Welcome to the Children's Corner!

Odd Socques 

A story begun by Morris Gleitzman and continued by Jessica, Adam, Robbie, Chloe, Anya, Jemima, Aimee, Mia, Chantelle, Katie, Chloe, Orli and Hannah. at Little Bookniks, Jewish Book Week 2010

Macques was dreading the spelling test.

The minute he walked into class and saw the substitute teacher sitting at Ms Conway’s desk, he knew there’d be one.

Substitute teachers always did spelling tests.

‘Good morning 6C,’ said the substitute teacher. ‘Ms Conway is away today. My name’s Mr Green.’

Macques could see something bulging in Mr Green’s jacket pocket.

Spelling test prizes.

‘Good morning, Mr Green,’ chanted the class.

‘OK, 6C,’ said Mr Green. ‘I’ve heard you’re very good at maths and spelling. Would you rather have a maths test or a spelling test?’

Macques sighed gloomily.

He knew exactly what was coming.

‘Maths!’ shouted half of the class.

‘Spelling!’ called the other.

‘Okay, we’ll do spelling,’ grinned Mr Green.

‘Get your workbooks out, everyone,’ screamed Miss Mooly, the teaching assistant.

Macques sighed. He knew what was going to happen. He was going to get a detention again from the teaching assistant because he had not practiced his spelling at home.

The people who didn’t want to do spelling ran out of the school. They went to the park and swung on the swings, they climbed up a tree and stayed there for three nights. Chloe, who was feeling hungry, wanted to go home.

‘I miss my sister Anya,’ she cried. ‘And chocolate!’

They would rather be at home so they started to go back to do spelling!

‘But I don’t want to do spelling,’ said a little kid. ‘So let’s go to Australia!’

Macques sighed again, a little louder this time. ‘These kids are bonkers,’ he thought out loud.

‘Let’s stay in the tree and be monkeys!’ said a little girl.

‘I think they’ve gone delirious,’ sighed Macques, so loudly that the other children pushed him off the tree that they happened to be sitting in. The last thing he saw was a koala wearing spectacles and a scarf.

‘Please be my family!’ squeaked the koala frantically.

‘Now they’ve really gone crackers!’ sighed Macques from the bottom of the tree.

Suddenly there was a big crack and they all fell off the tree. The koala ran away. Macques got cross.

And the teacher sent everyone back to do the spelling text and the kids that went out were bored. The children started chatting to each other and started to play around. Mr Green got very angry with the class and decided to take a cookie out of the jar. The children all sighed at the teacher. Macques said,

‘Why can’t we do whatever we want? You can do the spelling text and we can play’.

Mr Green said, ‘OK’.

Macques opened his eyes and found he was in Australia and the koala was wearing a bikini with Uggs. Macques tripped over a tree and fell in an igloo.

Macques woke up for a second time that day.

‘Yay, Australia!’ shouted a little boy wildly.

‘Sigh, sigh, sigh,’ Macques sighed, sighingly as he sighed.

‘Let’s explore!’ screamed a girl who had magically appeared on a seahorse.

Macques frowned. Who was this girl who had just appeared? The warm wind was slapping his face as he continued to sigh. The girl on the seahorse was now shrieking with laughter – but suddenly a huge wave loomed above her and all of a sudden everything went black and they were swallowed into a cape of nothingness.

‘What’s happening?’ Asked Chloe.

‘We’re in a cape of nothingness!’ Barney exclaimed. Barney, who was a know-it-all, knew everything about everything. He never needed to study for spelling or maths tests because he knew everything already.

They were lost; even Barney could not work it out. They went onward when they found themselves back in an igloo. They knew they would never get back again.

Amazing Dreams

A word-swap story by Debbie Kent, with help from Adam, Adam, Aimee, Alex, Anya, Ayala, Chloe, Hannah, Ilana, Jackie, Jemima, Jessica, Jodie, Jonah, Karen, Katie, Laila, Maya, Micah, Millie, Robbie and Talia

This story started as a game at the Little Bookniks event at Jewish Book Week 2010. Three poems about dreams, nightmares and night-time (The Longest Journey in the World by Michael Rosen, Frozen Dream by Shel Silverstein and The Dragons are Singing Tonight by Jack Prelutsky) were jumbled up, and children were invited to swap a word of their own for one of the words from the poems. Then I used all the words they contributed to make a new story about dreams. Many thanks to all the children who took part, and apologies to anyone whose name I missed.

 “I like the night,” says Chloe.

“Why?” Mick asks.

“Because I have amazing dreams,” says Chloe. “Last night I dreamt I had a crazy car, it was super duper hyper fast, as fast as lightning. I drove my car all the way from here to Llanfairickythingywhatsit -”

“Where?” Mick asks.

“Llanfairpoogeethingyhoojit. It's got lots of other letters in it too, and if you say it properly you sound as if you have something stuck in your throat.” Chloe makes a noise to show him – it sounds as if she has something stuck in her throat. “It's the longest word in the world. My dad wrote it down for me. Look.” It is a ridiculously long word. It takes up two pages of Chloe's diary and it looks like this: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

Mick tries to imagine a long, long, long thin town, with all the houses and trees and roads stretching out for miles, like a ribbon, and all the people who live there are coughing instead of making conversation. “Your dad made that word up,” he says.

“Well tell me one of your dreams, then,” says Chloe.

“I don't have dreams.”

“Why not?”

Mick thinks hard. At last he says: “Because.” 

“But everyone has dreams,” says Chloe. “The other night, I dreamt I was eating a massive biscuit. It was as big as a dinner table, and it had blue and pink icing, and it tasted...” She tries to remember the right word - “It tasted delirious!”

Mick thinks about a blue-and-pink biscuit as big as a dinner table.

“You mean it tasted delicious.”

“I know what I mean. What do you know? You don't even have dreams!”

“I don't want to have silly dreams about biscuits.”

“Last week,” Chloe says, “I had the most amazing craze of a dream, a wondrous overhyperlating dream...”

Chloe isn't entirely sure what all these words mean but she carries on talking anyway, without stopping for breath. “About a big fiery monster made out of balloons. He roared at me with an earsplitting roar, and then...”

Chloe waits for Mick to guess what happened next.

“Did he drink your blood?” asks Mick, hopefully.

“No, of course not. He shook my hand and said Hi, Chloe.”

“Is that all?” asks Mick.

“He said he was very pleased to meet me. He was a gregarious monster. That means someone who likes meeting people,” Chloe explains.

Mick pulls a face. “Monsters are supposed to like eating people, not meeting people.”

“What do you know? You don't even have dreams!”

…...

That night, when Mick's mother comes upstairs to make sure he's in bed, he asks her: “What's the longest word in the world?”

“I don't know,” she says. “Is it flaukinaukinissanissacation?”

“That's not it at all,” says Mick.

“Oh, wait a minute, I know this,” says his mother. “It's antidisestablishmentarianism.” She is pleased because she remembered it.

Mick shakes his head. “That's not right either. Your word was full of hisses and mumbles. The longest word in the world sounds funny, It sounds like someone with something stuck in their throat.”

“Hush,” says his mother. “It's time to turn out the light.”

But Mick has another question. 

“I never have dreams,” he says. “Why don't I have dreams?” 

His mother is taken aback. “Perhaps you're too warm at night,” she says.

Mick shakes his head.

“Or too cold?” 

Mick shakes his head.

“Perhaps you need a bed-time story.”

Mick shakes his head.

“Perhaps you need more peace and quiet.”

Mick rolls his eyes.

“I know what we'll do,” says his mother. “Tomorrow we'll go out and get you a dreamcatcher.”

“What's a dreamcatcher?” asks Mick.

“I'm not entirely sure,” says his mother. “But there's bound to be one in the high street. And when we get it home, it will catch all the dreams that are passing by. Only the good ones, though, not the bad ones.”

“There are bad dreams?” asks Mick, opening his eyes wide.

“That's why you need a dreamcatcher, to make sure all your dreams are happy,” says his mother, and turns off the light.

JBW links for Children’s Literature;

Jewish Children’s Books

You can find a huge list of Jewish Children’s books and they’re divided into categories (Like Bible stories or different festivals) so it’s pretty easy to find what you’re looking for.

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/muljewhol.htm

Jbooks.com

Find out the latest Jewish children’s books from this Jewish Book website.

http://www.jbooks.com/children/index.htm

The Northern Children’s Book Festival

Details of the annual children’s book festival which takes place in Gateshead in mid-November.

http://www.gatesheadgrid.org/ncbf/

My Home Library

Tips for creating your own home library and you can even print out your own specially-designed bookplates.

http://www.myhomelibrary.org/

The Children’s Book Council

This site is filled with lists of great books to read (see the reading lists section).

http://www.cbcbooks.org/

UK Childrens Books

HUGE list of British children’s authors with links to their websites.

http://www.ukchildrensbooks.co.uk/

About.com’s list of Children’s books about Jewish Religion and Culture.

http://childrensbooks.about.com

Joseph’s Books Picks.

Top 10 Children’s Jewish Books from Joseph’s Bookstore.

http://www.josephsbookstore.com/top%20ten%20children.html

Stories from the web

This site has two sections; one for 8-11 year olds, the other for 11-14 year olds. They have interviews with authors, tips on illustrating and loads of sneaky peaks at new books, and older ones too. There are also competitions and you can even find out about activities going on in a library near you.

http://www.storiesfromtheweb.org/sfwhomepage.htm

In the 8-11 section look out for an interview with Francesca Simon.

http://www.storiesfromtheweb.org/Stories/simon/interview.asp

Meg Rosoff talks about her new book

Hear Meg talking about her new book Just In Case, her follow up to the multi-award winning How I Live Now.

http://www.meettheauthor.co.uk/bookbites/1189.html

Francesca Simon’s website

Francesca Simon is the author of the Horrid Henry series and more besides. She was at JBW 2006 and the ‘Fables and Bagles’ event at Simon Marks school in 2005. This site has details on all her books (including ones not yet in the shops).

http://www.francescasimon.com/

Adele Geras’ site

Adele was at JBW 2004 and the ‘Fables and Bagles’ event at Simon Marks school in 2005. Her site is filled with details of all the wonderful books she has written and a newsletter which tells you what kinds of projects she’s doing at the moment.

http://www.adelegeras.com/

Michael Rosen’s Top 10 books

Michael Rosen, a JBW favourite, reveals his Top 10 books (most, but not all written for children)

http://books.guardian.co.uk/top10s/top10/0,6109,906743,00.html

Joe Craig’s ‘Jimmy Coates’ Website

Joe Craig wowed our visiting schools at JBW 2006 with a creative writing workshop. This fantastic website gives you an insight into the Jimmy Coates books including interviews, competitions and downloads.

http://www.jimmycoates.co.uk/

Morris Gleitzman’s site

The wonderful website of Morris Gleitzman packed full of all kinds of things including: an online interview with some readers, an opportunity to get hold of an out of print book and you can even get to delve into Morris’ scrapbook.

 http://www.morrisgleitzman.com/