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Chatterbooks Week!
Activity Pack
Reading and activity ideas for your Chatterbooks group
Chatterbooks Week 11th – 18th October 2014
Chatterbooks Week 2014 is a celebration of Chatterbooks, the UK’s largest network of children’s
reading groups, and of the fun that goes on in Chatterbooks sessions.
It’s a chance for schools, libraries and individuals across the UK to introduce children to the
pleasure of reading and sharing books by taking part in Chatterbooks activity, or setting up a
Chatterbooks group.
Here’s a special message from our Ambassador, Dame Jacqueline Wilson:
“Taking part in this special Chatterbooks Week is a great way to carry on the fun and excitement of
the Summer Reading Challenge and I know that Chatterbooks groups old and new will have a
fantastic time getting together, finding out about great books and chatting. I can't wait to hear all
about it!"
This special Chatterbooks Week activity pack from The Reading Agency and Children’s Reading
Partners, has session ideas which will work well when you’re starting a new group, or having a
special party-themed meeting.
In here you can also meet favourite authors who are our our new Chatterbooks Champions!
For other themes for your Chatterbooks Week session have a look at our Jacqueline Wilson and
Chocolates, Sweets and other Treats packs – or you could tie in with Star Wars Reads Day on
October 11th.
Chatterbooks [ www.readinggroups.org/chatterbooks] is a reading group programme for children
aged 4 to 14 years. It is coordinated by The Reading Agency and its patron is author Dame
Jacqueline Wilson. Chatterbooks groups run in libraries and schools, supporting and inspiring
children’s literacy development by encouraging them to have a really good time reading and talking
about books.
The Reading Agency is an independent charity working to inspire more people to read more
through programmes for adults, young people and Children – including the Summer Reading
Challenge, and Chatterbooks. See www.readingagency.org.uk
Children’s Reading Partners is a national partnership of children’s publishers and libraries working
together to bring reading promotions and author events to as many children and young people as
possible.
Contents
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Warm ups
Activity ideas: a Chatterbooks Party!
Top Ten Books to make you happy
Chatterbooks Champions
Sample Chatterbooks session
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Warm ups: getting to know each other, especially at the start of a new group.
 Roald Dahl’s birthday is on the 13th September. Does anyone have a birthday in
September? Find out when each other’s birthdays are and see if you can line up
in the right order of the months – and days – starting with September…
 A Roald Dahl version of the game ‘Port, Starboard’: Designate four corners as
different characters from Roald Dahl books. These could be The BFG, Mr Twit,
Charlie Bucket, and Matilda. Call out the names randomly – children then run to
the right corner. The last one there each time is out!
WORDSEARCH
Find all these favourite storybook characters!
MR GUM
MR FOX
WIMPY KID
BILLIONAIRE BOY SPOT
CAT IN THE HAT
HARRY POTTER
PADDINGTON
MARY POPPINS
GRUFFALO
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ASTERIX
PEPPA PIG WALLY
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Look for the words across, down, upside-down, and from right to left.
The answers are at the end of this pack
HAPPY SCRAMBLING!
See if you can unscramble these Happy words!
HAPPY THIDBARY
You have one every year!
HAPPY IFASMILE
Mum and dad, and aunts
and uncles
December 25th
HAPPY SMITCRASH
THE HAPPY PERNIC
HAPPY- OG-UCKLY
HAPPY WEN ERAY
A story by Antoine St
Exupery
Feeling carefree
HAPPY AS A KARL
What you say on January
1st
A bird
HAPPY VEER FRATE
The last words of a story
HAPPY TEFE
Think penguin!
HAPPY DINGEN
The last part of something
Activity ideas
A CHATTERBOOKS PARTY!
Start off with warm ups like the ones above.
Make bunting to decorate the library – there are lots of online links to templates and
instructions. Here’s a useful one!
Get people to bring in scraps of bright material, or use plain material and use felt tips
to decorate the flags with words and patterns.
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Make party hats! Again lots of online links, just like this one.
Cone shaped hats are easy to make and fun to decorate with shiny shapes and tassels
and all sorts of collage-y things – or you could have paper or cardboard crowns.
Don’t forget the party food! Crisps, squash, a special cake – maybe cupcakes
decorated to show book titles. Or you could have a competition for a showstopper
cupcake!
And the games….
Enjoy traditional party games like Pass the Parcel and Musical Chairs
– or this Memory Game
Get together 10 to 15 objects on a tray – eg. spoon, pencil, badge etc
Give your group 1 minute to look at them and try to fix them in their memory.
Cover the objects. Each person then writes down in a list as many objects as they can
remember.
The winner is the one who remembers most objects.
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Alternate version:
Cover the objects, remove one object – children then have to identify which object
has been taken away. Repeat, removing a different object each time. The winner is
the one with the most correct answers.
Another activity which groups enjoy is making Shape Poems:
It’s great fun to give your poem the shape of what you’re writing about.
Valerie Bloom does this with Pyramid:
A
Stately
Chamber where
Vast treasures are hid
And a variation on this is Grace Nichol’s Snowflake fluttering down the page
Snowflake
you little clown
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A small ghost kiss
on my warm tongue.
Or how about a heart poem? Write the words of your poem inside this shape (or draw a heart on a
separate piece of paper)
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See sample Chatterbooks session plan at the end of this pack. It’s taken from our
new Chatterbooks Handbook – for full details see The Reading Agency Shop.
Instead of goody bags have goody books! Here are some favourite books for your
group to take home and enjoy – they are the top recommendations from children on
our Summer Reading Challenge website. Vote in our poll for the most popular book!
Top Ten Books to make you happy!
No.1 Jeff Kinney Diary of a Wimpy Kid Puffin
978-0141324906
Let me get something straight: this is a JOURNAL, not a diary. This was Mom's
idea, not mine. But if she thinks I'm going to write down my "feelings" in here
she's crazy. The only reason I agreed to do this at all is because I figure later
on when I'm rich and famous, this book is gonna come in handy. Today is the
first day of school, so I figured I might as well write in this book to pass the
time. Just don't expect me to be all "Dear Diary" this and "Dear Diary" that.
Jeff Kinney is an online game developer and designer, and New York Times
bestselling author. Jeff has been named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Powerful People in the
World. Jeff lives in Southern Massachusetts with his wife and their two sons.
No.2
Roald Dahl
The Twits
Puffin
978-0141346397
Mr and Mrs Twit are extremely nasty, so the Muggle-Wump monkeys and the
Roly-Poly bird hatch an ingenious plan to give them just the ghastly surprise they
deserve!
Roald Dahl, the much-loved children's writer, was born in Wales of Norwegian
parents. After school in England he went to work for Shell in Africa. He began to
write after "a monumental bash on the head", sustained as an RAF pilot in World
War II. Roald Dahl died in 1990.
Quentin Blake is one of the best-known and best-loved children's illustrators and
it's impossible now to think of Roald Dahl's writings without imagining Quentin Blake's illustrations.
No.3 David Walliams
978-0007371464
Gangsta Granny
HarperCollins
Our hero Ben is bored beyond belief after he is made to stay at his grandma’s
house. She’s the boringest grandma ever: all she wants to do is to play Scrabble,
and eat cabbage soup. But there are two things Ben doesn’t know about his
grandma.
1) She was once an international jewel thief. 2) All her life, she has been plotting
to steal the Crown Jewels, and now she needs Ben’s help…
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David Walliams is currently the fastest growing children's author in the UK. His books have been
translated into over twenty-five languages and have collectively sold over one million copies in the
UK alone. His books have achieved much critical acclaim and it comes as no surprise that countless
broadsheet reviewers have compared him to his all-time hero, Roald Dahl.
No.4 Jacqueline Wilson & Nick Sharratt The Worst Thing
About My Sister Yearling 978-0440869283
Marty and her sister Melissa couldn't be more different. Marty loves her Converse
trainers, playing football, hiding in her secret den and helping her dad with his DIY.
Melissa loves Justin Bieber and all things pink, girly and pretty. But when Mum
tells them they have to share a room, the girls soon discover that being too close
for comfort can have unexpected consequences.
Jacqueline Wilson is a hugely popular author. Jacqueline has won the prestigious
Smarties Prize and the Children's Book Award for Double Act, which was also highly commended for
the Carnegie Medal. In June 2002 Jacqueline was given an OBE for services to literacy in schools and
in 2008 she was made a Dame.
No.5 Julia Donaldson The Gruffalo 978-0333710937
"A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood.
A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good."
Walk further into the deep dark wood, and discover what happens when
the quick-thinking mouse comes face to face with an owl, a snake and a
hungry gruffalo . . .
Julia Donaldson, the 2011-2013 Children's Laureate, is the talented, prizewinning author of the world's most-loved picture books including The
Gruffalo and What the Ladybird Heard.
No.6 Liz Pichon The Brilliant World of Tom Gates
Scholastic 978-1407120690
Tom Gates is a master of excuses, expert doodler, comic story writer
extraordinaire – and the bane of his grumpy teacher Mr Fullerman’s life. And
in his wacky journal of scribbles and silliness, you’ll find all sorts of comic
craziness to make you groan with glee! Will Tom ever manage to get his
homework in on time, avoid the rage of his teacher – AND impress Amy
Porter, who sits next to him?
Liz Pichon went to Camberwell School Of Art in London. Her first (and only) PROPER job was
working for Jive Records designing Album covers. She is a freelance illustrator and The Brilliant
World Of Tom Gates was Liz’s first fiction book for older children. She lives in Brighton.
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No.7 Francesca Simon Horrid Henry’s Dreadful Deeds Orion
978-1842557860
Made to be a page boy at a wedding, forced to go on a country walk, and
dragooned into dinner at a posh restaurant - it's a hard life for Henry. But in these
ten hilarious stories he shows he knows how to stick up for himself and get his
own back. Brilliant new extras include instructions, notes from Horrid Henry, a
recipe for a truly horrible drink, and you can even choose a new hairstyle for his
unfavourite dinner guest!
Francesca Simon was born in the United States and now writes full-time, with many books
published including the best-selling Horrid Henry series and many picture books. She lives in North
London with her family.
No.8 Cressida Cowell How to Train Your Dragon Hodder
978-0340999073
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was an awesome sword-fighter, a dragon-whisperer
and the greatest Viking Hero who ever lived. But it wasn't always like that. He was
once the most put upon Viking you'd ever seen. Not loud enough to make himself
heard at dinner with his father, Stoick the Vast; not hard enough to beat his chief
rival, Snotlout, at Bashyball, and CERTAINLY not stupid enough to go into a cave full
of dragons to find a pet... It's time for Hiccup to learn how to be a Hero.
Cressida Cowell grew up in London and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of
Scotland. She has written and illustrated eight books in the popular Hiccup series and has won the
Nestle Children's Book Prize 2006. She lives in Hammersmith.
No.9 Dav Pilkey The Adventures of Captain Underpants
Scholastic 978-0439014571
When George and Harold hypnotise their headteacher, they accidentally
create the greatest superhero in the history of their school -- Captain
Underpants! His true identity is so secret that even HE doesn't know who he
is... but he's fighting for truth, justice, and all things pre-shrunk and cottony!!
If you're a naughty villain like the diabolical Dr Diaper, watch out! Captain
Underpants has wedgie-power on his side, and he's coming your way
Dav Pilkey is a popular American author and illustrator of children’s literature. He is best known as
the author of the popular Captain Underpants series. He lives near Seattle, Washington.
No.10 Andy Stanton Mr Gum and the Cherry Tree Jelly
Pie 978-1405252188
Welcome to a tale of forests! Of legendary beasts! Of misbehaving
children! Of caterpillars called Graham! And of a great big BEEFER of a
cherry tree! But what dark secrets are hidden in that tree, where the
leaves grow thick and green? Polly intends to find out…
Andy Stanton lives in North London. He has been a stand-up comedian, a
film script reader, a cartoonist, an NHS lackey and lots of other things. His
favourite expression is ‘Good evening’ and his favourite word is ‘captain’.
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Our Chatterbooks Champions
‘Libraries change lives. Cobbett Road Library in Southampton changed mine. It's
where I found the book that finally switched me on to reading after years of
struggle. The book? Five Go To Smuggler's Top by Enid Blyton. They didn't have
Chatterbooks groups back then but if they had I would have joined in a heartbeat.
Once I'd become a bookworm I would have LOVED to share my discoveries with
other kids like me. The only thing better than reading a great book is sharing your
discovery of a great book with others - which is something you can do at
Chatterbooks. You also get to review books, argue about books, vote about books.
You even get to read first drafts and give feedback to the author. At least, a
Southampton group did for ME. And probably will again. You're a crucial part of
BookWorld, Chatterbooks! Keep it up... ' ALI SPARKES
‘Dear Chatterbooks, please go back in time and
form in 1982. As a child I loved stories but found
books slightly intimidating. I'd have given my
nostrils to join a Chatterbooks group back then. It
would have been the perfect way to demystify
books, feed my fascinations and explore wordworlds with friends. Thanks in advance for the time
travel.’
GUY BASS
'Imagine being able to read great books, pass them
around and talk about them with other children. 8-yearold me would have loved that! I'd have jumped at the
chance to join my local Chatterbooks. I've always read
for pleasure, for entertainment, for excitement, and
reading groups are a great way to share those
possibilities with children.'
ELEN CALDECOTT
‘I've met with plenty of Chatterbooks groups over the years and
LOVE the way they turn the quiet, personal experience of reading
a book into something lively, boisterous and inclusive. The
Chatterbooks experience is terrifically positive – readers think
harder, grow more confident in their opinions, find a new potency
in words – and in themselves.’
STEVE COLE
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‘When I was a boy, just about everything used to get delivered
to the village where I lived - including books! I can smell the
mobile library as I write these words. I used to love climbing
the steps and climbing back down again with an armful of
stories. If only I’d been able to talk to others who liked the
same authors and the same books as me. If only I’d had an
actual library where I could meet with like-minded people and
discuss what I’d been reading. If only…there’d been
Chatterbooks.’
JONATHAN MERES
I think children's book groups are very important. When
I work with children in schools and libraries I ask them
what they like to read. I do it because I know the other
children in the room are listening. Kids are more likely to
want to read a book if one of their peers has raved
about it. The more we can get all children talking about
what they like to read the better. That's why I'm a
Chatterbooks Champion.
TOM PALMER
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Puzzle solutions
WORDSEARCH
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HAPPY SCRAMBLING!
BIRTHDAY
FAMILIES
CHRISTMAS
PRINCE
GO-LUCKY
NEW YEAR
LARK
EVER AFTER
FEET
ENDING
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Chatterbooks Suggested Session Outline
Welcome and Introduction (10 minutes)
 Welcome and ice-breaker activity (5 minutes, as children arrive)
 Share and discuss the books they’ve been reading and share ways they have
reviewed them ( 5 minutes )
 Introduce this week’s session
Main Activity (20 minutes)
 Activities – exploring a theme or a story. This can be through writing, art, drama,
or any other way of encouraging children’s own creative work. (See Chatterbooks
activity packs).
Adult reads aloud to the group (5 minutes)
 You might want a drink or a snack while they are listening, if you didn’t offer one
at the beginning. Ask questions to help with understanding the text.
Choosing a book (10 minutes)
 An opportunity to choose books to take home and read before the next
Chatterbooks meeting.
Finish (5 minutes)
 A reminder of the date and time of the next session and any more special events
coming up.
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