News & Events
News/Events
Our City Day!
At Five Edinburgh Schools
Ten authors, five schools, one lord provost and a multitude of excitable children took part in a special day of events to promote Our City. Throughout the day the authors criss-crossed the city of Edinburgh visiting children in five schools – Balgreen, Oxgangs, Lorne, Tollcross and Sciennes - working with them, or talking to them about their experiences as an author.
The Lord Provost visited Sciennes Primary School in the morning where authors Julie Bertagna and Jonathan Meres, and author/illustrator John Fardell were taking classes. John Fardell demonstrated his art skills by illustrating a story spontaneously made up by the children, in which the Lord Provost’s car was stolen by a monkey who took it to a McDonalds drive-in! In the afternoon the Lord Provost, complete with car, dropped in at Tollcross Primary where Elizabeth Laird spoke to the children about her story, The Water Fight.
Elsewhere in the city Alison Prince talked to children at Oxgangs Primary about how she accidentally ended up being an author and about her experiences of going to school during the Second World War; and in a classroom across the corridor Keith Gray spoke to another group about how he became a writer, while confessing that he never read books when he was their age.
At Balgreen Primary Cathy Cassidy and Nicola Morgan were entertained with a stop-motion animation of one of the stories produced by the children as a class project for Our City. And later that day Vivian French gave the children tips on how to put their own stories together, while Alison Flett read to another class in Scots.
After a long day, and with hoarse voices, the authors were whisked away to Waterstone’s in Ocean Terminal for the official launch of the book. Children from all over the city were invited to come along and meet the authors and get their books signed by all ten.
The day was immensely enjoyable for all involved, and pictures from the day can be seen in our gallery now!
