We were so lucky to have a visit from Jill Reidy an author today. She told the class a little bit about herself (she is a photographer as well as an author) before reading us some exciting parts of her book 'All Change'. After listening to the story the children took part in a competition Jill has set to win a free copy of her book. To win the competition the children had to draw a picture of what they think Mrs Peacock, the main character in the story, looks like as we only see a picture of her bottom and legs dangling from the ceiling on the front cover of the book! They also had to write a few sentences saying what their favourite part of the story was from the bits of the story they heard. The entries will be judged next week and the lucky winners will be announced.

We got the opportunity to ask Jill some questions...

Theo and Sophie asked "What inspired you to write this book?"

I loved writing when I was little and was always writing, allsorts of writing, poems, stories and diaries. I have always written but this story was inspired by the children I have taught. I always noticed that my children were the quietest when I took them swimming. Also I used to have 15 minutes story time at the end of every day and instead of reading stories to the children I used to make up and tell them stories. They loved the stories, I used to put the children I taught as the characters in my stories.

Harriet asked "How many stories have you written?"

I have written hundreds but this is the first one I have had published (made into a book to sell). 

Emily asked "How many books have you read?"

Ooooo, 29 add 29 add 29 add 29 add 29 over and over again! Too many to count. I read all the time! Before I had a kindle I used to pack my suitcase when I went on holiday for 2 weeks with ten books and I would read all ten in the two weeks.

Charlie asked "How do you think of the titles for your books?"

Well I think it is a good idea if you give your story a title that has two meanings and then it makes the readers think and be interested in your story. 

Jill then asked the children what they thought 'All Change' meant and Sophie answered"everything changes at the school" and Sofia answered "when it's swimming time the children get changed".

Sian asked "How do you think of the blurb for your book?"

Jill asked the children if they knew what a blurb was and Eddie answered "it's on the back and it tells you something about the story". Jill then explained that she just wrote a short bit about the story enough to give the reader an idea about what the story was about without giving the whole story away and enough to make the reader want to read the whole story. 

Theo asked "How do you think of your characters?"

All my life I've bumped into lots of different people, I love to listen to what people say, watch people and imagine what their lives are like, what jobs they do, who their families are. So I collect lots of ideas about people this way. When I was teaching I got lots of my ideas fro the things that happened in school and the children. 

Thank you Jill for visiting us we really enjoyed meeting you!

Jill's visit