Best-selling author proves a hit with Birmingham schools.
Award winning author Vivian French ignited the imagination of hundreds of schoolchildren in Birmingham last week when she visited ten local primary schools, sharing her love of words and stories with young readers as part of the Scottish Friendly Children’s Book Tour.
Vivian’s interactive sessions encouraged children to develop their own story ideas by coming up with unusual word pairings and phrases as a starting point. Working together they thought about the emotions that the main character in the story might be feeling and suggested how these could change as the story progressed.
Once the beginning and end of the story had been established, Vivian helped pupils to come up with a story plan, giving more depth to their ideas and characters. Vivian also shared the inspiration behind her award winning comic fantasy series Tales from the Five Kingdoms, played games with pupils to show how she comes up with the unusual character names in her stories and signed books for her fans.
Gemma Jackson, Assistant Headteacher at World’s End Junior School in Birmingham said: “Vivian’s visit has left the pupils here buzzing! For some it was their first experience of buying a book. Thanks to everyone involved for organising such a wonderful and inspiring visit.”
Vivian is a tutor in the Illustration Department at Edinburgh College of Art, and a co-founder of Picture Hooks, a mentoring scheme for young professional illustrators. She has written over 200 books including the hugely popular Tiara Club which sold over three million copies and non-fiction books such as Caterpillar Butterfly and Growing Frogs. Her books are borrowed from UK libraries over half a million times a year.
Commenting on the tour, Vivian said: “Wow! What a week! The schools we visited were all, without exception, inspiring, amazing and fascinating – and it was an honour to visit them. I’ll never forget the ten year old boy who clutched his book to his chest and announced ‘This is my very first book of my own EVER!’ It made me feel very humble when I saw how incredibly hard the staff and pupils had worked before we arrived; every child knew who I was, and knew something about my books.”
Calum Bennie, Communications Manager at Scottish Friendly, sponsors of the tour, said: “The reaction to Vivian’s visits from young readers in Birmingham has really been wonderful. It’s the first time the Scottish Friendly Children’s Book Tour has been in this part of the country and we hope to return before too long.”
Beth Bottery, Schools Events Manager at Scottish Book Trust, organisers of the tour, added: “We had a fantastic time touring schools in Birmingham with Vivian. Her passion and enthusiasm for storytelling is contagious and she encouraged all the children who participated in her sessions to think of themselves as authors with their own stories to tell.”
The Scottish Friendly Children’s Book Tour is run by Scottish Book Trust, Scotland’s leading agency for the promotion of literature, reading and writing and is sponsored by Scottish Friendly, Scotland’s largest mutual with over 150 years of experience. The main aim of the Tour is to encourage children’s love of literature through inspirational author visits, which bring their books to life.
