Welcome Back to...Brilliant Books!

Welcome back to Brilliant Books. 

For those of you who don't know the Brilliant Books project, if you fancy a "brilliant" explanation of what Brilliant Books does, you will find loads of information on this blog.

It is currently funded by an award from the Big Lottery Fund

If you are busy, here's Brilliant Books in a hundred words. 

Essentially, Brilliant Books go into schools with successful people in tow; people who credit their success in careers etc because they read fiction as children and continue to read.

In two hours, they give an inspirational talk, then help us work with up to twenty children, in small groups, mostly reluctant readers, each writing a short story. 

Finally, after eight weeks, the stories are collected in an anthology which is presented to the kids in front of their peers, so they essentially become published authors at between 10 and 14.

The team have moved on to a new school after two terms at Seely. 

We are now based at

Nottingham Free School

Working with 12 and 13 year olds at Secondary level. this presents the BB team with a different challenge. We've met the group and delivered two sessions so far.

The first session was delivered by Michelle Place

who read from rascally rabbit tearjerker Watership Down. 

Michelle started off in Nursery Nursing and is now Business Partner for Workforce Development at City Care, a supportive social enterprise connected to the NHS. 

Michelle is passionate about reading and talked about her love of fantasy novels of all types. She read an extract from the book - an original copy! - and then settled down to work with the children in small groups.

Phil set an exercise connected to Watership Down, which is a novel with a subtext of displacement and departure. Entitled Leaving Home, the team worked with seventeen young people on written exercises (1)

It was interesting that Watership Down could be seen as a metaphor for the European Refugee/Migrant Crisis, particularly those leaving war torn Syria and Afghanistan

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This Monday, in a change to the advertised programme, Mark Barry took over and delivered a talk on Comics and Graphic Novels. 

Mark is a writer, publisher and (mostly) a professional bid writer, downloading funds from government and other bodies for projects like Brilliant Books.

Mark talked about his educational difficulties (he was almost unteachable due to what is now recognised as ADHD, and then seriously bullied in one of Nottingham's most notorious schools), and credited exposure to superhero comics (such as Batman, Avengers, X-Men) as the first time he was able to sit and concentrate. 

Mark blossomed due to comics and to novels by authors such as Stephen King and James Herbert and then became a novelist, with one of his books selling several thousand copies and others attracting considerable respect.

He admitted to the chlidren - a mixed ability group with a varied, sometimes reluctant attitude to reading - that without comics, it is extremely unlikely that he would have written those books. 

In the break he displayed and discussed his comic collection and answered questions, but his main emphasis was all about how reading comics led to his success.

First appearance of Elektra: Assassin

The school are very keen on uniform and all the pupils, of whatever stream, dress in blazers and ties. 

Mark also discussed the work of some of his Indie author network - themselves success stories due to reading including top Indie romance novelist Georgia Rose ( a big supporter of BB), the Queen of Steampunk Rae Gee (ditto) and noted faction writer Brenda Perlin, whose anthology "LA PunkRocker" reached #1 in the US Punk charts.

This is the type of success network the kids need to be exposed to. And that's what Brilliant Books does.

It's been a good start so far and next week, we welcome Kevin Price, a legal expert and a massive Dickens reader...

...reading from classic Dickensian comedy of ambition and intrigue Great Expectations.

Thanks for reading.

The Brilliant Books team.

Phil Pidluznyj - Chief Facilitator

Shellie Eyre - Support Tutor

Mark Barry - Logistics and Resources

1) We were unable to take photos of children for these sessions as official parental permission had not been granted for many.

2) The funding for Brilliant Books comes from the Big Lottery Fund.  Forty eight percent of your £2 ticket goes toward good causes - projects like this - AND they pay the core costs which are absolutely necessary to run projects.

Say Goodbye to Brilliant Books at Seely...With April Towers

Music week, this week, and everyone let their hair down. The books are read, the stories are written. 

Now, let the music begin.

April Towers are an up and coming Nottingham electro-pop duo who have recently played to 2000 people in London and have had their new single featured on Radio 1. 


http://www.apriltowers.com/

The Towers were introduced to Brilliant Books by big friend of the project, music journalist Dom Gourlay

I was surprised at the pupil's wide range of music interests During the question and answer session, we discovered that a) there was someone into death metal and b)no-one was interested in One Direction!

Dom went for non-fiction as his reading choice, reading from the biography  of  his favourite band, the Manic Street Preachers.

And afterwards, Phil treated us to a couple of songs from his days as the lead singer with local pop bands such as New Apostles, Strangefriend, Aardvark and Submarine. 

Here's everyone's favourite, Boomerang, which had all the kids singing along.

Finally, the kids queued up to read from their  short stories, which will be compiled into the Scribes of Seely Anthology II in early May.

A page, with a parade of all the children reading, is being prepared as we speak. 

These are the future. If the kids stop reading, then books, wonderful, magnificent, brilliant books, will eventually die out and that would be a cause for great sadness. 

And who knows - some of  these children may well become writers.

But in the meantime, children are children and here's my favourite fun activity of the whole term, thanks to Valentine, the Masai poet and her incredible native "jumpers".

So, after sixteen weeks, it's time to say goodbye to Seely Primary School. 

BB is a time limited, Lottery funded project to encourage kids to love books and reading and, like rolling stones, we'll be moving on to another school in Nottingham soon. 

Phil Pidluznyj, Shellie Eyre, all the hosts who gave up their time to contribute, and me, Mark Barry, would like to thank the staff, pupils and parents of Seely Primary School, particularly the brilliant Mrs Anona Morley, whose impression of the Duracell rabbit and her tireless enthusiasm motivated us all.

And thank YOU, Brilliant Books watchers, for helping this blog reach 10,000 views. Your support is appreciated.

But most of all, thank you to the children who made it such great fun for us all.

To reading and the love of books.

Mark
The Society of Goldenagers

Superstriker Tony Lormor hosts this week's...Brilliant Books

Last week, our host on Brilliant Books was pro footballer Tony Lormor who plied his trade around the country, with connections to almost every football club in the vicinity - including Mansfield Town, Lincoln City, Chesterfield and, briefly, the oldest football league club on earth, (and one of the most prestigious), Notts County.

His wiki lists his achievements as a footballer and below, you can see a video of his latest adventure, a trip to the North Pole

Tony was one of the most interesting of our Hosts, because at school, he was intelligent and destined for university until Newcastle United came calling and that, as they say, was that. He stopped reading, stopped any academic work and concentrated on football. Before that, you rarely found Tony without a book in his possession. The upshot of this was that at the end of his career, (an extremely amusing story about his last match at humble Telford United), he was left with nothing. No money,  no qualifications and no future.  With kids expectant, Tony had to work. He sold double glazing on the phone and door to door - a soul destroying job - and undertook many other menial, low paid roles before first working for Mansfield Town in the back offices (under the spectacularly dodgy Haslam regime) and then Chesterfield (which was much more stable).

A gentleman, a man of humour and a man to whom life has delivered some harsh lessons on which wisdom grows, he has developed a passion for reading again and also writing. Tony is planning two books. One of which is a story of his life after football and the other is an inspirational piece aimed at young professionals who, like him, are showered with money and glory and forget that one day they will have to join the rest of the world. 

Brilliant Books is supported by the Big Lottery Fund

And that day comes sooner than many of the young football apprentices think.

He gave a brilliant talk and the kids loved what he had to say. Tony promised that he would read the short stories the kids will produce and we'll make sure he gets a copy of Scribes of Seely II.

Then Tony got the kids doing some football style warm ups around the hall...

After fruit and recreation, Phil gave the kids an exercise, which they attacked with gusto

or otherwise and then, finally, the kids read from their short stories. Bear in mind that these stories didn' exist three weeks ago except in note form, this was impressive stuff.

For parents of the young people on Brilliant Books, there will be a page of videos where you can see your children reading their stories. This is in production.

This was a terrific session and, like most of the sessions this half of Brilliant Books, a memorable one. Next week is the last Brilliant Books at Seely (for now, we hope) and we've all had a great time. 

The last session will be run by Dom Gourley, music journalist who is bringing local band April Towers, recently featured on Radio 1

Should be a LOT of fun...

See you there, Mark

The Epic Journey of Valentine Nkoyo from the Masai to Brilliant Books!

This week, we welcomed Masai Poet and culture specialist Valentine Nkoyo to Brilliant Books. 

Valentine was one of those girls you see on documentaries who lived a tribal life, including the daily 10 mile walk to the well with a Jerrycan strapped to her back. 

Not content with this life (without rejecting it), Valentine, intelligent and curious, wished to go to school. In Masai culture, brothers take precedence and as Valentine is from a polygamous family, there were an awful lot of brothers who took priority for any education her father could afford.

A determined and frustrated Valentine, a prodigious reader and lover of poetry and stories, composed a poem to her father. Bear in mind, girls in Masai culture are not allowed to speak directly to their father, so, by writing the poem, she was breaking a cultural tradition, which demonstrated that grit and determination.

https://vimeo.com/10067804

Its well worth a watch. Anyway, the upshot was, her father cried for the first time in his life and promptly sold his prize bull to pay the fees for Valentine's education. 

Unfortunately, he died two months later and her elder brothers were not as keen as he to continue. However, over time, and after enduring seven years worth of fragmented opportunities, Valentine found herself over in Great Britain on a scholarship and here she remains. 

Valentine is an advisor to government on the issue of Female Genital Mutilation and is a passionate opponent of that cultural tradition, which is still common in some British communities. 

Brilliant Books is funded by the Big Lottery Fund

She also works in Media at Nottingham's Mojatu Foundation, print and media partners of Empleo, who deliver Brilliant Books on behalf of Seely School.

Her favourite book is Alice in Wonderland

which she encouraged the children to read. One of my favourite moments of Valentine's in-depth presentation was her discussion of the Masai's skill in jumping. Some of the Brilliant Books gang couldn't wait to copy.

Valentine also brought along tribal dress and adornments, which everyone had fun trying out.

All in all, it was a great session of Brilliant Books. In common with authors the world over, only a few of the children met the Editor's deadline (twas it ever thus -Ed!) so we have an extra week to get the short stories in. 

Next week, we have ex-pro footballer Tony Lormor coming to talk about his life after football and his desire to turn that into an inspirational book for young people. He has recently returned from a trek to the Arctic.

Two weeks to go!

Mark

Some of the boys and girls from Brilliant Books - soon to be authors!

Top Community Developer Farah Khan Hosts Brilliant Books

This week, we welcomed well known community developer Farah Khan to Brilliant Books. Farah currently works for Nottingham City Council, helping to integrate new students at the Universities into Nottingham life. She's worked with unemployed people, people needing advice and has just finished working with homeless charity Framework. 

Farah is a prodigious reader and after today, I can safely vouch for her skills as  presenter. She managed to get the group of children - who were excited about a parallel visit of old boy Craig Westcarr to the school - interested in recycling and community refuse bin responsibility.  

Then she read from popular author Judy Blume's work

and asked the children to go away and design a poster about community recycling.

Then finally, the session concluded with a NASTY DEADLINE from the EDITOR about the young people's short stories. As it is half term this week, they have until Wednesday the 25th to write their stories and hand in to the editor. There were some moans and groans, I can tell you, but a rallying call from Bev Rolley, the teacher we worked with last week, saw most of the authors make a determined vow too beat the deadline

Just three sessions to go on Brilliant Books at Seely School. We resume again on Wednesday 25th with Masai poet and oral heritage specialist Valentine Nkoyo

See you next time, Mark

Interview with Judy Blume

Brilliant Book are On Fire!...with Fire Education Officer, Lorraine Langley

This week's host was Lorraine Langley, Education officer for the Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.

In easily the most interactive hosting so far, Lorraine bought a full presentation on Fire Safety that had the young people running around and rolling about simulating an escape from burning houses, one which Phil and me were dying to join in - however, time was against us :-)

Lorraine's introduction was moving. I won't go into detail, but she was open about her upbringing being a tough one and she talked about how books were an escape, an escape she has kept up with to this day, despite being the busy mother of an only mildly dysfunctional family. 

Lorraine also talked about how reading helped her in her career, how it helped her gain a law degree at night school, and how she transmits her love of reading to her two boys; like many, bewitched by the siren song of console games.

She read from CS Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, a famous high fantasy children's novel which inspired her as a child. You could have heard a pin drop.

I wanted to ask Lorraine why the Fire Brigade is no longer called the Fire Brigade, but time overwhelmed us and, after healthy fruit and a runabout, it was time to get the stories sorted out for Scribes of Seely II.

Brilliant Books is funded by the Big Lottery Fund

Phil asked them to create a short piece where the main character in their stories - the protagonist - sets off on a quest to slay a fire-breathing dragon. 

I wanted to point out that dragons have become much more popular (indeed, protected) since the days when the patron saint of England and the Lebanon went round slaying them, but I was too busy transporting kit to and fro. Changing attitudes towards dragons notwithstanding, the group entered the spirit of the exercise with gusto: One of the girls, Emma, managed to get six people into her quest and wrote a dialogue between them.

Phil asked them to read out their pieces as usual and once again, there were no shortage of volunteers.

Then, finally, the young people were asked to add an action point to their stories (a conflict, a gamechanger).  

I took a lot of photograph requests this week and we all took this as a big sign that the young people were enjoying themselves and certainly, after Rae Gee's brilliant session last week and Lorraine's this, the atmosphere certainly caught fire, to labour a metaphor.

Next week, we have noted Community Developer and school Governor, Farah Khan joining us as host and the young people have two weeks to get their short stories into order before the Ed gets hold of them. Hope you are enjoying this as much as the Brilliant Books team are.

Mark

PS: At the beginning of the session,  Lorraine recounted hearing on the radio that children who read for pleasure were thirteen times more likely to get on in life. I struggled to find the research despite tweeting like a budgie all week about it. However, I did find this terrific PDF which goes a long way to pointing out why kids should read for fun.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284286/reading_for_pleasure.pdf

Kindly dragons

Fireman Sam and the Fire Brigade