Age guideline 7-11
About the event
Join Waterstones Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell as she introduces the last book in the bestselling Wizards of Once series, Never and Forever. Who is the mysterious narrator? Will Xar and Wish unite their tribes in time to defeat the Witches? One of the main themes of this series is that the REAL magic is imagination: get Cressida’s creativity tips and inspiration… This event will be followed by a live Q&A.
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Teacher Resources
Cressida’s Creative Writing Tips
Cressida gives us some special creative writing top tips in her event.
Creative Writing Tip One - What would your secret magical power be? Write a story about it.
Creative Writing Tip Two – Have a magical ideas book where you can write or draw anything you’d like to
Creative Writing Tip Three – Draw a map of an imaginary place and then write a story about it.
Creative Writing Tip Four – Create your own magical creature and then write a story about it.
Have a go at using one of these tips in your creative writing. We really like tip two! Start off by designing a cover for your magical ideas book so you’re ready to fill it with all your ideas.
Have a look at BookTrust’s gallery of magical ideas https://www.booktrust.org.uk/what-we-do/childrens-laureate/magic-ideas/ Here lots of authors and illustrators share their ideas books. It will show you how their ideas for stories and illustrations develop and are often scribbles and sketches as they develop. Books don’t appear perfect and neat; that’s for when they’re finished and lots of people have helped get them that way. Its your ideas that are truly important!
We’d love to see your maps of imaginary places or your magical creature drawings. Get a grown up to share them on social media using #ReadingIsMagicFest
Cressida uses map drawing and illustration to help her imagine her settings and characters. Try drawing your own map of an island or woodland. Who lives there? What are the woods called? What is the sea around the island called? Are there any dangerous spots or places that would be nice for a picnic?
Cressida uses vivid language to describe her characters and settings. Pick an illustration of one of Cressida’s characters from The Wizards of Once or How to Train Your Dragon books and use descriptive language to write about the character eg. Gobber the Belch’s beard is like exploding fireworks
Or write a vivid description of your favourite character or setting and read aloud to a friend for them to create an illustration based on your writing.
The Wizards of Once KS2 Resources for Teachers and Librarians:
Cressida Cowell’s aim as Waterstones Children’s Laureate is to encourage EVERY child to read for fun and get something out of books. Her latest series, The Wizards of Once, will certainly achieve that in your classroom! It is full of magic and wonder, adventure and danger, friendship and family … and lots more!
Cressida has a passion for developing the creative intelligence of children and she believes that reading allows the reader to grow three superpowers:
Creativity
Empathy
Intelligence
Cressida explains that the magic of books is partly about the words, but also, importantly, what happens in the reader’s imagination.
These classroom ideas created by Reading Rocks aim to focus on those three superpowers and to explore and enjoy the reader’s own imagination.
There are lots of resources linked to Cressida’s How to Train Your Dragon series:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/ks2-stories/ks2-story-book-resources/ks2-story-book-resources-how-to-train-your-dragon
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/cressida-cowell-video-and-resources-6183309
About the author
Cressida Cowell is the number one bestselling author-illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon and The Wizards of Once book series, and the author of the Emily Brown picture books, illustrated by Neal Layton. She has sold over 11 million books worldwide in 38 languages. How to Train Your Dragon is also an award-winning billion-dollar DreamWorks film series, and a TV series shown on Netflix and CBBC; The Wizards of Once has also been optioned for film by DreamWorks.
Cressida is an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust, a trustee for World Book Day and a founder patron of the Children’s Media Foundation. She has won numerous prizes for her books, including the Blue Peter Book Award and the Ruth Rendell Award for Championing Literacy. She is a honorary fellow of Keble College Oxford, and has a honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton. She grew up in London and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland and she now lives in Hammersmith with her husband, three children and a dog called Pigeon. cressidacowell.co.uk
Twitter: @CressidaCowell
Instagram: @cressidacowellauthor
Facebook: /CressidaCowellBooks
About the festival partners
This event has been programmed by Bath Children’s Literature Festival and Henley Literary Festival
Bath Festivals is a charity that brings you the Bath Children’s Literature Festival, Europe’s largest dedicated children’s literature festival with a vibrant array of talks and activities for children. They are also responsible for The Bath Festival in the summer which bring the city alive with a celebration of music and books in the beautiful venues and spaces of the world heritage city. By creating innovative and diverse programmes, their festivals inspire and provide unique experiences for residents and visitors to Bath and surrounding areas. Their year-round creative learning programme of hands-on music and literature projects gives children and young people opportunities to gain real-world experience, building their inner confidence and improving communication skills through the arts.
Founded in 2007, Henley Literary Festival is now established as one of the UK's leading book events for adults and children. In 2019 the Festival sold a record 25,000 tickets with 170 events including Theresa May, Michael Rosen, Nadiya Hussain, Kate Atkinson and Alistair Cook, while previous speakers have included Judith Kerr, Roddy Doyle, Jilly Cooper, John Sentamu and Julia Donaldson. This year the Festival is going online with 40 events in September and October including Rob Biddulph, Candice Brathwaite, Graham Norton, Jodi Picoult and Michael Morpurgo.