Editor Workshop

This week, Year 6 were lucky enough to have a visit from Wendy Shakespeare, who is a senior editorial manager at Puffin. Wendy spoke to the children about her role and told us all about how much work goes into writing a children’s book. She also told us about the many amazing authors she has worked with during her time as an editor; these included Jill Murphy, Michael Morpurgo and Roald Dahl! The children were extremely excited about this and had many questions for Wendy. 

The focus for the workshop was a book called ‘Kay’s Marvellous Medicine’ written by Adam Kay who is a former comedian and doctor. The book is based on the history of medicine and is of course, extremely gruesome! The children took part in a game of ‘truth or poo’ and had or decide if the facts in the book were true…or poo! 

We then had a  video drawing session with Henry Parker, who is the illustrator of Kay’s books. Parker loves to give body parts human like features and give them real personalities with facial expressions. The children took part in a step by step tutorial, drawing a heart as a super fit gym muscle. I think you will agree, the end results are fantastic! This has inspired the children to take part in more step by step tutorials as suggested by Wendy. 

It was an absolute privilege to have met Wendy and hear all about her career. I know she has certainly inspired a few pupils! It was thoroughly enjoyed by all!