Summer challenge 09 – week 1

Holiday Read, originally uploaded by holgarolga.

Welcome to the first of our Tuesday summer challenges for 2009! Those of you who took part last year should remember the rules,  but here’s a recap for any new people. Each Tuesday between now and September we will post a challenge. To join in you just need to leave a comment with your answer. You have until the following Monday at midnight to enter. At the end of the summer we will draw names from a hat to win some special goodies, in three categories – Piglets (7 -11), Saddlebacks (12-16s) and Gloucester Old Spots (adults). So if you want to join in and we don’t know you, please tell us your age. The more times you enter, the better chance you have of winning, so remember to check back each Tuesday. 

So, the first challenge. Well, one of my favourite things about the summer holidays is having time – to read, think and write. I am spending two weeeks in Croatia in August and I am planning what to take with me to read. I’m also looking forward to having time to write – in a book, with a pen, rather than at a computer. For the challenge this week, leave a comment telling us what you’re looking forward to doing this summer and what books you think I should pack in my suitcase!

See you next week,

Ella 

And the winner is…

L1010250, originally uploaded by littlegreenpig.

Kathy Whitestone!

Well done, Kathy. Your £10 voucher for the Book Nook children’s bookshop will be winging its way to you soon.

Thank you to everyone else who took the time to give us feedback on our open mic night last week. Kathy’s favourite parts were ‘all the great poems and stories’ and the book she recommended was ‘I capture the castle.’

What were your favourite bits of the night?

Ella

Clapping away the rain

DSC01505, originally uploaded by littlegreenpig.

It poured. It poured some more. But it still didn’t stop us! Thank you to everyone who came to perform and watch last Tuesday at our open mic night 2009. We were so proud watching our Piglets and Saddlebacks. It was a great night.

See more photos from the evening on Flickr.

Come back tomorrow to find out who won our special feedback prize.

Ella

Open Mic Night, Tuesday 7th July

Please join us next Tuesday 7th July for a night of performing Piglets and Saddlebacks – aka our talented young writers aged 7 to 16 who have been attending our Brighton Youth Centre. The performers will be stepping up to the mic and wowing you with some of the best words they’ve written over the last year. Our hosts on the night will be local performance poets Invokal and Rosy Carrick.

Tuesday 7th July, 6 – 8 pm

Drama Studio, top car park, BHASVIC, (Brighton & Hove sixth form college), 205 Dyke Road, Hove BN3 6EG

Entry by donation: suggested £2.50 adults, £1 children

All proceeds will go to helping Little Green Pig continue its work. We will also be selling exclusive Little Green Pig badges, anthologies and our brand new film!  Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Ella 

When I ride my bike…

We had fun on Saturday leading a ‘Words on Wheels’ trail in Hove Park as part of the Council’s Bike Week activities. Children had to ride round and find word clues and use them to write poems about cycling.  Here are some of my favourite lines taken from all the poems that were written by wordy cyclists aged 3 to 15:

When I ride my bike I feel

as happy as camping

as fast as a jaguar

as free as a falcon

as happy as when my friends come over

as free as a horse

as happy as sunshine

as free as the first day on holiday

as free as a tiger

as fast as superman

as happy as Christmas

as free as a butterfly.

I am getting my very first bike in a couple of weeks and I can’t wait! Do you cycle? How does it make you feel? Leave us a comment.

Ella

Words on Wheels, Saturday 20th June

shadow play (crop), originally uploaded by ༺lifemage༻.

Join us in Hove Park this coming Saturday 20th June, 12 – 4 pm  for ‘Wheels on Words’.  A word hunt for 7 – 11s, we’ll be setting you off on your bikes to find clues and write poems. It is part of a whole load of events taking place in Hove Park on Saturday for National Bike Week. Come down and join in as there’ll be lots going on and it’s all free! For more information on what else is happening during Bike Week, see the Journey On website. 

Ella

Rehearsals begin

stage door, originally uploaded by slimmer_jimmer.

Just a few weeks to go before we take to the stage at our second Open Mic night! With this in mind, the Piglets and Saddlebacks had some coaching from local performance poet Adam, whose stage name is Invokal. They picked up some great skills and top tips for keeping calm on stage, and then had a go at practicing what they’d learnt. The Piglets were performing a poem together, and the Saddlebacks had some time to scribble a few lines – with the instruction that they had to rhyme. Here’s the last verse of Sian’s poem about poetry and writing itself:

So keep writing,

Fairies,

Or Kids fighting,

Everything in your world

Put it on a page

Before your creativities are hurled

Unwillingly

Into the teenage.

A really interesting idea here Sian, to write about the act of writing. Perhaps some of you could give this a go.

 

See you on Tuesday,

Lucy

Bookmakers

   

Laura F and Piglets, originally uploaded by littlegreenpig.

We’ve been busy making finishing off our  books at Little Green Pig over the last couple of weeks. The Piglets really enjoyed making their own books, complete with covers and illustrations. You will be able to see some of the finished books at our Open Mic night – yes, we finally have another one planned! Those of you who came to last year’s event will know that you are in for a treat. So put the date in your diaries now – Tuesday 7th July, at BHASVIC, starting at 6 pm. We’ll let you know final details soon.

You may have also spotted our lovely film maker Laura who’s been getting footage of the workshops and grabbing some parents for mini-interviews. Yes, we are making our first Little Green Pig film! It will be a snapshot of what we do as an organisation, featuring many of the Piglets and Saddlebacks talking about their writing, their experiences of the workshops and their favourite books and writers.  Laura is busy editing it behind the scenes as we speak and you will be able to buy a copy at a very low price at the Open Mic night in July. 

Book Thieves

Stealing isn’t a good thing, but borrowing is ok! This week, the piglets and saddlebacks were creating stories, tales and poems from pictures borrowed from Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief. You may have heard that his book has been chosen by City Reads so you might have spotted people around Brighton reading it.  City Reads selects a novel for the whole Brighton community to read together over a couple of months, and puts on talks and events based around the book. This week, both groups studied the images from part of the novel, and came up with words, phrases and voices that would give them thoughts for their stories and poems. As ever, there were lots of imaginative and different ideas. After choosing certain pictures, everyone is now working on their very own little booklet which we will finish off next week. It will be great to see all the wonderful ideas that can come from looking at the same pictures.

City Reads also kindly gave the Saddlebacks some copies of The Book Thief to take away and read, a gift much appreciated by all. Make sure you don’t look at the picture story yet Saddlebacks!

So, watch this space for extracts from our stories next week. By the way, if a book thief came and visited you, silently creeping out with a book, which one would you miss the most? Post us your answers.

See you next week,

Lucy

Little green bookworms

  

Antique Children’s Books – IMG_4171, originally uploaded by greensh.

We’ve had children’s literature expert Laura Atkins leading workshops for us for the last couple of weeks. It’s been great to have someone in who knows so much about children’s books. Laura’s written about last week’s workshops on her blog. This week the Piglets spent some time talking about some of their favourite books and why they like them. Here are their recommendations:

Anything by Philip Ardagh

Flanimals by Ricky Gervais

Petals in the Ashes by Mary Hooper

Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel 

The Edge Chronicles by Chris Riddell and Paul Stewart

First Term at Silver Spires by Ann Bryant 

Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Or tell us about some of your favourite books. 

Ella