children’s book – Book Worms

The Wells Primary School Book Award – Years 3 and 4

We are delighted to announce our very first book award for the children in Years 3 and 4. There are 14 exciting books in the longlist, carefully chosen to engage and extend the children’s reading practice and to cater for all tastes and interests. The diverse range includes the genres of adventure, mystery, fantasy, poetry, biography and realistic fiction. Children will find books containing letter-writing giraffes, a wounded wolf, a dad who wants to fly and beetles galore but embedded within the stories are powerful themes such as friendship, mental health, campaign for change, refugees, empathy, grief, dyslexia and autism.

We recently introduced the Redbridge Children’s Book Award to Years 5 and 6 and the response has been overwhelming with some children managing to read as many as 10 books in the first two weeks! We are therefore very excited to be able to offer the same opportunity to Years 3 and 4 and look forward to finding out what they think of the books we have chosen.

See the longlist with a short synopsis of each title here.
We would love to know your thoughts, why not leave a comment? Thank you.

Mrs Oshungbure
Please follow @BooksMrs for news on children’s books and reading.

Onjali Rauf comes to Wells Primary School!

Every so often, we are fortunate to meet someone who guides us to look at our world afresh and the memory of meeting them is so powerful that their message lingers for years to come. Today, the children in years 5 and 6 met Onjali Rauf who is so much more than an author of a (as it happens, pacy and hard to put down) children’s book but also a beacon of altruism. We are all richer from meeting her and I think her visit will become one of the lasting memories from the children’s primary school years.

The idea for her debut novel, The Boy at the Back of the Class, was inspired by her visits to the refugee camps in France. Onjali candidly shared her experiences of meeting individuals facing dejection and despair after losing their homes through war and persecution. Through the telling of life-stories of real people, she helped the children to understand what a refugee is and how they have no choice but to flee their home country through fear for their lives. I will admit that I had to concentrate hard on my notebook at times to contain my feelings and I was proud of how mature and sensitive our children were in their responses.

It was a treat to hear Onjali read from her book; so many of the children have picked it up in their independent reading and were rapt to hear the story retold by its author. The stillness in the hall for those moments was magical. The children had many questions which were patiently and fully answered. We now know how old she is (37), what inspired her to start writing (being ill for several months in hospital but keen to make a difference), her favourite books as a child (Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Black Beauty, Charlotte’s Web) and her first story (aged 6, a horse transformed into a unicorn)!

Her advice for budding authors? Never stop writing. Keep reading. It’s as simple as that!

Mrs Oshungbure @BooksMrs

The Boy at the Back of the Class, Onjali Rauf.

The World’s Worst Children 2

Five stars!

The brilliant follow up to David Walliams’ bestseller The World’s Worst Children. A hilarious book that has a gang of mischievous children and plenty of monstrous tantrums! In this book, you will see that there are not only nice boys and girls in the world but also beastly boys and gruesome girls. With a chapter for each child’s story, my favourites were Humbert the Hungry Baby and Spoiled Brad. We are lucky that these two horrible characters are not real or we would be in big trouble!

This would make an ideal birthday or Christmas present. David Walliams’ writing won’t just make you giggle, it will make you laugh your heart out!

Sophie, Y5