‘Books go Walkabout is a global project uniting children with authors across the world’.
It brings an inspirational dimension to reading, literacy and cultural exchange. Children talk with authors across the world’. Books and great stories from different countries are read by children.
We distribute the books, creating an international book purchase marketplace for parents and children within the project…
Authors and Illustrators travelling the world with Books Go Walkabout 2019
In 2019 we are indeed travelling the world to bring authors and illustrators to different places, to meet with children and students.
We have many tales to tell… we have books about explorers like Scott, the polar explorer; Into the White by Joanna Grochowicz from New Zealand, we have characters so intriguing like Mr Chicken by Leigh Hobbs from Australia.
We have stories set in Ancient Chinese history, like Dragonkeeper by Carole Wilkinson, from Australia, we have poems which seek meaning and fun like Can it Be About Me by Cheryl Moskowitz from the UK and US and we have books with spine tingling scary stuff like Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay from the UK and Philippines .
Illustrators take on a larger role this year, as we work with an international school in Hong Kong to use illustrations to inspire young people into books and create brilliant readers and writers.
Jill Calder, from Scotland, is an award winning illustrator flying to Hong Kong for Books Go Walkabout to work with over 700 children from 7- 11 years to inspire, imagine and create. Her books include The Picture Atlas and Robert the Bruce, King of the Scots plus a new book in the pipeline, The Sea.
Jill is flying to Hong Kong in April 2019 with Books Go Walkabout to work as Book Week illustrator with Kellett International School, The British International School in Hong Kong.
Jill Calder is an award winning illustrator and lettering artist based in Scotland. Her work in illustrating children’s books is highly creative with strong visual impact and an appealing sense of style and colour.
As a teacher, Jill is passionate about enthusing children, empowering them to develop their own creative ideas and styles combining illustration and words as a means of expression.
Jill loves drawing, ideas, colour, ink, typography, narrative, sketchbooks, making books and even deadlines! She blends traditional and digital drawing seamlessly to create richly layered illustrations full of people, animals and places.
Illustrating grittier, more challenging subject matter is just as rewarding as tackling more whimsical themes, hence why her work has broad appeal from adults to younger children. See more…
‘The Autumn Tour’ in 2018
We have recently been in the midst of our ‘Autumn Tour’ in the UK, with authors and illustrators from the Antipodes.
Our visits to a variety of settings and organisations have met, in very short order, with 1500 children, teachers and parents.
We have spread the word about authors from other countries, delivered brilliant presentations to students from 4 – 40 years old and sold many personally signed books.
We have distributed thousands of our event ‘Big Bookmarks‘ for free too, as well as donating free copies of the authors works to school libraries as we went.
School teachers aStudents have written brilliant testimonials. Our authors, Leigh Hobbs and Joanna Groschowicz have been amazing, so different in their work, but both powerful in bringing a love of reading and creativity to all.
From metropolitan London to rural Norfolk, from Cambridge to Sussex, we have been in schools, at universities and research institutes.
A great team – Books Go Walkabout.
From Australia to Ashwicken too in 2018
An electronic journey from Australia, to Hong Kong and then on to Ashwicken in Norfolk, UK.
Skyping authors across the world!
Books Go Walkabout has been busy ‘Skyping’ with schools and authors this summer. A great way to communicate, ask questions and have real time author contact. Beaming in an author onto a large screen or the classroom wall has a great effect and within a few moments two different places in the world are joined.
A favourite book and author of Books Go Walkabout is Dragonkeeper and award winning author, Carole Wilkinson, from Melbourne, Australia.
See more of how the children did, what they learnt and examples of the creative writing produced after the events.
Check out our newly featured BgW author
Candy Gourlay – Candy was born in the Philippines and brings stories from that culture into a western world. She currently lives in North London with her family and is writing more and more books. She enjoys getting into schools and meeting with children talking about stories, writing, reading and what life is like for children and young people.
Candy has visited many parts of the world to talk about her books and writing and also gets into Skype conversations with schools from all over the world.
See more of this great author and her titles here.
Contact us at BgW if we can arrange a visit from Candy to your setting!
Law Ting Pong – An International Local Secondary School in Tai Po, Hong Kong.
Located in an urban environment at the north of Hong Kong city, the school is close to Sai Kung and in the New Territories.
Through our Books Go Walkabout projects in Hong Kong, we have made contacts with the school librarian and are working with the school to develop understanding of literacy, reading for pleasure, skills and knowledge for writing, and in using creativity and imagination.
We have delivered Skype calls to Law Ting Pong, initially with poet Cheryl Moskowitz and are developing a portfolio of authors for further Skype calls and country visits.
The school was established in 1991 by the Law’s Foundation Ltd and has students who speak English and Chinese. Lessons are generally taught in English with approximately 50% of the students being Chinese speaking and 50% English speaking. They are a forward thinking school and students will be prepared for a global future in the 21st Century.
We are really excited about working with Law Ting Pong, lots of great ideas to enable students to have a truly dual dimension working in both the English and Chinese language.
Image: The Law Ting Pong library
Our first Skype project at Law Ting Pong
October 2017 – Skype Calls for the Year 9 (age 14years) students with US/UK poet Cheryl Moskowitz, from London.
Three skype calls were arranged with Books Go Walkabout through Beth McNeilly, the school librarian. Over a period of about 4 weeks, the plans began to emerge about the direction of the conversations, the focus for the students and the activities that would take place.
Poetry was a literacy area that the students would be focussing on and activities, resources were planned to enable students to; read poetry, listen to Cheryl’s poems from her book, Can it Be About Me?, be involved in discussions , create a Cinquain or a sound poem, and to create an auto biographical poem by the students.
The three sessions went very well and students, became more animated and involved in writing a poem, especially using onomatopoeia.
Work, including poems was created and this has formed an important part of the student’s involvement in reading, poetry and in using the library as a place of reaching out into the wider world.
If we can help your school or setting engage with BgW authors across the globe, contact me here… Sue Martin
Skype is a trademark of the Microsoft Corporation
We are featuring the work of Joanna Grochowicz in 2018
Review from The Scotsman – Scotland’s national newspaper
20th December 2017. The Scotsman said…
“I’m just going outside and may be some time” were the last words of Lawrence Oates as, suffering from gangrene and severe frostbite, he stumbled out into a blizzard and died during Scott’s ill-fated return from the South Pole.
Into the White by Joanna Grochowicz (Publ: Allen and Unwin…buy a copy here at BgW) is an astonishing work of narrative non-fiction that charts the fascinating tale of the Terra Nova expedition. Brimming with interesting information and punctuated by original photographs from 1910-13 the reader is grounded in the reality of the story. The personalities of Scott and his crew are vividly brought to life in a way that fully brings home the human tragedy that took place”.
Read more in The Scotsman at: https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/books/book-reviews-the-best-reads-for-teens-this-festive-season-1-4643704
See more of Joanna’s creative work as a non-fiction author for children and young people on the pages of Books go Walkabout…
You can find more reviews and testimonials to the work of Joanna on our web pages here.
The Children’s Bookshow is an annual tour of children’s authors and illustrators from the UK and abroad.
Sue Martin of Books go Walkabout was delighted, in 2017, to interview the Finnish author and illustrator, Timo Parvela and Virpi Talvitie, to celebrate this year’s tour.
Their book Bicycling to the Moon is a wonderful story, beautifully illustrated by Virpi, that tells the the story of Purdy the Cat and Barker the Dog.
You can read Sue’s interview with this talented writer and illustrator here.
A wonderful window into great storytelling and the creative process.
Check out the great interview here on the pages of BgW
Project planning for 2018 – 2019
How to get started with BgW? See the short presentation below…
Made with Adobe Spark by BgW - spark.adobe.com
An Adobe Spark view of a recent BgW contribution:
Made with Adobe Spark by BgW - spark.adobe.com
