The afternoon’s workshop at the British Library began with a presentation that helped the eight children understand the mood of terror.
Sights and sounds, ghosts, enormous spiders, zombies, mummies and pirates found their way into ideas children expressed before they began to write.

And then, I gave them their prompt –
The crows cried out in the distance. Hundreds, thousands of crows perched on the roof of the old, empty house. Then, the door opened …

I was prepared for a creepy story.
I got eight creepy stories.

One wrote of the ‘Door of No Return’.
An old violinist opened the door …
A tremendous sound echoed.
NEXT LEVEL! flashed the computer screen.

Another wrote about three children being whisked away into a mirror in the haunted house. And then, the ghost of Mr Scribble Hopper wrote the names of the three children on a piece of paper listing the children he had killed.

What a thrilling afternoon it was!

At the first of today’s workshops at the British Library, children in the age-group 5-7 brought their favourite toys to talk about.

There were two little creatures called Sita and Gita.
A boy made up a story about how squeaky Sita and jingly Gita walked into his room while he was asleep. He was frightened, but understood when he woke up.

There was a Lego space-shuttle. A girl made up a story about how the shuttle went to a place where aliens experimented on humans.

There was a pink-roofed house with Lego girls.
The house was, of course, haunted. The theme is Creepy House. 

And there was Croco – a crocodile whose teeth were yellow because no one ever brushed his teeth.

What a delightful hour I had!

At the British Library workshop for the 5-7 age-group today, I read out a story about a black dog.

Mr Hope is afraid of the black dog because it’s as big as a tiger.
Mrs Hope is afraid of the black dog because it is as big as an elephant.
Adeline Hope is afraid of the black dog because it’s as big as a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Maurice Hope is afraid of the black dog because it is as big as Big Jeffy.

“What do you think Big Jeffy is?” I asked.

“I think it’s a very very very very very very very very very very very big alien,” responded one six-year-old.

We discussed what an alien is. We discussed whether or not aliens are friendly, whether or not aliens are like humans, whether or not aliens are monsters, and whether or not aliens have LASER guns.
But we all agreed to the suggestion that Big Jeffy was an alien.

One of the children, when it came to colouring her thoughts, drew a big, smiling, two-legged alien with horns.
After a whole story about a scary black dog, that’s what she chose to draw.

As part of the Reading Challenge organised by the British Library, I will be conducting four workshops!

Age-group 5-7
Read Aloud and Colour your Thoughts!                               12th January, 2014
Stories are always more fun when they have pictures. When they have more pictures, they are more interesting! So read a story, or listen to a story and imagine… Whatever you imagine, put down on paper. Draw and colour images from what you read – fill your ideas with colour! The best illustration will receive a prize.
Show and Tell                                                                             9th February, 2014
Bring something from home and talk about it to the other children. Build your confidence as you talk about something you love. After that, let your imagination go wild. Look at the toys around you in the Junior Section of the library and try to talk about what you see. Better still, make up a story about one of the toys you see there. The most confident, imaginative child will receive a prize.

Age-group 8-13
What happens next?  Complete the Story…                          9th February, 2014
The door creaked open and a shadow fell on the wooden floor. Upstairs, someone switched on a light…Participants will be taught the basics of characterisation, setting and plot. Then they will be given the first few sentences of a story that they have to complete. It’s time for them to put pen to paper and create a story that will have us hanging on to each word!
Express Yourself!                                                                       23rd February, 2014
Suppose you have to get your team to say the word ‘breakfast’. You cannot act or translate. You can speak, making full sentences, but there’s another rule. You are given five words that you aren’t allowed to use! Without using the words ‘eat’, ‘morning’, ‘lunch’, ‘food’ and ‘dinner’, can you make your team say the word ‘breakfast’?  Express yourself! Use as many new words as you can to make your team understand what you want to tell them!

And that was the end of that. Photographs will come soon, I’m sure. But right now, my head is filled with all kinds of thoughts.

Children are like magpies. They love shiny things. All of them loved the golden tape I took with me to bind their work together. I thought they’d like to use ribbons, but golden tape won hands down.

Children are affectionate in ways that adults can never be. One of the children stood at my elbow, rubbing his stomach on my arm. I cannot even begin to imagine an older child doing that.

Children are unbelievably creative. Drawing, colouring, writing and sharing – team work seems to come naturally to most of them. Only one group yesterday found it difficult to work in a team.

The best part, I think, was the fact that everyone was too excited with the workshop to be sad that it was over. One child wrote in her feedback form, “I don’t think that the workshop was good. It was awesome and amazing.”

“Tomorrow, our last session, is going to have the most exciting activity of all!” I announced, at the end of today’s session.

“Ooh! What is it?”

“What are we going to do?”

“What is the activity for tomorrow?”

“I’ll tell you tomorrow!” I said, smiling. “So, how do you feel?”
I expected them to say ‘excited’, ‘enthusiastic’, ‘curious’, ‘eager’ …

All of them, practically unanimously said, “We feel sad!”

“The workshop is getting OVER!” one of them explained.

I did not know whether to be happy or sad.

I always tremble when I talk about my book. But somehow, today was just perfect. For once, I felt that the children simply loved the story and were still eager for more!

Today was a grand day.

I bit my lip controlling my laughter as a child read a little excerpt he had written about writing letters.

About how he would write a letter.
His mother would write a letter.
His father would write a letter.
His friends would write letters too.
He ended the letter-writing spree with ‘I love Geronimo Stilton’.
I didn’t quite understand the link, somehow.

The children are wonderfully enthusiastic about everything I do with them! I made them write, make comics, listen, draw, colour… They were excited about everything!

The library wants me to conduct the workshop again during the holidays. I’m not yet looking forward to it – right now, I’m looking forward to two more sessions with this lovely group of children!

Reading is Fun!

Day One

Day Two

And now, I’m excited about the next one, coming soon …

Yesterday was the second exciting session with eager young children, waiting to be entertained.

I began with a presentation on the process of the making of the book – from the mind of the writer to the hands of the reader. It was a long (yet brief) detailed explanation of different aspects of the process. Reading, getting an idea, writing, sending the manuscript, rejections, sending it again, an acceptance, contract, editing …

It was an engaging discussion, with the children enthusiastic about participating.

“Any questions?” I asked, before moving on to the next activity I had planned for them.

Several hands went up. I asked one of them.

His question was, “If the process is so long, why does anyone want to become a writer?”

All the other hands went down. I think everyone had the same question.

And fun it certainly was! I had 21 children there in all. Apparently, after 20 registrations had been made, someone wanted to join. The child was told that there were no seats left, but she could try her luck, show up at the workshop and see if anyone backed out.
The child diligently showed up early. No one backed out, but how could I tell her to go home? I told her to join in!

We read, we acted, we played. I recited Television by Roald Dahl.
I made them recite several poems. One of them was exceptionally good.
I made them go get to know one another, asking one another questions about books, what the others like, what they dislike, evertything. How enthusiastic all of them were!

At the end, they filled a feedback slip for me.
18 children chose ‘good’ from the three options given to them (Good, Average, Bad).
One child asked what ‘average’ meant and then happily ticked average.
One child was not sure, so cheerfully ticked both ‘good’ and ‘average’.

At the end, as usual, there was a little space for suggestions. My favourite suggestion was: I loved it and will attend all five setions.

Thirteen children will be part of my reading workshop that starts on Sunday! Seven seats left . . .

I spoke to Ms Sugandhi from the British Library last Sunday, and she said that 11 children had already registered!

There are just 20 seats in all; now is the time!