How do you define a good story…

How to define a good story…  For me, these are the best:

a fun, humorous, and intriguing story;  inspiring and uplifting rather than depressing and despairing;  a story that you can’t put down once you’ve started – and is of a length that if you sit long enough you can do just that; a story that keeps you guessing all they way through and yet is entirely logical and believable in a not quite of this world sort of way; a story that leaves you feeling satisfied and complete – and yet wanting more; rounded believable characters who behave consistently; exciting without manipulating  the emotions; problems that need solving; and an overall theme/idea of growth and discovery.

To find all of these in a story is a rare and wonderful thing, and I find that the stories written by Andrew Norriss fulfil them all. Written for children, but at enjoyed by readers of all ages – teenagers, twenties, parents, grandparents…

If you are a t all intrigued read an extract here.

- and if you in southern England you can meet the author at Little Green Dragon Bookshop, Alton Hants  on Saturday 16th May 2009, 2 – 3pm.

Andrew Norriss won the Whitbread Award for Aquila, wrote Bernard’s Watch and The Brittas Empire for tv, and inspires children’s reading and writing with his author visits to primary schools. My personal favourite is The Touchstone because I love the idea of the librarian always on hand with the answer to your every question.

Inspiring Readers of all Ages…

Ctrl-Z – Making Mistakes Has Never Been So Much Fun!

Aquila II – 2010

A good book written for children can be read by adults. Norton Juster

http://anorrissbooks.wordpress.com &  www.andrewnorriss.co.uk

Children’s author visits in Primary schools

If you are a teacher or librarian who wants to inspire the reluctant, as well as the keen, readers in your class, you won’t find better than children’s author Andrew Norriss. He will leave the children feeling empowered and full of enthusiasm for reading and writing. Read the feedback from some of the school visits that Andrew has made so far this year and to find out details of his school visits go to http://anorrissbooks.wordpress.com Andrew Norriss is the writer of Aquila, Bernard’s Watch, The Brittas Empire and the Woof! series for TV. There are links for those on the website too.

Empowering Books for Children

Life is full of challenges which are often seen as problems, – or projects as Steve Chandler calls them. The way in which we deal with them can lead to a very different attitude to life – or is it that our attitude to life leads us to deal with challenges differently?  We can be victims or survivors, losers or champions. We can be overcome or overwhelmed. . How to deal with life’s challenges is not something we are deliberately taught in school but rather pick up by chance from teachers, parents, friends, books and movies by observing how others act or react in different situations. Andrew Norriss’s books fall into the category of books that help us see difficult situations in a new light.Problems can be turned into postive experiences with life changing results and the self empowerment of the heroes. In Andrew Norriss’s books ordinary children find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. At first sight they may seem to be quite overwhelming problems - in The Portal, William and Daniel’s parents have gone missing; In The Unluckiest Boy in the World Nicholas is living under a curse. In both stories adventures happen, the difficulties are explored and the children learn more about themselves. They discover their hidden strengths and come to greater understanding of how it is possible to live happy lives even when circumstances do not appear to be in your favour. Bad things may happen but you can come through stronger and happier and with knowledge to help understand how there is the potential to live happily wherever you are.

Anyone read Sara by  Abraham -Hicks? Similarly about selfempowerment but in a more direct way. I loved it but don’t know how it would go down with children. Would love to know if you have experience of it.

Does what we read vary with economic conditions?

As fashion in clothes varies in relation to the economic climate – hemlines go up and down, the showing off of expensive underware when times are good, dressing more modestly when we have less to spend, so, I wonder does our reading vary similarly. I have noticed over recent years of booming economy, lots of money in pockets and general feeling of wealth that children’s books have tended towards the tension filled, violent, urban, vengeful where the heroes and heroines are either vicitms or have to be bigmouthed, urban, spunky, not very nice themselves, saving themselves or the whole world from bullies or baddies who are so evil as to be ridiculous. Swearing, knives, emotions of the soap and tabloid press world abound; being nice is sneered at; being ‘Right’ is what counts and the main characters know exactly what is ‘Right’ and anyone with a different idea of right is wrong.

This is not a world that I am familiar with and certainly not one that I want to spend time in. Perhaps when times are good and comfortable we don’t feel we deserve to enjoy what we have and so have to read about how miserable life could be, and so I hope that now as we perceive times as being tough we can once more reading good stories about how life can be positive and enjoyable, a learning and growing experience yes but it doesn’t have to be lived out in grim surrounding with horrible people. Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Working out how to be happy.  And that’s where I come back to Andrew Norriss’s books. Books in which the adventures are every bit as good as the grim books but are fun to read as well being about learning and growing, how to adapt to life and get the most out of it. About finding out what you really want to do. Discovering how to be happy in difficult circumstances. How you can be the creator of your own life. How you don’t have to let your life be run through your unexamined emotions. Books that leave you feeling good about yourself and the world and life. Books that leave you thinking about what it would be fun to go and do in contrast to those books that leave you feeling depressed and wanting to curl up miserably in a darkened room.

So the good news about these ‘economic times of crisis’ we get to read some cheerful books again. Hooray! Now’s the time to buy Andrew Norriss’s books for cheerful Christmas presents. The children will love them. The parents will love them. The grandparents will love them. And everyone is left feeling uplifted.  So it’s a happy Christmas all round – unless there aren’t enough books to go round and everyone starts fighting over them…

Award Winning books

Aquila by Andrew Norriss won the Whitbread children’s Book Award. Books win big prizes like this for a reason and Aquila  stands on its own as a book to inspire and encourage children to think about what they want to do in life and what is important, whilst at the same time being a cracking good fun adventure story. Another thing about Award winners is that they can be enjoyed by any age group. Aquila was written for children but parents, grandparents and adults in general all enjoy it too. It gives you something to think about, makes you laugh, you never quite know where it will go next  whilst at the same time feeling in very safe hands .

Aquila is gripping from the first page, when two boys slip down a bank into a disused quarry while on a school orienteering trip. There they discover a Roman spacecraft, which they manage to get going. They learn more whilst finding out how to control the spaceship than they have ever learnt at school – including Latin! As well as wiiing the 1997 Whitbread Children’s Novel Award it was also short-listed for the Smarties Award and was made into a popular television series. You only have to visit the Aquila appreciation Society on Face Book and see the youtube video hits to appreciate how popular it was and still is.

What’s it all about?

‘The absolute bedrock thing is that you need to work out exactly what it is you want in life – something that’s a lot trickier than it seems. If you don’t know what it is, you can’t hope to get it. You must find out what you really really want.’