Dan Morelle

Happy Halloween from me and the girls!
Oh, and Jack!

I’ve always been a bit cynical about awards. From my days working at !K7 records I learned that just to be considered for the nominations cost thousands of pounds and once you got through that stage the label signed up to more expense. When I saw Michael Rosen on teachers.tv ranting about book awards my ears twitched and the hairs on my neck stood up. Rosen wasn’t ranting about there being too many awards, the opposite - that there weren’t enough! They should have them in Community Centres, Libraries and Schools. Its the schools bit that piqued my attention. Rosen ended his rant by saying ‘if there was a book awards ceremony at your school, i know i’d be there…’. Well. What can i say. To me that was an open invitation, and I decided to put Michael to the test.

I’m a Governor at Ella’s school in Newark and I approached the Head Teacher and tabled the idea of a book awards ceremony as a good opportunity to talk about books and have an assembly some time in the future - a mock ‘Oscars’ type ceremony with envelopes and speeches. It was a pretty vague idea but he liked it and asked me to come up with a proposal. Which I did and he got enthusiastic about the idea. Then it was the summer holiday. So I had a phone and made a few calls.

Over the next few weeks the idea evolved in to something that excited me more and more. I grew more cynical about other so-called book awards that were ’substantially’ selected by children. I spoke to children’s librarians who indicated to me that an award winner did not necessaerily mean a popular book. The idea evolved. What about an award selected by school children. Shortlisted by school children. From ANY book ever published. Not just ones a publisher wants to push - there’s enough of those already. I wanted to get 3 authors or illustrators at the school but they are very busy people and Newark not a great destination to get to for these metrocentric artisans. A plan. How about a video. A video that I could share with other local schools. Quentin Blake liked that and I was invited to his studio in London on August 7th at 2pm.

I met the alchemist and he created a magic picture for the school and recorded a wonderful video. This picture really did have magical properties - it opened doors. Its not quite so simple but over the next four weeks I got another two videos from Nick Sharratt and Michael Rosen(which was infinately more difficult since he was made the Children’s Laureate)! Yes. All incredibly warm and generous people

I asked WHSmiths to give 10% of childrens books in Newark - which they did and the independent book shop Strays gave 10% of the nominated books and a further 50% off an additional purchase by a nominated author.

Equipment was all favours from friends and editing facilities from a wonderful company I met in Manchester two days before the ceremony. The strange coincidence there was that on the delayed train home that night some lovely people sat opposite me - it turned out they were from teachers.tv - I showed them the video and the camera man I met will help me collect future videos. Its fate.

The Friday assembly came around and everyone at the school was dressed as their favourite book characters. One as a Wally and we played real life ‘Where’s Wally’! I had to give a 10 minute talk about how I got the videos (simply persistence and a little experimentation). I’ve never spoken to 400 people before. But dressed as Cat in the Hat it was a lot of fun. The children saw the video and gasped at the giants from their stories, and I squeezed in some Mozart in to the soundtrack for good measure.

Children cheered for their favourite books.

So after so much excitement what happens next? Well. We intend to run a pilot School Children’s Book Awards with 50 schools in March 2008 with a website that shares video content, guideline lesson plans for a themed week of events preceeding the big day - put together by a leading educationalist. The website will also be used as a hub for children to review books, upload video reviews and enter their votes. Teachers can also use the sites admin centre to process votes and produce ready formated certificates and there will be resources for parents to help the with exiting their children about reading and books. And its all free.

I believe the whole awards thing ticks a few curriculum boxes but really I hope it can all help to ignite and nourish a passion for books. There are so many ideas. And all it costs is a few phonecalls, a bit of time and some train tickets.

I’m asking Jacqueline Wilson and other luminaries of Childnren’s Literature to give half an hour to record a video. And in October 2008 or March 2009 we can have a national awards ceremony that collates all the votes from all the schools around the country!

We did it in Newark, the authors loved it, the kids loved it, the teachers loved it and the shops loved it. Rosen was right, let’s do something about it. www.schoolchildrensbookawards.org

Just for good measure, here’s one I made earlier for a little one I made earlier:

This is my dog Judd.

My mum bought him for me when I was about 12 as I had been a bit unwell, she thought he would cheer me up. Judd is a pedigree toy poodle however he was so confident when my mum went to pick him up as a puppy he bolstered right on over to her whilst his brothers and sisters shied away from her. Judd grew so big that the vet was sure he was a small miniature poodle!

We named him Judd because my mums Jack Russell Terrier when she was a little girl was called Judy - as small kids we romanticized Judy as we had never met her - she had died when my mum was young without kids. We (me, my brother and sister) always said if we ever got a dog we’d call it Judy but Judd came along and was a boy. Breakfast Club (the film) had just come out also and my ‘rebellious’ brother reckoned we called him Judd after the actor Judd Nelson, so everyone was happy.

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No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.
Samuel Beckett

Nottingham, UK. Its raining and its muddy but for one little girl and her family Sunday 25th June 2007 is a momentous day. Ella Morelle (5) can ride a bike without stabilizers! “I just kept telling myself - I CAN DO IT ” Ella said.

3 hours of mud, tears and persistance finally paid off when little Ella peddled in to the horizon. “We lost count the number of times she fell off” said Dan Morelle, Ella’s daddy “Ella showed enormous character - She will achieve great things”. Ella’s mummy was also gushing with pride “it was difficult to see her falling off so many times but she kept trying even through the tears”. Rosa (2), Ella’s sister and best friend said “Pedal!, pedal! , pedal!”

When asked what her secret for riding a bike was Ella said “Keep pedalling and don’t fall off, if you do then stand up and just get back on and try again”.