Linton Book Festival

Thank you for all the entries to the competition. Prizewinners will be notified directly. Here are some of our favourites:

George Pooley aged 9 years : Raven's Gate by Anthony Horowitz

"Raven's Gate is about a boy who was perfectly normal apart from that he tried to burgle a warehouse but got caught. He then had to go to a large house which was working with the LEAF project for people under 18 years old who had comitted a crime. Stephen Mallroy (who was the head of the LEAF Project) was trying to help Matthew escape was killed in a car pile up on the motorway. Another person called Tom Bugess was trying to help Matthew escape again and he go killed but minutes later Matthew saw him again and he was alive. Then Matthew was told about the old ones by Sir Micheal Mash, who liked destroying but were defeated by 4 boys and 1 girl. He then gets attaked by dinosaur bones and survives with the help of Mr Cole.He then finds out that a whole town are wizards and witches. They capture Matthew and tie him on the face of Raven's Gate, in Omega One. They recite a ritial, take one drop of his blood and re-awaken the leader of the old ones, but it gets destroyed by nuclear power. The End"

Karen Johnson (well over 16!!) : Treasures of the Snow, Patricia M St John

"When I was 12, I spent a few days in the summer staying with my aunt. On one morning we attended a play scheme organised by her church, and I received this book as a gift. The story was first published in 1950, but mine was printed in 1976.

The story is about a little girl called Annette and her younger brother Dani, who live with their widowed father and grandmother in a village on a mountainside in Switzerland. They have a neighbour called Lucien who is a bit of a bully. One day Lucien accidentally causes Dani to fall into a ravine, after which he walks with a bad limp. The story follows Annette as she tries to make Lucien pay for what he has done. Eventually they do become friends though, and Lucien makes a HUGE effort to make everything better.

I think I loved this book because I was the same age as Annette and Lucien when I first read it. It has the scenery of Heidi, and adventures similar to the Famous Five! And a great happy ending!"

Kate Holden : A Patch of Green - Rosemary Weir

This is one book that I clearly remember about a family living in a city who turned their garden into a mini farm...the first environmentally-friendly family. Maybe that's where my obession with recycling comes from?

I also loved Noel Streatfield's 'Shoe' books, Ballet shoes, tennis shoes etc

Catriona Holden (5) : George and the Dragon by Chris Wormell

This is my favourite book. I like it because the dragon gets scared of the mouse who is called George!

Blakeney Clark (5) : Gobbolino the Witch's Cat by Ursula Moray Williams

I like this book because it's got cats in it and Gobbolino sees his sister. I read this book at my Aunty's house and Mummy and Daddy read it to me at bedtimes. It's a long book about a witch's cat with a white paw who finds lots of different homes. But he can't stay because everyone finds out he's a witch's cat thinks he's nasty and is scared of him. So he has to find another home. But it has a happy ending when a witch turns him into a kitchen cat and he finds a nice home. I think my friends would like this book because it's an exciting book and it's got cats in it.

Why not try out your knowledge of children's books with our fun family quiz? Download the quiz here (Adobe PDF format).


	Picture Book Project - By Josephine Paterson The aim of this is to get children involved with making books with people that they love. We want to make books accessible and fun and show that anyone can do it. The idea is to share making a book – the story telling, the writing, the layout and the illustrations. It could be about anything but we thought a theme of “A Day in the Life of...” might get the ball rolling. Your co-authors could be someone in your family, a close friend or perhaps your grandparents. You can share the workload however you wish, just do the bits you love. Think about what could you write about: One special day in your life? A special day in someone else’s life? Imagine a day in the life of your cat…….or a duck that you fed on holiday?! You could do a picture book. or make up some limericks about people that you know. The possibilities are endless, and the aim is to have fun. Already some books have been produced. My 3 children and my Dad (their Grandad) made a book last year. Grandad has always read stories to his grandchildren and best of all tells his wide-eyed grandsons stories about what has happened to him in his life. The stories they love the most are when their Nanny and Grandad lived in Africa in the 1960’s, when Grandad was a young unmarried man in the Navy, and when he went to Australia. We all went on holiday together in July last year and each child chose one of Grandad’s stories as his favourite, to put in our book. Grandad told the stories, I wrote them down, and James (7), Ben (6) and Sam (3) did the illustrations! You can see what they produced at the Bookfest, or better still make one of your own and bring it along to the exhibitions at the Infants School or Village College.


	Make your own finger puppets and act out a favourite story! For The Three Little Pigs: Print out the puppet outlines below. Colour them in, stick them to thin card and cut around the shapes. Make 4 loops of paper that will fit around your finger. Attach one to the back of each puppet using glue or sticky tape. Make a puppet theatre by hiding behind a chair. Tell the story, using the puppets to act it out. Of course, you can design your own puppets to tell different stories – or copy favourite characters from books and make up your own adventures for them. Wolf and Pigs adapted from original drawings by Nicola Perree, Year 3, Linton Heights Junior School.