I’d visited quite a few schools in Fleetwood and it was lovely to make my first visit to Chaucer to share my books with the Key Stage 2 pupils.
My author assembly is as much an inspirational pitch as it is about reading and writing so I started off by asking the children about their dreams and aspirations. I heard from lots of children and it was a joy to listen to them explain about their hopes for the future and some of the occupations they wanted to pursue.
I then shared the Tales and Eric with the pupils. They listened ever so well as I talked about the writing process and read extracts from both books. The eagle-eyed pupils spotted the changes which Martin made during the process of creating the illustrations and I think they were a bit shocked when they saw all of the various manuscripts.
The pupils asked lots of questions at the end of the session and some of them were really challenging! I was asked which author I’d like to be. I’ve visited over 100 different schools and that’s the first time I’ve heard that one! Each time I think I’ve been asked all of the possible questions someone surprises me – it’s great!
I signed copies of both books after the session and managed to chat to the pupils and staff. It was a great morning at Chaucer and I’d like to thank Miss Soper for organising the session.