Magical Bourton Meadow Academy

I had a magical morning in Bourton Meadow School yesterday - reading excerpts from the book to all the school - in three groups of about 180 children. They had some amazing, insightful and challenging questions including 

• "if you had to choose whether you could only write or read - which one would you choose?" 
• "are you popular?"
• "what were you like when you were our age?" 
• "what is your favourite scene in the book?"
• "which was the hardest part of the book to write?"
• "did you get any writer's block and how did you get over it?"

Just fabulous questions!

Years 5 & 6 went off after the book reading to do some work to follow up. They had various worksheets to complete. One of the questions on one of the sheets was which scene did you like the best? It seems the most popular scene for the children was the one featuring Roxie choosing Strumbold in the charity shop to become the Mayor's Bear.

One of the answers I saw written down took my breath away... (not word for word - but something like...) 

"I liked the scene where Roxie decided to pick Strumbold rather than the other beautiful bear because this showed that you don't have to be beautiful to be chosen and loved"

I will always remember those words. 

I am so enjoying sharing my book with children - their imagination, their thoughts, their... being continue to inspire and delight me!