Spreading the word

Groups of bookworms from each school were chosen to read 4 different books chosen by local school Librarians and feed back to each other about them. In the morning, all of the readers went to Greendown’s Library and came up with presentations for each book and voted for their personal favourite out of the 4. After the votes were counted, we discovered that the winning book was “The Knife of Never letting go” by Patrick Ness.

This now triggered a great debate which covered all sorts of topics including whether it was realistic enough and why the other books weren’t so great. This activity gave people a chance to voice their own opinions on all the books and some people got quite passionate about their views.

In the afternoon, all the students went to Dorcan School to watch the winner of our book debate, Patrick Ness, talk about writing. It was a really great talk which made a lot of students giggle, especially when he talked to us about his Cat. His speech about the 3 main tips of writing (Write, read and re-write) really inspired me to write and I think everyone in the room enjoyed his talk. Patrick Ness’ books are some of my favourites so it was fantastic to meet him. He signed everyone’s books and wrote a special comment in each.

As soon as I got home that evening, I left a comment on his website. The next day, he had replied and written about how much he enjoyed himself in Swindon. I was really pleased when I read his reply and glad he had a excellent time. This is a real credit to the Swindon 10 festival that writers are keen to take part. I had a brilliant day and would love to take part in another activity like this. It was interesting to talk to other people about their views on the books we read and it was great to meet Patrick Ness. I’m sure everyone else enjoyed themselves as much as I did.

By Faye Rogers, Greendown Community School