Author: admin

A message from Raj!

I’ve been interviewing Mr Wallibums about his AWFUL new book, The World’s Worst Children, and I loved getting all your questions for him!

I got so many questions, but these are some of my favourites!

  • Were you one of the world’s worst children when you were little? – Alex, age 8
  • Where do you get the ideas to start a story? – Isabelle, age 8
  • Out of all the books you’ve written, which one is your favourite? – Skye, age 8
  • What’s it like to be an author? – Niamh, age 10
  • Would you write a book based on Simon Cowell? – Danielle
  • What item would you most likely buy from Raj’s shop? – Patrick, age 12
  • What would you buy if you had a billion or gazillion pounds in cash? – Ephraim, age 8
  • We’re massive fans, but do you hope to be as famous an author as Roald Dahl one day? – Grace
  • Does Raj have a family? We love Raj, we want to know more! – Amy
  • Will Raj get his own book? – Donna
  • Mr Walliams, why did you leave Raj out of Awful Auntie? – Sharon
  • Will you buy Raj’s box of curly-wurlies? They’re for a special price and the use-by date is only 1997… – Sam, age 10

 

I can’t wait for you to hear my interview with Mr Wallybottom – or whatever his stupid made-up name is!

 

 

 

Michael Morpurgo and David at the Imagine Festival

For the first time ever, two of the most popular children’s authors appeared together at the Imagine Festival at Royal Festival Hall on the 15th of February.

The event was a huge success! Michael and David asked each other questions, read from their books and took questions from the audience.

Check out some pictures below:

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A young fan named Lydia even left Gangsta Granny and War Horse biscuits for David and Michael. Aren’t they great?

gangsta granny and michael morpurgo biscuits

David Walliams Joins Syria Campaign

David Walliams has joined a host of the UK’s bestselling authors to raise money for Syrian refugees.

Waterstones have teamed up with Oxfam to raise money for the charity’s Syria Crisis Appeal, donating 100% of the full retail price on a host of bestselling titles…including David’s ‘The Boy in the Dress‘.

The books will be stickered with ‘Buy Books for Syria’ and will go on sale in Waterstones shops from 1 October.

You can find out more about the appeal here.

David Walliams at The Radio Times Festival

David Walliams was at The Radio Times Festival on Sunday the 27th of September for an hour of hilarity, mischief and mayhem! He read from ‘Grandpa’s Great Escape‘ and signed copies for his fans!

He even talked about his own experience in a spitfire:

“I actually got to take control of the plane from the pilot. He gave me the controls. I had them for about 10 seconds before I was like, ‘You take it!’ It’s like a sports car in the air. We did loop de loops and victory rolls… Jack has all of these imaginary adventures with his grandpa and all he wanted to do was fly a spitfire, so I felt I had to fly one.”

To find out more about the event, click here.

 

10 Fun Facts about Orang-utans

1. Orang-utans are gentle and sit for hours gazing.

2. Orang-utans are highly intelligent and will poke twigs into holes to catch insects, chew up leaves and use them as sponges and use branches and sticks to test the depth of water before entering it

3. Orang-utans have opposable thumbs which means they can touch each of their fingers with their thumb

4. Orang-utans have 32 permanent teeth (the same amount as humans). They have sharp canine teeth with the male Orang-utan having longer canine teeth that they use for threat displays and fighting

5. Mosquitoes bother Orang-utans just like they do humans and they will use branches like fly swatters to swish them away

6. Most Orang-utans build a nest every night high up in a tree and sometimes even add a roof of leaves

7. Orang-utans can make approximately 13 to 15 different vocalizations

8. The name “Oran-gutan” translates into English as “man of the forest”. It comes from Malay and Bahasa Indonesian orang (man) and hutan (forest)

9. When on the ground, Orang-utans walk on all fours, using their palms or fists

10. When males are fighting, they charge each other, grapple, and bite each other’s heads and cheekpads. They sometimes look like Sumo wrestlers

10 Fun Facts about Hippos

1. The name hippopotamus means ‘river horse’

2. Hippos typically live for around 45 years

3. Hippos can’t swim, even though they spend most of their time in water!

4. Although hippos might look a little chubby, they can easily outrun a human

5. Hippos have powerful jaws and sharp teeth that can crush a crocodile or split a boat in two

6. Hippo’s milk is bright pink

7. Hippos can’t jump

8. Hippos can weigh up to 3 ½ tonnes!

9. Hippos can’t sweat so they spend lots of time in the water to keep cool

10. Hippos can hold their breath for 6 minutes

10 Fun Facts About Elephants

Not ALL elephants are Slightly Annoying! Read these 10 fun facts to find out why elephants are AMAZING!

1. Elephants are the largest land animals in the world

2. Elephants can be quite thieving. They will steal food from tents, villages and even the back of Lorries!

3. Elephants don’t exactly have much respect for things that get in their way. They will quite often knock over trees, fences, walls… anything that stands between them and where they want to go!

4. Elephants migrate to find water- they travel long distances one behind the other over paths that are ingrained in their memories, regardless of whether things like roads have been built there

5. Elephants like to eat bananas and sugar cane, often demolishing local farmers crops in order to pig out on some of their favourite snacks!

6. Elephants, despite having skin that is over an inch thick, get sunburnt! But instead of sunscreen, they like to squirt mud all over their bodies to form a protective layer – imagine the mess they’d make!

7. Elephants are nosier than ANY other animals- Their trunks can weigh 400 pounds and can grow to be 7 feet long giving them the biggest noses in the world
The largest elephant on record was an adult male African elephant. It weighed about 24,000 pounds and was 13 feet tall at the shoulder!

8. Elephants can live to be over 70 years old

9. Elephants purr like cats do, as a means of communication

10. Elephants can get sunburned so they protect themselves with sand