What a great morning we had with the author-illustrator-cartoonist Gary Northfield!

Gary told us of his childhood love of comics, cartoons and drawing, and explained how that lead to him becoming  an award-winning, bestselling author and illustrator of children's books and comics. 

Gary read to us from his new book (and series) 'Leif the Unlucky Viking', and then we drew along with Gary to create our own cartoon picture of unlucky Leif falling over, and losing all his Viking necessities: sword, rope, food, and anything else a Viking  explorer might need! 

Gary also presented the Summer Reading Challenge 2023 certificates to children who had completed the challenge. A very special moment for them!

Polly from Brick Lane Bookshop came to run the bookstall for us. 'Leif the Unlucky Viking' was so popular that she ran out of copies of the book! 

​Luckily, you can borrow the book from the library!

Class 8 really enjoyed their trip to see the author, Ele Fountain as part of ‘The Children’s Bookshow’, at The Bloomsbury Theatre, on Friday 29th September. Ele was a great speaker, and got the audience involved in a quiz. Everybody got excited, trying to work out the correct answers! 
Ele lived in Addis Ababa for several years, where she wrote her debut novel, Boy 87, which went on to win four awards and was nominated for ten more, including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. Her second novel, LOST, was a Guardian Children’s Book of the Year. FAKE has been selected as a BookTrust Future Classic. Her latest novel, WILD, was a Sunday Times Book of the Week, and everybody in Class 8 got their own copy to take home!
​In the afternoon Class 8 were really so very lucky, because Ele came to work with them to create their own stories.

Look out for Ele's books in the library. They are great reads!

Come to the annual Summer Book Fair in the Junior Hall! Grab a bargain, 3 books for the price of 2!*
​Monday 26th - Friday 30th June (excluding Eid closure day)

(* Cheapest book of the 3 is the free one)

What a great morning of storytelling from the marvellous Dr Pat Ryan! 
Everybody had the chance to listen to his retelling of traditional tales from around the world, linked to the curriculum areas that each year group have been studying.
Year 6 were treated to a tale of Old London, and also the entertaining story of Mr Chicken and Mr Hedgehog and the dangers of messing around in fast-moving traffic.
Year 4 heard an Italian tale of friendship , which bore a strong resemblance to Shakespeare's famous play, 'King Lear', and an Irish story featuring a devilish bridge!
Year 3 had a lot of fun joining in with the story of the Magic Golden Bird of Freedom, and a not-so-scary story of the old woman and an iron giant.
Finally, it was Year 5's turn. They heard a great tale from the old Mughal empire, of Akbar the Great and his storyteller Birbal. After having many questions answered by our own storyteller, Pat, they were made to jump out of their skins by a funny little tale, involving another old woman and a gravedigger!
See if you can get any of the listeners to retell the stories for you 😊
​
There are lots of books of traditional tales in the library. Come and take a look!

As part of The Barnes Children's Literature Festival, Class 8 went to a free event to hear Zanib Mian, the author of the ‘Planet Omar’ series. Planet Omar has all the everyday drama and silly humour of family life, and features a Muslim family. Zanib said that Omar is based on her son, and that all of the characters in the family were written by taking characteristics from her family members, including herself! A lot of the funny moments in the book, actually took place in her family!

Zanib Mian fell in love with writing at primary school. After studying science at University College London, she taught in secondary school before deciding to move into children’s publishing. Zanib launched Sweet Apple Publishers with a clear commitment to publishing inclusive books. Now her Planet Omar series has become really popular!

Some of children in Class 8 were fortunate enough to get the latest book in the series,  ‘Planet Omar: Ultimate Rocket Blast’, and meet Zanib in person! The book will be available to borrow from the library, once Nasima and Class 8 have finished reading it 😊

Classes 7 and 9 were lucky to work with the author Sufiya Ahmed today, in a Creative Writing workshop. Sufiya has written many books and was able to give everyone some great hints and tips! The workshops were arranged as part of the annual Tower Hamlets Creative Writing Competition, organised by our Schools Library Service. The theme this year is: A Brighter Future? For full details please check out their website:
​https://towerhamlets-sls.org.uk/cwc-ideas

Salma’s Year 6 Literacy Group attended the annual Tower Hamlets Book Award finale, organised by the Tower Hamlets Schools Library Service (THSLS) at the East Wintergarden, Canary Wharf. Twelve members of the group put on a performance based on 'Danny Chung does not do Maths' by Maisie Chan, one of the seven shortlisted books. The presentations were judged by four of the shortlisted authors who were present at the event – Sita Brahmachari, Jo Nadin, Gemma Fowler and Sabine Adeyinka .
​Although Maisie was not able to attend the event in person, she did send a video message, and gave a shout-out to Blue Gate Fields Juniors, thanking us for bringing her book to life!
Students throughout the borough of Tower Hamlets voted for their favourite book choice. The winner was 'Mayhem Mission' by Burhana Islam, which was also our favourite read!
Entries to the Art Competition were on display at the Finale. Yusra and Amiya won a prize for their diorama-in-a-shoebox on  ‘Jummy at the River School’ by Sabine Adeyinka. Artworks by Fiza, and Aruba were also on display.
Later, the presentation group held an assembly at school and showed off their acting skills again!

Class 7 were privileged to attend the first show celebrating The Children's Bookshow's 20th Birthday. The wonderful poet, Valerie Bloom, performed some of her poems for a packed theatre with children from ten different schools in the audience. 
Valerie was born in Jamaica and came to England in 1979. She writes poetry in English and Jamaican patois for all ages, and has performed her work throughout the world, with many television and radio appearances. 

We had fun joining in with the poetry, calling out lines, doing the actions, singing along, and stamping our feet!
Every child was given a FREE copy of Valerie's book, Stars With Flaming Tails. Check out the BGFJ Poetry blog page to read 'Welcome', one of the poems which Valerie performed.