2009-10 Launch, 13th October 2009

The latest Doncaster Book Award has been well and truly launched!

Tuesday afternoons do not come more exciting than this terrific event, which starred the fabulous Phil Shepherd and his amazing alter-ego, Lollipop Man!

Around 350 students from participating schools were present at The Civic Theatre and their enthusiasm was very obvious to the distinguished guests, who included Doncaster’s Chair of Council and her Consort. The event was introduced by DBA Chairperson, Lesley, who welcomed everyone to the theatre. Dave Cryer, our Creative Consultant, then took over as host, and began by speaking about the award and some of the great events/activities and competitions we have planned for this year. He urged everyone to get on to our website to keep up-to-date with what’s going on, and, of course, to post reviews of the books.

Chris Fitt, our Primary Co-ordinator, then took centre stage for one of her famous ‘Long-list gallops’! Chris spoke about each of the books on this year’s list (She’s read them all already!!) and with her passion for reading and knowledge of the titles and authors, she certainly whetted a few appetites among the audience.

Next up was the STAR of the show, author, illustrator, poet, singer and all-round entertainer, Phil Shepherd. Phil was, quite simply, wonderful. He began by reading some of his very funny stories, complete with illustrations, which soon had the audience in stitches. He then moved on to superheroes and introduced his very own creation, ‘Lollipop Man’. Phil spoke about the lollipop man books, and treated the audience to an excerpt from the fabulous ‘Lollipop Man and The Rabbit of DOOM’, complete with our hero, evil villains Scappy Joe and Fat Cat (worthy of a Bond movie and all cleverly drawn by Phil himself), and a seriously weird rabbit. (You’ve got to read it!) By this stage the audience were totally hooked.

And it didn’t stop there, Phil went on to perform some of his own poetry, drawing amazing cartoons of all the action as he went. He finished up by bursting into song and inviting the audience to sing, or clap along as he used his lollipop sign instead of an air guitar! At the end the audience went wild, clapping and cheering, and I’m sure they would happily have listened to him all day.

Lesley then took to the stage to thank everyone for coming and bring the afternoon to a close, and everyone left the theatre on a real high, buzzing with excitement and ready to start reading.

Comments from Don Valley Students on the way home left me in no doubt as to how much they’d enjoyed themselves, words like ‘amazing’, and ‘mint’ were flying around the minibus, along with assurances that ‘we could hear you and Maureen laughing REALLY loud miss!’

Some comments from Armthorpe students were:

Cecilia and Leah, ‘Lollipop man was a bit nutty but we loved him, especially his song at the end’

Liam and Macaulay loved the ‘super villians’, the cat who stole cat's eyes from the road was good.

James thought ‘his cartoons were amazing’

All in all possibly our best launch event ever!

Lyn Hopson

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