I have had SUCH a good day 🙂 It’s days like this that make me a Very Happy Writer! Very early this morning, I set off to Didcot Girls’ School. I knew it would be a BRILLIANT visit from the moment I saw this:
The wonderful librarian had done a really beautiful display of my books, and she’d put posters up all round the school site too, along with banners saying I was coming to visit. I felt VERY special 🙂 The girls were just lovely too. I did my talk to 200 Y7s and they were totally brilliant and asked excellent questions. The best one was surely: “What would you do if you found a unicorn in your bathroom?”
I also met Y8 pupil Katherine, who is a massive fan of my books and introduced me to my audience – hello, Katherine!
Katherine had made cakes for the cake sale later in the day, and she offered me one – it was yummy!
I met a wonderful student called Eloise, too, who has set up a charity in memory of her brother Freddie, who died after being in a car accident last year. What a great thing to do after such a tragedy. I wish Eloise and her family all the best as they try to get speed limits cut in the area.
After my fantastic time at Didcot, I went straight to Henry Box school in Witney and was welcomed by the lovely librarian Nicola Patrick, who had done another great display of my books. Lots of students (including the book group) came in to say hi at lunchtime, and we had a lot of laughs discussing different types of books and the possible value of nightmares!
Then I talked to 180 Y8 students in the sports hall. They were SO good – they had to sit on the floor, and it can’t have been comfortable at all! I had a radio mike that echoed so much I sounded like I was underwater sometimes…! But they too asked excellent questions at the end (“If you could meet anyone from history, who would it be?” and “Who is your greatest rival in the book world?”) and lots of them came to the library afterwards to buy books and say hi.
I felt really appreciated and special, but you know what was the best thing? Seeing school libraries that were so creative, inspiring and well-used. School librarians are THE BEST, and every time I visit a school where the library is such a buzzing, imaginative place, it makes my heart sing. So THANK YOU to Didcot Girls and to Henry Box for making me feel so very welcome today – and I hope to visit again before too long!
If I met you today – HELLO! And thank you for being such a great audience 😀
Jo Cotterill 