I visited two very impressive schools in London yesterday, Our Lady's Convent School and the Clapton Girls' Academy, both in Hackney. Thanks to Booklinks and the Pop-Up Festival for allowing me to take part. It was a pleasure to meet such enthusiastic and insightful students and to witness the work that dedicated teachers and librarians do in schools every day--not just during World Book Week!
What makes the Booklinks event extra-special special to writers as well as students, is that the students read a visiting writer's book and create their own work based on what they've read.
This experience--of talking to large groups of girls who'd actually read At Yellow Lake and had questions for me based on their reading experience--was so exciting! I feel like I learned as much, if not more, than the students--their brilliant responses and comments helped me focus on my writing in a way that I'd never done before. Working with real readers, especially readers as active and engaged as the ones I had the privilege to meet, is an experience every writer dreams of. I consider myself lucky to have had the chance!
I visited Our Lady's at last year's Booklinks ... an impressive group. And I just now got back from visiting Clapton Academy where I got such a warm creative reception. Their teachers must be so proud of them!
ReplyDeleteIt's so refreshing...shows how important the creative curriculum is, too. AND I learned so much about the reader's perspective, which I don't consider nearly enough.
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