Why I love reading

Write a story about your holidays before you go back to school

July 22, 2016 by Andrew Clover Leave a Comment

Hello my cheeky friends!

It is a glorious thing, isn’t it? The sun is shining. The summer holidays are stretching before us. It is time for walking down the street sucking ice lollies.

It is also the perfect time for all things to do with books.

What do you do on these hot evenings? It’s too hot for the Xbox. It’s time to spread a rug, under a tree. It’s time to read.

It is also the time to write.

You will have an amazing summer, if, while you’re having your own excitements in real life, you do some writing. Not just because, come September, you will feel fantastic if you’ve written your own story, or drawn your own comic, but because writing stories makes your whole life feel more adventurous.

But possibly you have not the first clue how to get started.

And that is why I am inviting you all to join Mr Clover’s Summer Workshop, during which I shall set you fun challenges, that will help to make your stories grow in your imaginations.

Right… Here is the first one…

Suggestion One: Get a notebook

Much is going on, as the holidays begin. Use your notebook to start keeping a diary. You don’t need to say everything – just what you learned that day (I’m keeping one in the Parents section). The important thing is to get into the habit of noticing what is happening.

This is important, because, in these next few days, my friends, you will be getting ideas for stories.

Yes, my friends, you will notice – if you keep a look out – that in the next few days, ideas for stories will be fluttering into your heads like butterflies. You’ll be having a dreamy moment, and for a second, you’ll imagine a story you’d quite like to write. Find your diary, and get those ideas down. You might want to try several. A good trick, also, would be to write down TEN IDEAS quite quickly. “IDEA: I’d like write a detective story, set in a school.” “IDEA: imagine if all the teachers turned into dinosaurs…”

If you get any good ones, send them in. When we gather here next week (Thursday 3 pm) I’ll read out some good ones. Till then, have fun,

Mr Clover

Children, become Writer of the Week and win cool stuff

July 17, 2016 by Andrew Clover Leave a Comment

Hurrah and hooperloolerlay!

I am in the running to become the new Night Zoo Keeper. Night Zoo Keeper is, by about a hundred miles, the coolest website for getting kids to enjoy their writing, so, if you’re a School Visitor asked to become the Zoo Keeper, that’s like being an actor, invited to play Batman.

I hear I’m up against someone brilliant (a former kids’ presenter, who’s got a string of bestselling books), and to clinch the job I must come up with some excellent Story Starters, which have got a proven success for getting kids writing.

So in a moment I’m going to set you a suggestion. Please try writing, in response to this, and send me your results – even if they’re not that good, just send ‘em. (Clover Rule One: don’t write quality, write quantity). The best one will be selected Writer of the Week. They will be feted, and photographed, and will be sent cool stuff.

Here’s the suggestion…

A story starts with the word but

Start a story, in the very spot you’re sitting. Notice three things that are being deliberately boring. Describe them. Emphasise their tantalising tediousness: as you do, you will feel a word coming that will explode the boringness, and kick the adventure into action – the word “but”. Write “but” and then the first sentence of the adventure.

Here’s the first one, from Ella in Sturry.

I was sitting at my mum’s computer. In front of me, a tin of old pens gathered dust. Some dying nettles scratched at the window. Some books stood on the shelf before me. They were silent, undread, dull. But then I noticed that one of them started to jiggle.

It wobbled towards me, then it dived off the shelf, onto the desk, with a bang.

It had opened on page 76, which started with the words “Go into the garden, and find the old gnome…”

Why I love to read

July 10, 2016 by Andrew Clover Leave a Comment

piles of books

I love reading, for the same reason that it’s sometimes hard.

You know when you’ve got a book open, but you can’t concentrate? You can’t picture the scenes, you can’t hear the dialogue, because in your mind, you’re still replaying a row you had earlier – thinking what you said, what you should have said – or maybe you’re worrying what you must do… In these moments, your mind is like a computer with a virus: it’s invaded by adverts and pictures; you can get nothing done.

To read, you need to shut off the devices, to go somewhere quiet, and sometimes it still takes a few minutes while your eye keeps slipping off the words. But keep going. After a while, it’s as if a big door shuts in your mind, silencing the buzzing and the beeps and the little flashing lights…

When we stare at the screens, our minds are like mosquitoes. They get tired, from bumping against the glass. But when we read, they are like great birds. They soar off into the night.

Great writers are great thinkers. As we read them, we see what they noticed; we hear what they were moved to record; we feel as they did. That’s why, when you put the book down, you feel slightly different. You’ve relaxed your mind a moment. You’ve entered someone else’s. Now you’re noticing different things, and life feels richer.

That’s why I love to read. Why do you? And when did you last read something good?