Norfolk Children's Book Festival 2014

Last week, ten children from Year Four and Five went to the Norfolk Children's Book Festival, which was held in a big marquee at Norwich School. There were over 500 children there to listen to four amazing authors talk about their books and writing.

The first author to speak was the Radio 2 DJ, Simon Mayo, who has written Itch and Itch Rocks. His books are about a boy called Itchingham who is an Element Hunter. This means his hobby is to try and collect all the different elements that are in the Periodic Table.

His talk was really funny and entertaining, sharing where he got his ideas from and how long it takes to write a book. I got chosen to go to the front and help him with an experiment using a computer, which was really exciting (I had to say "Oooh, wow!" in front of everyone). I haven't read any of his books yet as I'm a bit young, but I definitely will soon. There is a new book about Itch which is out soon called Itchcraft.

After Simon Mayo, the next author was Cathy MacPhail. She was my favourite author of the day. She told us how to use our imaginations and how to think about spooky things which could happen in the marquee, like all the balloons popping one by one or strange voices coming over the speakers. She had stayed the night in the Maid's Head hotel in Norwich which is well known for having lots of ghosts. She has written loads of books, including Run Zan Run, which was her first book. Her new book is called Another Me, which is about a girl who is being haunted by herself.

I bought this book and got it signed. I am reading it now and am already on chapter seven. We also watched the trailer of the film which has been made of her book, but unfortunately it was in Spanish. I think Cathy MacPhail might be one of my new favourite authors.

We then had lunch. My lunch was nice but the teachers' lunches looked delicious. The next author to speak was called Paul Dowswell. He has written lots of books about children growing up in countries where the government have not treated people well. His most famous book is called Auslander which is about a boy in Nazi Germany. He also wrote a book called Red Shadow which is set in Russia.

He was really interesting to listen to, especially when he was talking about one of his books called Powder Monkey, which is about what life used to be like as a boy working on a ship. I thought he was really good at answering questions from people and he knew lots about history. Mr Biddle bought some of his books to read at home.

The final author to speak was Marcus Sedgwick who had spent the weekend in Las Vegas (but he hadn't been doing gambling, he had been talking to some librarians). He said he was a bit tired though. He talked about the room where he worked and did his writing, and we could choose things from the room to ask him about. There were so many things to talk about that we didn't get through them all. He told us a great story about when he broke into an empty psychiatric hospital in America, but he didn't break the law. He heard footsteps above him and so ran out again really quickly. His books sound really thrilling. He also talked to us about the number 354, which he says is following him everywhere in his life.

All of the writers who spoke to us were great and I had a really good day. I learned about lots of new authors and bought some new books which I am really enjoying. I hope I get to go next year as there are lots more authors that I would like to meet. We also got a bag which had things in like a bottle of water, a notebook, a pencil and a book voucher. There was also a raffle ticket but I didn't win anything, although I nearly did. I had the right numbers but they were in the wrong order.

Thank you for inviting me.

by Megan, 4JB.