Julia Donaldson
Friday 19 March, 2pm
This special event, which was held in partnership with Burnley Youth Theatre, provided an introduction to our Kicking Leaves Children's Literature Festival which will be launched in Autumn 2010. The event offered a unique opportunity to listen to one of the greatest writers for children of the 21st century. Although most famous for The Gruffalo, Julia has written over 150 books...
This rare and special event was open to all teachers at Pennine Lancashire schools, but we also welcomed other interested professionals, parents and carers on the day. One lady took half a day off and travelled all the way from Chester!
Julia talked about her work and career in a high energy presentation which involved members of the audience recreating one of her early songs (which was later published as a book)! She took the audience through her early career, talking about how she progressed from initial busking activity to producing songs for the BBC to having her work published. She also discussed some of the technical aspects of writing and getting work published such as the relationships between writer, publisher and illustrator and page layout.
The event, which was held at Burnley Youth Theatre, included a stall run by Badger Books from Burnley. The audience wiped their stock out and queued around the theatre waiting for Julia to sign their copies. Julia carried all this out with exceptional grace, taking the time to talk to everyone individually before signing their books with a unique message.
Once the event came to a conclusion, pupils from Todmorden CE Primary School entered the theatre where they had a short, informal audience with Julia. Here they got the opportunity to ask the author pre-prepared questions like 'who is your best friend' and 'what's your favourite colour'. The class also presented Julia with a bunch of flowers and a Gruffalo inspired book they had created in class.
We would like to thank Julia and everyone involved for a successful and inspirational day.