29 March 2024

Posted by Suki & Claire

Junior Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase

Hi Writers,

As this was our final week for Term 2: The Art of Writing before our well-earned Easter break, we held a

Final Week Showcase to show off everyone’s favourite pieces they have written this term, and to share

our favourite books together.

In or weekly check-in we each described our week as tough it was something to do with Easter:

 Indie’s week was like a chick, because they move their beaks a lot, opening and shutting them

very quickly and demandingly – a cheepy beak week!

 Hamish said his week was like the Beaster from ‘The Phoenix’, which is like a chick crossed with

a bunny, wearing a hot cross bun hat. The Beaster hides among clusters of Easter eggs – Hamish

had felt like the Beaster during the week, wanting to hide and be small and bite anyone who came

too close.

 Marissa’s week had been like the Easter Bunny – lots of hopping around and doing different

things

 Evan also compared his week to the Easter Bunny because he loves bunnies, and because he’d

loved this week after getting to do some drawing in English and getting to visit his Nan

 Sukie said their week was like an Easter egg, as they’d been all wrapped up in bed after an

operation

 Claire’s week had been like a daffodil – very loud and ‘in yer face’!

We also had an exciting announcement this week: The Winchester Poetry Festival’s Young Poets

Competition has opened! The theme is ‘Our World, Our Planet’, and the task is to write a short poem (no

more than 14 lines). This is being organised by Hampshire Cultural Trust, so it is open to anyone living or

studying in Hampshire (that means if your school is in Hampshire you can apply, even if you live across

the border). There are three age categories: 4-7, 8-11 and 11-16, and the winners will receive a National

Book Token as the prize. The closing date is Wednesday 31 st July at midnight so we will definitely be

setting some time aside during the summer term’s Junior and Young Writers workshops to develop pieces

for this competition.

Hampshire Young Poets | Hampshire Cultural Trust (hampshireculture.org.uk)

We began our Showcase by sharing pieces of our own work that we are particularly proud of. Hamish

kicked us off with his Choose Your Own Adventure piece from our session on settings earlier this term,

featuring Spaceman Sam and Rocketman Ram. He followed this up with his terrifying description of the

Deadly Poison Crocodilian, which is ‘not something you would find in a supermarket’. If you were to

drink this poison slowly, you would become a crocodile, but if taken too fast, it could crumble you into a

pile of disintegrating bones! His final piece was from the Scriptwriting week, involving an epic battle

between Lord Skull and Nexus!

Next Evan shared his own Choose Your Own Adventure piece, in which an emergency broadcast was

hijacked by zombies, we met The Alliance in a secret lab and became Agent Assassin. With consistently

high stakes, this CYOA kept us on the edges of our seats!

Marissa took the stage next and also shared her Choose Your Own Adventure, set in a haunted mansion

with more twists and turns than we expected, leading to multiple gruesome ends – a difficult and very fun

adventure! She then regaled us with her scriptwriting piece, featuring Lavinia and Daisy trying to escape

a tense situation, and shared her Poetry Potion, which could make anyone fall in love with the drinker, or

if taken without heeding the instructions, would turn the drinker to stone!

We followed up our Showcase with a Show and Tell of our favourite books, taking it in turns to read the

opening pages or a favourite snippet.

Indie dove right in with her favourite book, ‘The Danger Gang’ by Tom Fletcher, reading us the scene

where Gangsta (or Mr Fluffles) the Hamster receives his name.

Hamish read us the story of Bunny’s birthday party (and ensuing explosion) from ‘Bunny Vs Monkey’ by

Jamie Smart.

Marissa shared the opening of ‘Murder Most Unladylike’ by Robin Stevens, a firm favourite with both

the Junior and Young Writers groups. We loved the phrase ‘determinedly unladylike’!

Evan told us some cool facts about snow rollers and ball lightning from his National Geographic book

‘Everything Weather’ by Kathy Furgang.

Sukie read us the opening pages of ‘Alanna: The First Adventure’ from The Song of the Lioness Quartet

by Tamora Pierce, when Alanna first decides to pretend to be a boy and trades places with her twin in

order to become a knight.

Claire regaled us with the flight of the witches and the battle of Bolvangar from ‘The Northern Lights’

from the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.

Marissa and Hamish made use of the last few minutes to share an extra favourite each:

From Marissa, we had the puzzle book ‘Murdle’ by G T Karber, and worked our way through the mystery

of the murder in the art gallery, while Hamish took us through ‘Scorpion Swamp’, one of the original

Choose Your Own Adventure Books.

We’d love to see some more new faces this coming term (starting Saturday 13th April), so if anyone

knows a budding writer aged 7-10, we’d love to hear from them! All of our Junior Writing sessions are

free and bookable through the Forest Arts Centre website, so come along and have a go with us! We also

offer a Young Writers group on Saturdays for writers aged 11-14.

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Junior Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase