What an amazing afternoon we had at the East Wintergarden on Friday 24th November! Eight schools competed in  performing their interpretations of one of the six books shortlisted for the Tower Hamlets Book Award 2017 .
The authors Jo Cotterill and Philip Reeve were two of the four judges who had the task of making the difficult decision. 
The 10 students in the Year 6 THBA Group gave a presentation about Katherine Rundell's book, 'The Wolf Wilder',
and we won! We were so excited and pleased that our hard work had paid off.
Although only ten people were able to attend the event, this year's performance involved many others in Year 6. The dialogue, amazing costumes (including large 'wolf heads'), art work for the backdrop presentation slides, and other props, were made by students, with the help and support of Julia, Pam, Lydia, Dan, Salma and Sue. The group will be performing again at a school assembly, so look out for the video on the website...coming soon!

The winner of the 2017 THBA was Jo Cotterill (who visited Blue Gate Fields recently), for her book 'A Library of Lemons'. The group were presented with their prize by Jo and Philip.  What an afternoon to remember!

Tuesday 28th, Wednesday 29th, Thursday 30th November, & Friday 1st December 2017
 Blue Gate Fields Infants Hall (except Thursday, in the Studio)  3:20 – 4:00 p.m.

The Travelling Book Fair Company has a competition to enter: Name and draw the ‘Happy Monkey’!

Please see the leaflet for details of how to win an ipad, £500 worth of books for school and “some tasty ‘Happy Monkey’ smoothies!” You can give your entries to Sue in the library (by 8th December), or send entries directly to the Travelling Book Fair Company by 31st December. For more information and for terms & conditions, visit www.travellingbooks.co.uk/happymonkey
You can also enter the school prize draw at the Book Fair, and may win a book!

The great Pat Ryan came to visit us on 9th of November, with so many fantastic stories. As usual he had the whole school entranced. Whether telling Year 6  tales  which were favourites of Charles Dickens', or scary legends from old London to Year 5, Viking stories for Year 4, and Greek myths for Year 3, we all loved to listen to Pat as he drew us in, and sometimes made us jump out of our skins!

Years 5 and 6 were treated to a visit from Jo Cotterill, who wrote 'A Library of Lemons' which is on this year's Tower Hamlets Book Award shortlist. Jo showed us an example of a charming little story she wrote as a child, complete with misspellings, all about the festival of  "Chismas" (Christmas!)
Together we went on to create a story of our own, using Jo's method of imagining 'What if....?'
Our story imagined a land where no one lived beyond the age of 10, where a blue sun shone, and the evil Queen Midnight ruled the land from a tower, controlling everything with a magic crystal. Our hero was a boy called Rayu, who had the magical power of summoning unicorns from Mars! With the help of ninja bunnies, and the unicorns from Mars, he defeated the tyrant and her evil dalmatians. It turned out that she couldn't stand the colour pink! After slaying her with the magical pink sword, and coating her tower in candy floss, the crystal was shattered, and everyone was able to live beyond ten years. 
We had plenty of material for a sequel too, not least the surprise twists that Queen Midnight was Rayu's stepmother, and that he had a twin!
Jo read from 'A Library of Lemons' and her 'Electrigirl' series, and she asked us to think about the difference between sympathy and empathy, and how a writer wants a reader to feel what the characters are feeling.
A bookstall was provided by Brick Lane Bookshop, which meant that some lucky members of the audience were able to get their own copies of Jo's books, and have them signed by her.