On Thursday 24th June, ten very overexcited, hyperactive Reading Ninjas and two members of staff travelled into London to attend the Carnegie Award ceremony. We’d been expecting a nightmare with the Tube as there was a strike that day, but with a little assertive platform management and some inventive squeezing (our students had clearly been practising playing Sardines) we managed to get everyone on to the same train and made it from Kings Cross to Green Park in time for a gorgeous sunny brunch in the park, without losing anyone.
[caption id="attachment_64" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Green Park Brunch"]
[/caption]Finding BAFTA was another matter! Clearly the shops along Piccadilly have been employing cunning psychological techniques designed to ensnare the minds of teenagers, as suddenly it was impossible to walk more than ten paces without someone stopping to look at shiny things. We made it along the road, only to have Will, our official map reader, inform us that we were on the wrong side. It was at this point that we realised none of us knew what BAFTA looked like, and that if it were even slightly inconspicuous or placed side by side with shiny shops, we’d probably miss it and walk straight on by. Fortunately, Marcus Sedgwick, who had already met some of my students at an SLS event on Tuesday, appeared behind us at the crossing and kindly showed us the way! He was a perfect gentleman and put us all at ease, greeting those he knew and asking how they were.
Once inside and clutching CILIP bags and name badges, our students were a little nervous about setting off to accost their favourite authors. They’d been passing round a printout of their photos* and knew who was who, but took a little encouragement to take their autograph booklets out. After their first successes, they were soon whizzing around the room in rather alarming manner, taking photos, collecting autographs and having their books signed. Every couple of minutes a star-struck figure in school uniform would appear in front of me, waving a signature or a digital camera to show me who they’d just met.
[caption id="attachment_65" align="aligncenter" width="211" caption="Elle's autograph collection"]
[/caption]The event was organised really well, we were given a minder who helped us out, told where things were and when the time came for the ceremony, guided the students to their seats near the front. James Naughtie hosted the presentation, speaking to an enthusiastic audience in comfortable theatre seats. I hear his voice on the Today programme nearly every morning, and to see him speak in real life was surprisingly strange!
Freya Blackwood won the Kate Greenaway medal for her work on Harry & Hopper and Neil Gaiman won the Carnegie for The Graveyard Book. I think I heard Tegan mutter “Yes!” from down at the front! Gaiman’s speech centred on the importance of libraries and the personal significance of the Carnegie medal. For an audience of people who were predominantly from a library background, this was exactly what we needed to hear, following several weeks of dismal projections of library spending, cuts, and a dismissal of the role of a trained librarian. There were several members of the audience dabbing at their eyes before he finished speaking. You can watch a video of his acceptance speech here, and Freya Blackwood’s here.
Drinks and nibbles followed, with the students collecting their remaining signatures while they waited for Neil Gaiman to be released from a round of interviews. As the time edged on, Miss C and I were increasingly worried that we’d have to leave and head back to Herts before he emerged, but luckily he appeared just in time, only to be swamped by a crowd of excited people. What struck me about him, indeed what struck me about all of the authors present, was their fantastic generosity in dealing with their readers. Though it must have been a tense day for all of them, they were without fail kind, receptive and charming with everyone, spending time talking with all of their fans, drawing them pictures, posing for photographs.
[caption id="attachment_66" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Posing at BAFTA"]
[/caption]The highlight of the day was seeing map-reader Will meet his new hero, Patrick Ness. Will enjoyed the Chaos Walking trilogy as much as I did and spent a long time shyly hiding before he was propelled forward to get his book signed. His absolute excitement and delight on meeting Ness was only compounded the following day when he saw that he’d said hello to him on his blog. A screenshot was immediately taken, enlarged, printed and passed around for all to admire.
I’d like to pass on a huge thank you to all of the short listed authors and illustrators, who were just wonderful, and also to CILIP for inviting us to go. If we weren’t exempt from entering for the next million** years, I know my lot would already be planning how to win again. And how to kidnap authors.
[caption id="attachment_67" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="We won!"]
[/caption]*Overhearing discussions at the station, I learned that this was part of an elaborate kidnap plan on the part of the students, whereby their favourite authors would be lured into returning to the school with us, then shut in a room with nothing but food, water and a computer (but not one connected to the internet as they might request rescuing). They’d be forced to write new and exciting novels, dedicated to their captors. I asked them if any of them had been reading Stephen King and they all said no and looked confused.
**Three.
Images courtesy of Abi and Elle.
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