Barrington Stoke issue Autumn 10

Schools Update Issue 6 Autumn 2010

In this issue Features

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James Lovegrove’s Lords of Pain meet their match page 2 The word from

How Helena and friends are speaking up for dyslexia support page 8

Cathy Forde helps young writers make their lives an open book page 6

Why everyone wants to join the D Club in Edinburgh page 5

Free copies of Bad Wedding page 6 Free author posters page 12

Tommy Donbavand puts the bite into real-life horror page 4

Karen McCombie remembers the joy of reading page11

Face the facts with humour, says Gill Arbuthnott page 12

Special discounts on group or class sets page 13

Dates for your diary page 13

New e-book page 12

50% off back to school orders page 13 Like to see our books?

See page 13 to arrange a visit

Schools Update Issue 6

Honour from the Lords Young consultants who went into overdrive on James Lovegrove’s martial arts series were rewarded by helping him launch the books

The Coopers consultants with teacher Sue Gillespie and James Lovegrove

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arrington Stoke’s young consultants can be fierce and authors who meet them in person have good reason to be nervous.

James Lovegrove is used to creating scary scenarios for his Five Lords of Pain series and the science fiction novels and short stories he writes for adults, but was he bold enough for an encounter with his team of consultants at Coopers Technology College in Chislehurst, Kent?

To celebrate the launch of the first Five Lords book, The Lord of the Mountain, James girded his loins and headed for Coopers back in March.

The consultants – Thomas, Richard, Nathan, Billy, Sean and James – had been recruited from Years 8, 9 and 10 to report on all five of James’ books about a young devotee of martial arts, Tom Yamada, his fierce coach,

Dragon, and his duels with his powerful demon lord enemies. The series is being published at demonic speed – the fourth book, The Lord of the Typhoon, is just out and The Lord of the Void and The Lord of Tears have also appeared since March. There’s only The Lord of the Fire left to go.

Sue Gillespie, Coopers’ Access to Learning teacher, chose the consultants from the pupils to whom she gives learning support in small groups through their school career. One of only three consultancy teams consulting on all five books, the boys met with Sue for 45-minute sessions every week in the autumn term of 2009 and finished the last book with their parents in the Christmas holidays.

“They were very keen,” she said.

“They could not wait to get to the next book.”

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Schools Update Issue 6

As a reward for their hard work, the boys were given a day off timetable when James visited the school last spring. They led two discussion sessions with Year 8 groups and chatted to him over lunch with headteacher Sheila Puxty, before he presented them with their consultants’ certificates and copies of The Lord of the Mountain.

“The consultancy has put them in the position of knowing more than their peers and taking the lead in a group, which is something special for them.” said Sue. “And nothing can match the excitement of seeing your name in a book [young consultants always get a credit in the finished book].”

Sue created a descriptive writing project for her Access to Learning pupils based on the books. “They have achieved a standard of writing which I would not have previously imagined they could achieve,” she said. “They have learned to appreciate dramatic irony, similes and metaphors.”

The consultants produced animated PowerPoint presentations to introduce fellow pupils to the Five Lords.

James built on the introduction by explaining that the demons each represented one of the five elements in Japanese culture: earth, air, fire, water and the void, and each has a special power and characteristics.

“I like the Lord of the Typhoon [air] best. All the others like to show off and boast before they attack Tom but he lays straight into him.”

Tom is half English and half Japanese, and aged 15 to give the books a wide age interest. His fierce cousin Mai, introduced in the third book, adds appeal for girl readers.

“I love martial arts but only as a spectator sport, especially in Jackie Chan’s early films,” says James. “I did Thai kick-boxing for three weeks and gave it up because it hurt too much.

The books were sheer pleasure to write, however. I just had to make sure that each Lord fitted into my overall structure and that the last book, The Lord of Fire, brought everything together and the characters did what they were supposed to.”

He also appreciated the consultants’ comments.“When you go through the manuscript again you realise that some words don’t work or aren’t right.

I also got slapped down for my text message abbreviations, which were completely wrong. The consultants did a great job.”

Visit www.fivelordsofpain.co.uk for monthly competitions, special features and James Lovegrove’s blog. Take advantage of the ‘carriage free’ offers on this website.

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Author on the road ‘Glarghh!’, Tommy Donbavand’s first career as an actor (including eight years touring with Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story) stood him in good stead when he recorded his Barrington Stoke title Zombie! for audiobook earlier this year, complete with zombie screams.

Despite his talent for creating vampires, zombies and werewolves, Tommy has always wanted to create a horror story where all the horror was generated by humans themselves. So The Uniform, published in July, is about a bullied boy who takes on the character of a bully when his mum buys the bully’s school uniform in a charity shop. “The power is in all of us to be bully or victim,” Tommy says. “We are just waiting for something to unleash it.”

Buy Zombie! here

He has school events planned to promote The Uniform in October and November, plus a visit to the Mountains and Sea Book Festival in Dublin, but is keeping September clear because he’s getting married. He’s just finished his next book for Barrington Stoke: Wolf, to be published in August 2011.

Yes, it’s a werewolf story, but one which focuses entirely on the moment of transformation.

Tommy has wanted to write for Barrington Stoke since looking for books for his son, who was offered a Thomas the Tank Engine book to read at eight years old.

Special discounts on group or class sets see page 13

Buy The Uniform here

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Schools Update Issue 6 Longstone primary school, Edinburgh The word from

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ur D Club was created to address the needs of our dyslexic pupils in the upper school, to look at the pupils more holistically and provide them with a forum to discuss and develop their knowledge and understanding of dyslexia.

The club meets weekly in school time. Very little formal teaching takes place; much of the value comes through pupils’ discussion of their Leigh on Second Chance by Alison own experiences or the development Prince: “Interesting, scary, exciting and of their own ideas. The pupils learn sad at the same time. I thought it was through ongoing projects in which they the best book because it was realistic.” create something they are proud of.

Technology plays a major role.

Beth on Dead Cool by Peter Clover: Computers, spellcheckers and cameras “Interesting but magical at the same have all been used successfully. time. My favourite character was The club members have learned how Smitty because he made me laugh so to use software suitable for pupils with much when he gets all freaked out.” dyslexia and many now choose to use the programs in class.

Cameron on The Hat Trick by Terry Deary. “An amazing book.

The members are enterprising: one My favourite character was Jud. project was to produce and sell I especially liked the bit where when Christmas quizzes and programmes.

Jud got to play football.”

The money raised was used to buy The D Club library members choose their favourites

resources for pupils with dyslexia including Barrington Stoke books, and they have set up a small D Club library.

The club members like Barrington Stoke books and are inspired to read, discuss and review them independently. They like the size of the print and the length of the books and they find them easy to read and the topics interesting and appropriate for their age group. Some appreciate having tinted pages.

Club projects have included producing leaflets, films, art displays, PowerPoint

presentations and animations.

The pupils’ creativity and thinking skills have been valued and developed.

Many projects have involved finding strategies to combat the difficulties the pupils experience. Their confidence has been developed and their self-esteem has been raised.

Some projects have been presented to parents, other pupils and staff which has increased understanding of dyslexia. Being dyslexic means that the pupils are often very creative, and they are never short of ideas for future projects. Last term they created animations which were shown to parents and pupils at our end-of-year assembly.

The club members have worked hard to make Longstone a dyslexia-friendly school and the message is spreading.

In 2007 the D Club won an Edinburgh Standard Life Achievement Award for Creativity. In 2009, a film made by the club was shown to pupils in other schools in Edinburgh and East Lothian and to a meeting for Support for Learning teachers in Edinburgh.

Other schools in the city have started up similar clubs.

The club sessions are relaxed, happy gatherings and pupils gain confidence and knowledge in an informal way, supporting each other. They learn skills for life and go off to high school with a very positive outlook and a determination to succeed.

Lorna Robertson, Support for Learning teacher Page 5

Schools Update Issue 6

True life on the page A brief to inspire all young people in Scotland to see themselves as writers meant Cathy Forde had to take her own writing process apart

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riting novels for teenagers, Cathy (Catherine) Forde’s daily concerns include how to sustain pace and excitement through a story, create believable characters who speak and behave in a real way, deliver an opening that hooks readers and add an ending that leaves them satisfied or shaken. These factors are all even more crucial in her Gr8 read title for Barrington Stoke, Dead Men Don’t Talk.

Spending the past year as Scottish Young Book Trust’s virtual writer in residence, with a brief to encourage all young people to write, meant that she had to think about how she does her job. As she says, “It has forced me to analyse the way I approach my own writing and break it down into chunks of information.”

The core of the year’s residency is contained in Cathy’s six podcasts on various aspects of writing, each supported by notes for teachers and pupils. She covers first lines, characters (“the beating heart of a story”), dialogue, setting (how to use the senses to create atmosphere), music (recognising the central place of the MP3 player in teenagers’ lives) and endings.

Cathy has now moved on to her next SBT project – mentoring three young writers throughout the autumn term – but the podcasts and other resources are still available free on the SBT website, as are the previous year’s podcasts from the first virtual writer in residence, Keith Gray (another

Barrington Stoke author).

Cathy’s central theme is encouragement for young writers to use their own lives as a source of inspiration. “I’m always keen to get young people to see that their lives and the people they know, and the things that happen to them are all worthy of being fictionalised: funny, exciting, unusual. I think that a lot of young people – in the face of celebrity-driven culture – devalue the everydayness of their lives, and see it as worthless and boring. I try to change the mindset of young people who don’t think they have anything worth saying.”

‘Young people devalue the everydayness of their lives’ So Cathy sets the first task firmly in the writers’ own homes: they are asked to write a first line about an average breakfast time on an average day when something is different.

The task is deliberately simple – “everyone in a class will be able to join in, including those who think they have no ideas for a story” – but every unit includes extension tasks. The section on character again asks young writers to focus on people they know and observe how they behave in various moods. “Think of people you know so well you know how they tick, you can tell when they walk through the door what mood they’re in. How do you know when your mum is stressed?”

The more complex tasks examine characters’ motives and flaws: “What is their secret ambition? What are they afraid of? Under what circumstances would they lie?”

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obsessed bride in the story. “I had a playlist of all the wedding music I hate, the ‘Titanic’ theme, ‘Lady in Red’ and the rest. When I did events for the book I would play these really bad wedding songs and the audience would join in. Then I gave the bride’s stepsister, the bridesmaid who wrecks the whole thing, an Etta James blues song to sing which helped to reveal her character.”

While writing Dead Men Don’t Talk, Cathy explains, “I kept thinking of my own house – my loft, the creepy noises in it. I remembered how the house freaked me out when I first saw it, all run down and cobwebby. Also, with Gr8reads being so short, every single word and gesture the characters said and made had to reveal something about either themselves or the story.

“Writing for Barrington Stoke is very good for my writing: I have to be so disciplined. If I manage to find the perfect word that uses my true voice and it doesn’t get changed by the language consultants, it feels like a real achievement. I hope each book will be a portal into other books for someone who might not previously have enjoyed reading.”

‘For Bad Wedding, I had a playlist of all the wedding music I hate’ Bad Wedding, one of her longer novels for Barrington Stoke and, like Dead Men Don’t Talk, published last year, shows her playlist strategy in action.

She enjoyed compiling a list of tacky wedding music selected by the self-

Cathy’s advice, which could be applied to any task: “Don’t panic and start writing straight away. If you have an hour to write a story, take five minutes first to plan your journey.”

‘My writing has become more dialogue-driven’

The podcasts include glimpses of the mind maps, scribbled notes and pages torn from wedding magazines (for Bad Wedding) that are part of Cathy’s own The music tasks start with “Choose writing life. Her writer-in-residence a song you like and write your own lyrics” with pupils who are interested in blog offers more insights, covering the period when she was writing her composing, recording and performing first play (Empty, performed by the encouraged to do so. In between they National Theatre of Scotland earlier are encouraged to create playlists for this year). Meanwhile she hosted online their own lives, starting with the first creative writing clinics for Glow, the song they remember and those that evoke happy or sad memories: Cathy schools intranet for Scotland, and explains how “A Whiter Shade of Pale” fitted in talks to live audiences.

Next she’s writing a young people’s

by Procul Harum whisks her back to playscript for schools and another new a summer holiday when she was six, “like a time machine”. The next step is play for National Theatre of Scotland. creating playlists for each character in “My writing has become more dialogue-driven and this is a a story. new direction that I am enjoying.”

Don’t panic and start writing And coming soon for Barrington Stoke, right away a comedy, Let’s Do It, about a bunch of friends who decide to make a stunt For the section on endings – “which film. It’ll soon be time to think about most people who ask me for advice that first line. about writing find difficult to tackle” – Cathy gathered advice from 12 other Visit www.scottishbooktrust.com to writers which is on the SBT website download creative writing resources in podcast and written form. Andy for teachers and pupils by Cathy Forde Stanton finds that the ending is in the and Keith Gray. story already “hidden in what’s gone before it”. Frank Cottrell Boyce’s view Barrington Stoke is offering FREE copies is that “the best way to make sure you of Bad Wedding to the first 40 teachers surprise other people is to surprise or librarians who email their details to yourself first”. Many contributions echo schools@barringtonstoke.co.uk Page 7

Schools Update Issue 6

‘Think of us as snowflakes’ Every dyslexic child should be perceived as unique, says Helena Sinclair. She should know: she is the fifth dyslexic in her family and has won an award as a positive role model

Helena was diagnosed at seven and believes that her primary school, Morven Park primary, gave her the support and confidence she needed for a successful move to secondary school. “But I had seen my brothers having trouble because teachers didn’t understand fully what they were going through. My parents were aware that I might have dyslexia too and knew when they needed to ask for help for me. My mum did a good job on that eet Daydreaming Dave, whose and after I was diagnosed school was enjoyable for me. teachers often assume he’s lazy because he finds it hard to focus, Silent Sally who fades into the “What people need to understand is the wide range of ways dyslexia can background and Mary Motor Mouth affect you. That’s why I created the who feels more confident speaking characters. I identify with Mary Motor than writing and might appear to talk Mouth because I am much better at too much. talking than writing things down and I am confident at talking to large groups.

Helena Sinclair, a pupil at Ashfield I can give the impression of talking School in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, too much.”

Nottinghamshire, created this cast of characters to make adults and children This confidence and performance better informed about dyslexia. She is the youngest of five dyslexics in her energy (Helena enjoys dance and drama, and is encouraged that many family: her father Adrian and three people in the performing arts have older brothers all have the condition. dyslexia) spurred her on to volunteer, aged just 13, to give presentations about her experience of dyslexia to a Nottinghamshire teachers’ conference when the advertised speaker could not attend.

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Helena Sinclair with her parents Bev and Adrian receiving her award.

year after her GCSEs (she is now 15 and about to enter Year 11). “Primary school is when children need to understand there is nothing strange or weird about having dyslexia and needing to use a laptop or coloured filters or other equipment. The ideal is that it becomes natural to see other children dealing with their dyslexia and you don’t need to make a fuss about it. I want to use some drama in the assemblies, make them alive and interactive, use my drawings of the characters and get the audience involved.”

Meanwhile Helena has helped to set up a pupils’ dyslexia support group and mentoring system at her school.

“I liked the one-to-one mentoring I had “I was nervous at first but I had things at primary school and it is happening to say so I just got on with it,” she at my school now. When I first went recalls. Teachers in the audience invited to secondary school I had to get used her to speak at their schools and she to explaining what I needed over and has since developed a presentation over again because there were a lot for primary school assemblies which more people. There are only a few she wants to take into schools next dyslexic children in my year but quite a Page 8

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lot through the school and we have set up a system of older ones mentoring younger ones. I will be doing less of that this year, though, because of my exams. I don’t find exams easy.”

Earlier this year Helena’s work as a positive role model made her the junior winner in Nottinghamshire’s Young People of the Year awards. She won a prize of £250 with the same amount donated to the support group run by her mother Bev, The Special Needs Information and Resource Group (SMILE), which recently won its own award for the best community group in the Ashfield area. Mrs Sinclair set up the group, run by parents for parents, when trying to meet the learning needs of Helena’s brothers: Arron, now 21, is about to study physiotherapy at university, 19-year-old Dominic is a bricklayer and Joshua, 17, is qualifying as a personal trainer.

“The boys have all got through school and worked out what they want to do, but it hasn’t been easy sometimes and parents really need the support of other parents,” says Mrs Sinclair.

SMILE runs weekly drop-in sessions for parents at local schools with access to computers and resources to browse.

“We got some funding, so we bought a lot of Barrington Stoke books and they’re very popular, especially the football ones.” Helena is particularly keen on the Reloaded titles, and loves Call of the Deep by Beverley Naidoo.

How Helena spells out the dyslexia message The characters created for Helena’s schools presentation introduce various forms of dyslexic pupils’ behaviour and characteristics which combine to spell DYSLEXIA. Daydreaming Dave: Can’t concentrate, hides under his hat when he’s asked a question, thinks he’s stupid but has a wonderful imagination. A reminder that all dyslexics are Different: as Helena says, “Think of us as snowflakes, we may look the same from afar but we are all unique.”

Hyperactive Harvey: Clumsy, can’t keep still, lots of energy and a whizz at computers. Will be inspired by the X-factor of celebrity role models.

Bullying Burt: Anger at Ignorance about dyslexia makes him act aggressively.

Mary Motor Mouth: Talks constantly to avoid written work but loves reading and learning. Very intelligent verbally and but can’t express what she wants to say on paper. Always needs to Ask lots of questions.

Silly Simon: The Youngest member of the class (early diagnosis is helpful), he clowns around to make sure the others laugh with him rather than at him. His charismatic personality could be channelled towards performing arts.

Arron the Football Baron: Good at Sports and Spatial Skills.

Silent Sally: Nervous and shy, she has problems verbalising what she wants to say. It is important to Listen to her and build her confidence.

Martin Magic: Quickly forgets what he sees, hears or does. Often feels sick and nervous when asked a question. The right Equipment will help to build his memory.

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Booked Up deal for blurb winner

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o much can happen in a year. In autumn term 2009 Alan Gibbons started his quest for the great story idea from a Liverpool primary schoolchild that he would turn into his next book for Barrington Stoke.

This term, the finished book could find its way to readers in every secondary school in England. The Dying Photo, written to order by Alan from a 50word blurb by James Pybis of Our Lady’s and St Philomena’s Primary School in north Liverpool, has been selected for Booktrust’s Booked Up programme which gives a free book to every Year 7 pupil as they start secondary school.

Children can choose from 19 titles, including The Dying Photo. Alan’s book is result of The Book Factor, a project set up to boost reading and writing by Barrington Stoke in partnership with Booktrust and the Alt Valley Learning Network in Liverpool. After a series Front row: winning Book Factor blurb writer James Pybis and winning cover designer of schools workshops with Alan last Luke Gates. Back row: Liverpool’s Lord Mayor, Councillor Hazel Williams, Liverpool’s autumn, almost 500 children submitted Young Lord Mayor, Jonathan Rigby and author Alan Gibbons blurbs. The winner was chosen by Christmas and Alan then had a month The winning blurb and jacket design to write the story that James wanted.

1927 outside the Liver buildings.

A photographer in a cloak was at Jamie’s mum’s wedding. As they ran out the door the photographer took the photo. The flash blinded everyone, as their sight returned the photographer had vanished along with the couple.

The only clue was a picture of the couple screaming.

Buy The Dying Photo here See page13 for special discounts on group or class sets

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Schools Update Issue 6

Reader to writer Karen McCombie I had a false start with reading because my family went to live in Australia for a year when I was five, and during the year I got a bad ear infection and missed a lot of school. I had a lot of catching up to do when we came back to Aberdeen, but I had a very encouraging teacher and I was soon reading my way through Enid Blyton’s Famous Fives and Secret Sevens.

Meanwhile I was adjusting to new friendships and I was still struggling with my hearing, so escaping into the world of books was attractive. My parents were great library users so we only had a small shelf of books at home but the books were constantly changing.

By the age of 10 I was at the top of the class for reading rather than the bottom and I investigated the cupboard at the back of the classroom full of dusty old books. They were thought to be too old for the class and the teacher had to go and look for the key. The cupboard turned out to be full of Dickens. I loved Great Expectations above all and I am just about to read it with my daughter. Then I found my all-time favourite author, Laura Ingalls Wilder. I still re-read her Little House books every few years; it feels like reading a diary, or peeking into another life 150 years ago. Again, I think my daughter will enjoy them. I have also found books by Laura’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, and Laura’s account of her visit to Rose in San Francisco in 1915.

Real life in literature always attracts me more than fantasy. I grew up reading about the everyday exploits of girls and what happens to them, and that’s what I write about.

My favourite book of all time, however, is about a boy: The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger. I love books that get inside people’s heads and reveal the quirkiness of their lives.

Karen McCombie’s first book for Barrington Stoke, Candy Girl, will be published in November 2010. For more details visit: www.barringtonstoke.co.uk/partnumber.asp?cid=&pnid=326842 Page 11

Schools Update Issue 6

Last word Gill Arbuthnott

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hen you say that you’re reading a book – or, for that matter, writing one – I would guess that over 90 per cent of people assume you mean fiction.

Non-fiction is definitely the Cinderella of children’s reading and writing.

Why is this? Well, if children’s only contact with non-fiction is school textbooks, it’s not so hard to see why.

(I’m talking here about secondary level: my only contact with primary books have been as a parent, spending years reading about Biff, Chip and the rest of the Oxford Reading Tree gang who, on the whole, I liked very much.)

There can’t be many pupils who would read a secondary school textbook for pleasure, much less enjoy writing in that style.

But you only have to look at the success of the Horrible Histories and Murderous Maths series to see that a bit of yuck, lashings of humour and some good black and white illustrations can achieve with ease what “full colour double page spreads” and “comprehensive CD with additional material” are unable to do; that is, to get pupils to read because they want to, not because they have to.

I’ve mined this seam myself in my Reality Check books for Barrington Stoke, but I’ve found during school Download our free visits that pupils really struggle with author posters the idea that writing non-fiction With fantastic tips and hints to help motivate reluctant readers and writers, could be anything other than a chore.

Most of them have difficulty seeing these A3 colour posters will brighten that there is a way to inject some of your library or classroom. their own personality into this sort of Download them here

writing. Of course, it’s crucial to get the facts right, but how do you make sure people want to read them? How do you get people interested in stuff they might expect to be boring? How do you prevent pupils losing interest in writing, and possibly the teacher losing the will to live?

Here are some of the techniques that work for me: • Conversational writing style • Humour • Setting puzzles for the reader • Illustration (done by someone else!)

• Weird facts • The yuck factor • Unexpected detail (for example, it’s well known that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, but not that he used bacteria to paint pictures).

Most of these can be used in much of the factual writing that pupils are asked to do, and it gives them ownership of the writing in a way that assembling a list of facts doesn’t.

They’re also techniques that pupils can try to spot as they read; in newspaper articles for instance. When I’m talking about non-fiction writing in schools, I use a brilliant example from The Times last winter, about how to clear snow from the front of your house. It was full of sensible tips, but was cunningly disguised as a comic masterpiece.

Gill Arbuthnott teaches secondary science in Edinburgh. Her book about DNA, Life Story, will be published as an e-book in Autumn 2010.

See page 13 for special discounts on group or class sets

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Schools Update Issue 6

Special offers Back to School Offer 50% discount on any 25 books or more if you order before October 29 2010.

Simply quote code BS5 on your order and send to barringtonstoke@bebc.co.uk (excludes packs and other offers)

Discounts on group or class sets Looking for group or class sets of novels?

For information on special discounts please contact us on 0131 225 4113 or e-mail schools@barringtonstoke.co.uk

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BEBC Distribution 15 Albion Close, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset BH12 3LL Tel: 01202 712 938 Fax: 0845 130 9300 E-mail: barringtonstoke@bebc.co.uk For overseas orders: +44 (0)1202 712913 Barrington Stoke publishes awardwinning stories that everyone can enjoy from 8 to 18 – and all with a low reading age.

November 11 Scottish Council of Independent Schools conference Thistle Hotel, Glasgow Page 13