Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Hijinks with Tommy Donbavand, AWARD WINNING author of Scream Street!

A grand day out in the company of the wonderful Tommy Donbavand today, author of the Scream Street series of books. We were both appearing at St John Bosco Arts College in Liverpool for their annual book award ceremony, which Tommy's Scream Street was in the shortlist for. He was up against Michael Morpurgo, David Walliams and Jacqueline Wilson for the prizes, which in addition to the actual best book included best villain, best setting, best illustration and best character.

It was a bit special to see the master at work. Tommy's a real pro. For Morpurgo he convinced the kids that the fellow hates children. This wasn't too difficult, all said and done. His other feats were far more impressive. Walliams was written off as a fraudster, his work the fevered wittering of eighty-six year old homeless man, Alfie Thompson (a surprisingly prolific author - just google what I've said!) And as for Wilson, the kids really bought into the idea that she punches kittens for giggles. After that all five awards were safely in the bag.

Great to spend the day with Tommy and librarians Sophie and Claire. Cheers to everyone who came, hope you had a grand day. Bit of a special one for me tomorrow. I'm visiting Penketh High School, my old stomping ground, to speak to Year 7, Year 8 and the Year 6 pupils from all the feeder schools. Shall report in with a detailed report on my adventure tomorrow, but I'm REALLY looking forward to this one.

QUESTION: What's the best thing you've ever won? For me it was winning my age group at the Liverpool Chess Congress when I was ten years old. I got to choose my prize - a Disney's Black Hole pop up book. Trust me, it was WAY better than it sounds, just like the film itself. So what about you???

1 comment:

Cassiopeia said...

The best thing I've ever won was 50 dollars for getting third place in my age group in a national poetry contest. the fifty dollars was excellent, but the poetry part was what I was more worried about. unfortunately, it was partially a scam. Fortunately, I still got fifty dollars.