Yesterday I accompanied 7L to the Jewish Museum as part of the Pop Up Festival, to meet the author Gillian Cross. The class have been reading her book, 'After Tomorrow,' in which Matt and some of his family are forced to flee to a refugee camp in France, when food becomes scarce in England and the family are under the threat of violence.
Gillian and Judith from the museum looked at various themes during the morning, such as 'leaving', in which she talked about her own experience of leaving a town where she had lived for many years and the feelings that had evoked. Next the girls looked at a picture of Jewish children leaving to go on the Kindertransport, and thought about how they would feel if they had to leave home and how Matt in the novel was very resourceful in order to survive. The girls had clearly read and enjoyed the book and some very lively discussion was had.
Afterwards they had a look around the museum, searching for particular artefacts which they had thought about that morning.
Gillian signed some books and is going to come to EGA as part of the 'Becoming a Writer' series next year. She set the girls a writing task which they can bring along to the session if they wish.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable morning, extremely interesting and I was thrilled to see how a good book can inspire and educate. Even Ms Turpie bought a copy to read!
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