MFB goes to Bath Kids Lit 2011

Mark and I are so excited about visiting Bath Kids Festival for the first time this year. We were heading that way as fans and readers, but got a fantastic surprise when we were approached by the organisors asking us if we would like to attend in our capacity as bloggers. We would be able to meet various authors and get the occasional one to one interview...

Wow! We could not say no. We considered which days to go down and booked our accommodation and we carefully, painstakingly and with various coloured markers, went over the schedule and chose which talks to attend.

And now we are set. I may not sleep until then.

In the meantime, the Festival organisors have come up with a fantastic way for us to keep busy. A group of bloggers, illustrators and authors are all taking part in creating an on-going story.

This is the press release:


The Bath Festival of Children’s Literature is launching a unique collaborative storytelling event on Thursday 8 September featuring well known authors and bloggers. There are 20 collaborators in the project including authors Marcus Sedgewick, John Boyne and Annabel Pitcher who will be appearing in the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature Festival, 23 September- 2 October. The story will be written in real-time with readers following the trail as it moves from blog to blog, with an addition to the story being posted at each stop.

The story will run from 8 September – 16 October with the first installment being posted on the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature blog http://bathkidslitfest.wordpress.com/ where readers can click through to the next installment. Every other day a new piece of the story will be posted and as it is being written in real-time it has the potential to touch on any genre imaginable.

Artistic Director John McLay said “We are hoping to highlight the creativity and dedication of both book blogs and author blogs, through which potential readers are enthused and entertained. There is an amazing amount of support for the book industry via blogging and this is a great way for Bath to capture that and do something fun and unique”.

Big Blog Story Schedule

8 September Bath Festival of Children’s Literature
10 September Robin Etherington
12 September Annabel Pitcher
14 September Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
16 September Hannah Shaw
18 September Writing From the Tub
20 September Lauren Kate
22 September Marcus Sedgewick
24 September Alan Gibbons
26 September John Boyne
28 September Catherine Bruton
30 September Achuka
2 October Samantha Mackintosh
4 October An Awfully Big Blog Adventure
6 October Kate Maryon
8 October Barry Hutchinson
10 October My Favourite Books
12 October Joanna Nadin
14 October LA Weatherly
16 October Bath Festival of Children’s Literature

The Bath Festival of Children’s Literature runs for 10 days between 23 September- 2 October and will be packed full of events for all the family – highlights include the amazing Cressida Cowell, this year’s brochure cover illustrator David McKee, funny-man Andy Stanton and Pirates of the Caribbean actor Mackenzie Crook to name but a few.

Tickets can be booked by telephone 01225 463362, online at www.bathkidslitfest.org.uk or in person at Bath Box Office, 2 Church Street, Abbey Green, Bath BA1 1NL.

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We will be blogging and tweeting from the event, so do make sure to follow us on Twitter - @LizUK and @Gergaroth. We will be there the first weekend of 24th and 25th September.

Events / talks we will definitely be attending:

Simon Scarrow talking about Gladiator

Cressida Cowell

Eoin Colfer

Ally Carter

Philip Reeve & Moira Young

Celia Rees and Mary Hooper

Tony DiTerlizzi

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

Synopsis:

THE STORY BEGINS in the first volume of Hiccup's How to Train Your Dragon memoirs...

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was an awesome sword-fighter, a dragon-whisperer and the greatest Viking Hero who ever lived. But it wasn't always like that. In fact, in the beginning, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was the most put upon Viking you'd ever seen. Not loud enough to make himself heard at dinner with his father, Stoick the Vast; not hard enough to beat his chief rival, Snotlout, at Bashyball, the number one school sport and CERTAINLY not stupid enough to go into a cave full of dragons to find a pet... It's time for Hiccup to learn how to be a Hero.

I genuinely looked forward to reading this. It was sent to me in advance of the movie and for ages I kept not reading it thinking I'd like to see the movie and then read the book.

In the end, I've not yet seen the movie, but I have read the book and I don't know what's wrong with me, but I genuinely didn't enjoy it.

I liked the main character quite a bit, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. Funny, spunky little kid, destined to be bullied by everyone else in their clan, he didn't seem much of a hero. But he does reveal his hero-spirit in the end, which is pretty cool.

What I had a problem with was the other characters in the book, specifically their names, which were all clearly chosen to be tongue in cheek and funny. But I didn't find it amusing, at all. Who and what they are as characters, should have been indicated by their actions and not by throwing truly odd names at the reader. I also didn't find the story plausible - I know, I am crazy! I've been dithering about writing this review but thought that I really should for my own sanity. I realise it has been massively popular and I love that kids are reading these and loving it. If it encourages them to continue reading the rest of the books and gradually move on to others, then by all means, that's an excellent thing.

Sadly I just think that me and How to Train Your Dragon just did not get along. And I wish it wasn't so. I know that I should really like this book, but it's just not happening. I couldn't even finish it, not feeling that spark at all. Although, having said that, I came as close as page 210 out of 223. I just didn't care enough for that final small push. I do however promise to read it again soon and finish it. Maybe I was expecting something else altogether - I think a re-read will set me right, but in the meantime, feel free to set me right in the comments!