Janis Mackay's "Wild Song"
1st May 2015
Janis Mackay, celebrated and award winning children's author, was invited by Ms Bethan Owen to become Sciennes' Patron of Reading and we are all thrilled that Janis has accepted this role. She will work with the school over the next three years and she gave inspiring, masterclass presentations to both P1-3 and P4-7 Assemblies on Friday 1st May 2015.
Janis introduced herself and gave us a real insight into how she became an author. As a former actress, she gave an engaging, dynamic presentation and explained how she came to write her 'Magnus Finn' Trilogy. Janis asked the children, "Where are the pictures?" in her books and encouraged pupils to realise how reading can spark imaginations - encouraging them to create their own images in their heads, rather than passively receiving other people's images via screens. We are all very excited about developing strong links with her to support literacy throughout the school and gaining from her great experience of developing creative writing.
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| Janis enthralled our P1-3 pupils reading from her stories "The Wee Seal" and "The Selkie Girl" |
25th April 2015
We are absolutely delighted that Scottish Author Janis Mackay is Sciennes' Patron of Reading.
What is a Patron of Reading?
A
Patron of Reading is a school's special, designated children's author
with whom the school forms a personal attachment. The author might be a
writer of fiction, a writer of non-fiction, a poet, a storyteller, a
graphic novelist or an illustrator. They will work with the school for a
period of approximately three years to raise the profile of reading for
pleasure with pupils, parents and staff.
Ms Bethan Owen's P5 pupils were so utterly spellbound by the story and characters in Janis' award winning book "The Accidental Time Traveller" that she arranged a visit to the National Library of Scotland. There they had fantastic support from NLS staff to examine the diaries and letters of a little girl called Marjorie Fleming, who lived in Fife and Edinburgh around 1820, and on whom one of the central characters in the book is based. Following discussion about the Patron of Reading Scheme with Liz Gray (City of Edinburgh Senior QIO for Literacy and Languages) and given the truly inspiring NLS experience and the fact that Janis is a local author, Ms Owen decided to contact Janis directly to ask her to consider becoming our Patron of Reading. We are all thrilled that she has agreed to link with us and has responded so enthusiastically. We look forward to welcoming Janis to P5A next week and to speak at both P1-3 and P4-7 Assemblies on Friday about her books "The Wee Seal", "The Selkie Girl" and "The Reluctant Time Traveller."
Tweet from Janis:
Calling creative kids - want to write? today? creative writing workshop @ScotStoryCentre with author Janis Mackay 2 - 4pm. for age 8 - 15
Janis is also performing at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on Thursday 30th April in a City of Literature Tradfest performance called ‘Sassie Lassies’ –
stories of women and girls with a Canadian storyteller and a
musician at 7.30pm
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| Janis Mackay (2nd from left) receiving Scottish Children's Book Award in 2013 |
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