Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Testimonials? You want testimonials? We got testimonials...

I'm frequently asked for testimonials for my school events, but I never have them handy. NOW I DO! Take a look at the smattering below. And if you're in cruel mood, you can read the previous blogpost which covers an amusing collection of comments from students as opposed to teachers, librarians and festival directors!


"Curtis was one of the most popular authors at the 2012 Manchester Children’s Book Festival and has, to our delight, agreed to join us again this year to help launch our Festival Reading and Writing Relay with an event at Central Library. His talks are always both inspiring and entertaining and, even more importantly, he is a joy to work with."
Kaye Tew
Festival Manager, Manchester Children's Book Festival
*****
"Curtis was a huge hit when he visited our school. He spoke to nearly 400 students in the Main Hall and successfully kept them all entertained and engaged for a whole hour and a half – no mean feat! His talk was delivered in a humorous but appropriate manner. He spoke with such enthusiasm and conviction about not wasting your creative talents that students couldn’t help but be inspired.
Curtis started by talking about his experience of working in the animation business and impressed the boys with his art work, before moving on to his writing career. The finale of the event, “Hairy Man or Wolfman” was a brilliant interactive quiz that the boys just loved.
Teaching staff and students alike really enjoyed the talk, so much so that they were still talking about it days after the event. In fact he was so good we got him back again!"
Janet Clarke
Librarian, Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, 21st March 2014
*****
"A visit from Curtis is always one of the most entertaining author events I've ever been to. Not only is he a brilliant author and illustrator but the combination of the two elements in his talks has the whole audience, adults and children alike, totally enthralled from start to finish. His wit and humour and interaction with his audience guarantee no session is exactly the same. As well as all this he is a great bloke, no prima donna author, making a day with him more than easy for any school or library, I would heartedly recommend him."
Debra Conroy
Children's Library Services, Manchester City Council
*****
"Curtis has visited us on a couple of occasions and his workshops are always memorable and exciting! Last time he took us on a whirlwind tour of his experiences as an illustrator and as an author – all of which served to inspire and motivate the children – they loved it so much they were talking about the workshop and his books for weeks afterwards!
Most importantly for us, as teachers, Curtis’s messages to the children, regarding reading and writing, fully supports our teaching and has inspired the children to apply the skills they’ve learnt, from his workshop, to their own work."
Mary Peters
Deputy Head, Westbrook Old Hall Primary School, Warrington
*****
“Curtis has now visited our school twice. We were so enthralled by his first visit that we had to invite him back again this year as part of our World Book Day celebrations. Students (and staff) were captivated hearing him talk about his work as an Author and Illustrator and about his love of Animation. His wealth of experience and ease of manner has made him very popular with our students. We found his talks hugely entertaining and many students returned at lunchtime to chat with him and have their books signed.
I have organised several Author visits to our school but none have engaged the students in the same way that Curtis has. So much so, there was real excitement from the previous year’s cohort when they knew he was visiting us again.“
Helen Bayliffe
Library Resource Manager, Sir Graham Balfour High School, Stafford


1 comment:

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Disturbing to say the least !!