Launch Report, Monday, 17th October 2011

Marvellous Monday at The Civic!

There was no trace of the Monday blues at Doncaster’s Civic Theatre as our young people got together on a blustery October day to celebrate the launch of the eighth Doncaster Book Award. Over 300 students from 12 schools were there, and as ever, they raised the roof with their sheer enthusiasm for the joy of reading.

The excitement around the theatre was almost tangible as we got ready to begin, and grew to fever pitch when guests and audience joined together in a brilliant rendition of Gotta Keep Reading, now fast becoming the DBA anthem!

First up on stage then was book award Chairperson Lesley Hurworth, who welcomed everyone to the event, in particular all our special guests, including the new Deputy Civic Mayor, various local dignitaries, and the guest author, Chris Mould. Lesley explained the running order of the afternoon, and also outlined our exciting plans for this year’s scheme. The Committee have decided this year to give the DBA somewhat of a sporting flavour, and to tie in some of our reading promotion activities to the forthcoming 2012 Olympics. We will, alongside old favourites like our drama workshops, author events, and ‘Murder in the Library’, be holding a ‘Lit’s a Knockout’ competition, and even attempting to break a world record! Keep checking the website for more details. It has been somewhat of a struggle this year to plan and organise the DBA, due to cutbacks within educational funding, but the Committee have worked hard to secure funding elsewhere, and our success has meant that, in fact, this year’s award scheme will be bigger and better than ever!

Dave Cryer then took over and assumed his duties as Host. To begin with, Dave introduced two representatives from the Public Libraries’ Reader Development Team, Alan Wilkinson and Sabina Gumulak. (They had gamely volunteered to speak when the scheduled speaker, Nick Stopforth, had to cry off at the last minute due to tonsillitis.) However, they were by no means a poor substitute, as they are both extremely passionate about promoting reading, and this was very evident by what they said. It is important at this time, when the recent news around libraries in Doncaster has been so negative, to remind everyone of the many, many positive things going on in libraries around the Borough, especially for young readers. Public Libraries have been a vital part of the DBA from the beginning, and will be running workshops and activities once again this year. Alan and Sabina reminded the students present that they can be contacted via any local Branch and are only too happy to come out to run activities on request.

Next up was Chris Fitt and her now-traditional ‘Gallop Through The Long List’. This introduced the youngsters present to the 20 utterly brilliant books on offer this year, and whetted their appetites so that those who haven’t already done so now can’t wait to get started!

Next, Dave welcomed on-stage our star guest, author and illustrator Chris Mould. Chris’ book Pip and the Twilight Seekers is on the long list this year, and in fact he was also on our list in 2008/9 with The Icy Hand, one of his popular Something Wickedly Weird series. As well as writing, Chris has been a successful illustrator of children’s books for many years. He had brought along examples of his work, including some truly amazing pop-up books. He also brought along his sketch books, and described how he jots down ideas for his stories and how these drawings are crucial to the creation of his characters. Chris was really encouraging to budding artists in the audience, telling them just to keep on drawing, perhaps copying other pictures to begin with to help develop their skills, until they began to create their own style.

Chris also gave something of a drawing masterclass, creating a character on stage in the manner of Rolf Harris, and skilfully demonstrating how he uses light and shade to bring his work to life on the page. Those students sitting near me were in awe, especially of his ability to draw brilliantly and talk at the same time, all the while appearing to stay totally cool and unflustered! Chris went on to say that he got into writing his own books partly so as to give him more control of the characters he created, rather than interpreting other people’s ideas, and that his favourite book was always the one he was working on at present. When audience question time came around, there were so many hands up that we ran out of time. Chris himself has since described the audience reaction as very positive, and said that he really enjoyed the event. He also said that it was a very strong list and he felt privileged to be on it. Judging by the applause he received as he finished, the readers are pleased to have him on there too!

All too soon, Lesley was on stage again to officially draw the event to a close. The kids left to return to their schools, absolutely buzzing, and the DBA is officially up and running for another year. I’ll finish with the words of Nicole, one of my Year 7 students here at Don Valley:

‘Today was ACE!’

Enough said.

Lyn Hopson

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