Monday 20 May 2013

                                    Edible Comics Workshop



Last Friday a group of year 7 girls from Breakfast Club participated in an edible comics workshop with writer Canan Marasligil and illustrator Karrie Fransman. Canan has been joining us at Breakfast Club for the past few weeks, getting to know the students and encouraging them to tell stories around the breakfast table. Over this time the girls wrote a story about their favourite head teacher Miss Dibb. At the workshop on Friday we were joined by Karrie, who has created comics for a range of publications including Time Out and The Guardian, who helped to turn the story into an edible comic strip. Instead of drawing on paper, each girl was given a paper plate upon which to illustrate a scene from the story. And instead of using traditional drawing materials, the girls made their comics out of food, using fruit, nuts, vegetables and biscuits. The story charts a surreal adventure Miss Dibb has one morning on her way to school, in which she encounters talking strawberries, takes a ride inside a giant apple, and flies on the back of a butterfly! The girls came up with some great ideas, using parsley for hair and mushrooms for heads. Great fun was had by all in what proved to be a creative and enjoyable exercise in telling stories. Next Thursday the girls will be showcasing photographs of their edible comic at the Free Word Centre as part of the Islington Word Festival.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

Carnegie short review: 4


Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
Maggot Moon is an unusual book. Set in a dystopian 1950’s world that is reminiscent of Nazi Germany, Standish Treadwell is a dyslexian schoolboy whose best friend Hector has disappeared. The writing style is spare yet powerful, and the book is illustrated with unpleasant rats and spiders – and I didn’t like the cover either. Unpleasant and violent things happen in Standish’s world and his quest to find Hector is not an easy one. This book is extremely powerful and unlike anything I have previously read.

Friday 3 May 2013

Becoming a Writer

The books have arrived for our 'Becoming a Writer' event next week, complete with the new cover designs! These will be on sale at the event next Thursday.




BECOMING A WRITER

Here at The Cloud we are very excited to be launching our new series of Author Events, 'Becoming a Writer.' Launching next week with our first guest author Meg Rosoff, the series will feature a series of talks, Q & A sessions and workshops encouraging young peeople to write. The author talk will be filmed and featured on this blog and the school website, enabling others to benefit from the sessions.



Authors to feature inlcude:

Keren David
Phil Earle
Candy Gourlay
Catherine Johnson
Nicola Morgan
Val Rutt
Malaika Rose Stanley

If you are an author and you would like to take part please email: lesley.cheetham@egas.islington.sch.uk