevin Brooks

On Friday 27th June Helena and Connor from Year 6 were invited to Sidney Stringer Academy to listen to the author Kevin Brooks talk about his latest book ' The Ultimate Truth'.

Both were lucky to receive a free copy of the book from Coventry Libraries as part of the 2014 Literary Festival and were able to get them personally signed by the author who is the current 2014 

Carnegie Medal prizewinner for his novel 'The Bunker Diaries'.

Kevin Brooks writes mainly for older teens but this is his first novel for Years 6/7.  It features Travis Delaney, a 13 year old boy, whose parents run a private detective agency.  Travis' parents are both killed in a mysterious car accident and he decides to use all he has learnt from them to uncover the truth behind this unfortunate event.  It is a real adventure story full of intrigue and suspense.
I shall be adding a copy to the school library shortly.

Author Visit 24.06.14

We were very lucky to host an author event at Howes today as part of the Coventry Literary Festival 2014.  Years 4 and 5, along with children from Whitley Abbey Primary School and Frederick Bird Primary School, welcomed children's author Lyn Gardner to our school.

Lyn told us how she began writing books for children only 8 years ago and has now had a total of 11 books published, her latest being a gripping adventure on the high seas starring her motley band of pirates.

She has also written a series of books about two sisters who find themselves placed in a stage school run by their grandmother after the unfortunate death of their mother.  The girl's adventures can be found in the Olivia series of seven books, the first being Olivia's First Term.


Lyn read extracts of this book and was pleased to be able to sign copies for those children who bought a copy on the day. 

I have purchased a  copy of this book which will be available in the library soon.

Lyn is also a prolific theatre goer, attending five or six plays each week around the country and abroad. She writes critical theatre reviews  for the Guardian newspaper in London.

Mrs Henshaw