Visit by
Author Nicola Morgan

Nicola Morgan,
visited the school on Wednesday 21 March to talk to
a packed staffroom full of S2 pupils about her books.   Nicola is the
author of ‘Fleshmarket’, and has recently won The
Scottish Children’s Book Award for her novel
‘Wasted’. She will also talk about her contemporary
thriller ‘Deathwatch’ and her book ‘Blame My Brain’,
which was shortlisted for the Junior Aventis prize
for science-writing and has been internationally
acclaimed.  S2 classes have been hearing about Nicola
Morgan and hearing Mrs Toonen read from her novels in preparation for her visit.

Nicola Morgan then told S2 how she first
started in writing – she had to wait 21 years before her first success.
Nicola then went through several of her
books to show S2 how she got her ideas
and wrote about them and the characters
in her books. She spoke about ‘Mondays
are Red’, Wasted’, ‘Highwayman’s Curse’
and Deathwatch’
After a wide ranging and interesting
talk, S2 students asked many questions
that Nicola thought were really
interesting and enabled her to give S2
an insight into how she wrote her books

After a round of applause there was
an eager queue of S2 students wanting their copies of Nicola’s book
signed by her.

Jonathan Meres, is the author of books like The World of Norm Series, Diary of a Trainee Rock Cod, the YO! Diary! Series, Love Dad anti Fame Thing. Jonathan visited us in the staff room on Thursday the 31, of May 2012. He came because he wanted to tell us about his books and to encourage us to read more of them, He came Into the room looking at people blankly and saying “‘What?. It was ridiculously funny in a weird kind of way. Instantly I could tell he was going to be a good laugh and boy was I right!

One of my friends that had seen him before had said that he was crazy because he made you laugh yet you weren’t sure why. This of course I found out later on when my cheeks were aching because I was laughing so much. After 5 minutes of hysterics Jonathan Meres realised that he had not even said hello yet. So he
did so but once again got sidetracked and forgot what he was saying beforehand.  He went on to talk about the kind of introductions he has had at different schools: putting them into two categories: The Amiable Primary Introduction and the Serious Secondary introduction.

Towards the end he read an extract from The World of Norm: May Cause Irritation, putting, on awesome voices for each character: Norm’s was a rather deep voice that spoke in a monotone most of the time.

The last two minutes was spent with Jonathan Meres hurriedly signing books or pieces of paper. In a nutshell, Jonathan Meres’ visit was really good and I think that because he made being an author and reading books seem so amazing it would have inspired people to read more often. In the end I was sad to have to go as it was the best English lesson I had ever had!

Josephine Moreton S1

Some comments by S1 on author
Jonatham Meres’s visit

Thank you for coming – you were so funny!  James
Huffer

Thank you
for coming!  You made me and everyone else laugh and I’m going to
read your new book!  Robbie Duffus

Thank
you for coming to our school. I loved your talk and it was very
funny.  Mawgan Lean

 Thank you
very much for coming – you were very funny and I will definitely buy
your new book – Alex Hamilton

 Thanks
for coming to our new school to talk to us. It was so funny and you
are so random! Keiran MacAulay

 Thanks for
coming into Elgin Academy – you were very funny – thanks.  Chloe
Smith

Thank you for coming to
our school. I think you make a great actor and you’re really funny!
Brooke