Here are some reports written by the P6s about the Wigtown Book Festival trip. We hope you enjoy reading!
Shoo Rayner
On Wednesday the 28th of September the whole school went to Wigtown Book Festival. When we got off the bus we split in to P5-7 and P1-4 because we were in separate tents and had different authors to listen to. The wee ones had Tracey Corderoy who talked about her Shifty McGiftey books and the big class had Shoo Rayner (that’s who I’m going to be telling you about).
When we got to the tent, we had a seat and began listening to him. He was telling us about a story he had read and began to get all scared about it! Then he told us about his new book called Scaredy Cats. He drew a picture of one of the cats in it, Dr Catula, and read the story about one of the cats. There are 9 cat stories in this book. They sounded really good!
They are the new books and honestly I think a lot of people liked it. He was really inspirational and was so good at reading aloud. At the end of it he asked us a few questions and he told us that he has actually written over 200 books – he even illustrates his books as well! He is just about to start writing the third and final book in his trilogy is about dragon.
He told us his contract had asked him to write 20,000 words on his last one! I think he is a very good author and illustrator and is doing a very good job. I would definitely buy another one of his books. Overall everyone really liked going to Wigtown Book Festival and listening to Shoo Rayner – it was very much appreciated!
By Kayleigh Williams P6
On Wednesday P1-7 went to Wigtown Book Festival. The P5-7s went to see Shoo Rayner. P1-4 went to see Tracey Corderoy in a different tent and she talked about her Shift McGiftey books.
Shoo Rayner has illustrated and written over 200 books so far. He went to Art College and met a person called Colin McNaughton who inspired Shoo Rayner to become an illustrator…and so he did! Mostly Shoo writes short picture books but recently he tried something a bit different!
One day he got mail which read ‘SHOO RAYNER YOU HAVE TO MAKE A BOOK THAT MUST HAVE AT LEAST 20,000 WORDS!’ It was a contract from his publisher.
He told us that he thought ‘oh no, 20 000 words!’ but he got started quickly because he likes a challenge! He has written two books of that series already – they are about a Welsh dragon. He is about to start the third and final book of the series after the book festival.
He also talked about his experiences of choosing a book in the library. He likes scary books but they were right at the back in a dark area where spiders lived everywhere and if you got near them then they’d BITE! He was great at telling stories and he made us jump by reading an extract of his latest book ‘Scaredy Cat’ . Everybody laughed when he tried to scare us but we tried to scare him back! It was really funny. I bought his book and he signed it for me too. I really enjoyed the session with Shoo Rayner.
Reporters – Finlay and Ethan
P5-7 went to see Shoo Rayner on Wednesday the 28th of September. The whole school went to the Book Festival but p1-4 went to see Tracey Corderoy who wrote the Shifty McGiftey stories. Shoo Rayner has written over two hundred books. He has written and illustrated picture books and books for older children too. Today was mostly about his new book Scaredy Cats. He told us that his inspiration for writing and illustrating came from the picture book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.
Shoo Rayner went to Art College when he was younger. He was mentored by Colin McNaughton who is a well-known illustrator. He puts roughly 1000-3000 words into his picture books and around 20,000 words into his Welsh Dragon series – he has written two of these already and is about to start writing the third and final one after he has finished at the Book Festival.
I really enjoyed listening to Shoo Rayner and thought he was really funny. Most of the children there bought his new book Scaredy Cats and I think it’s going to be an amazing book to read.
By Alistair Brown and Megan McIntyre
