There are a few things that make a school trip a great trip. One is great sandwiches and two is a great experience.
Unfortunately, there were no sandwiches at the Mitchell, well it is a library after all but what there was was (oh a double was!) an outstanding afternoon.
Fresh from the sunny beaches of California came Michael Grant author of the outstanding Gone series and the new BZRK! Series (which to be honest makes the Die Hard movies look like Tinkerbelle!).
Strategically placed beside where we though he would sign books (but later found out was only a publishers display … Bah!) we clung to the edge of our seats as Michael took us through his roller-coaster thrill ride of fiction.
“Do you base your characters on real people?” he was asked, “Nah,” he said is his U.S. drawl “real people are too limiting!”
One of the highlights was when he asked 2 pupils to come on to stage – “Imagine you are in a town with no food, none at all and you have not eaten for weeks.” Then he gave one pupil a mars bar and another a baseball bat and just grinned…eek!
Luckily no mars bars were damaged in the production.
All about thinking and provoking reaction Michael told us he wanted us to read what we had never read before and above all THINK!
“I am not a role model”, he continued “I am just a writer.”
