Reading Guide O N E C I T Y

YOUNG CITY READS 2014 READING GUIDE O N E C I T Y. ONE BOOK. A THOUSAND CONVERSATIONS. francesca simon Join the adventure! ‘A terrific journey through the world of the Norse myths, a harsh northern landscape sparkling with magic ... plenty of humour ... I take my horned helmet off to her’. The Guardian What is YounG City Reads? Imagine sharing a book with your best Who is it for? The Guide friend, your teacher, your family or your bus driver. Reading a book together is a Young City Reads is for everyone: whether This guide provides you with everything you you’re an avid adventurer, budding bookworm need to know about Young City Reads. It will fun experience. Everyone should try it! or a simply terrific teacher... even Mums and take you on a whistle-stop tour of The Sleeping Dads can join in. It doesn’t matter who you Army, provide background information, reading Children’s author Francesca Simon (creator of are, Young City Reads is about opening up the hints, biographical facts and ideas for further the fantastically fiendish Horrid Henry series) world of words and ideas to everyone. reading. invites you to join us in a citywide read of her book The Sleeping Army from 6 March to 22 Young City Reads is a Collected Works CIC May 2014. How does it work? project. It couldn’t be simpler. The idea is to get young readers (and grown-ups) everywhere reading Collected Works CIC The Sleeping Army between now and the end Collected Works is a Brighton & Hove based of May 2014. All you need to do to get involved social enterprise, devoted to reader development is pick up a copy from your local library or through the shared act of reading fiction in the bookshop and start reading! If you’re a teacher community. The organisations is led by Artistic you can sign up your whole class to receive class Director Sarah Hutchings. emails and free resources, then read the book together in school. For more up-to-the-minute information visit cityreads.co.uk SPECIAL OFFER: Award winning independent children’s bookshop, The Book Nook in Hove are offering participating schools 20% offthe selected title and FREE DELIVERY straight to your school. To order please contact them on 01273 911988 [email protected] 2 rollicking twist iginal, on N ly or or wild se ‘A my tho logy ’. Jac queline Wilson About the book Freya is an ordinary girl living in modern A Reluctant Quest Britain, but with a twist: people still worship Spotlight on Francesca Simon Freya is not a happy heroine... by her own the Viking gods. One evening, stuck with her Francesca Simon spent her childhood on the beach in dad on his night shift at the British Museum, admission her idea of adventure is trying a California, and started writing stories from the age of eight. she is drawn to the Lewis Chessmen and new vegetable. She throws up when she arrives She then went to Yale and Oxford Universities to study on Bifrost (the rainbow bridge to Asgard) and medieval history and literature. She threw away a lucrative Heimdall’s Horn. Unable to resist, she blows career as a medievalist and worked as a freelance journalist, the horn, waking three chess pieces from their protests wildly when Snot throws her over his writing for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, enchantment; the slaves Roskva and Alfi, and shoulder on the way to the giant’s mountain Telegraph, and Vogue (US). Snot the Berserker. They are all summoned home. However, like all true heroines, It was reading so many stories to her son Joshua that to Asgard, land of the Viking gods, and told despite experiencing great fear, she also shows encouraged her to start writing children’s books and tremendous courage and determination. many of Francesca’s stories have been inspired by real they must go on a perilous journey to restore life situations. One of Francesca’s most successful and the gods to youth. If Freya refuses she will irrepressible creations has been the famous (or should that be turned into an ivory chess piece but, if she be infamous) Horrid Henry, who first appeared in 1994. accepts her destiny and fails, the same terrible ‘Simon blends historical detail with contemporary, funny fate awaits her. dialogue and creates in Freya a genuinely believable heroine who yearns for excitement and security in equal measure.’ Daily Mail Parallel Universe The Lewis Chessmen Imagine a world in which Christianity just Spotlight on Adam Stower (Illustrator) The Lewis Chessmen featured in the book aren’t didn’t happen. In Francesca Simon’s parallel made up. They are a collection of medieval The person responsible for the brilliant depictions of your portrait of Britain, the population still worship chess pieces carved from walrus and whale favourite characters from The Sleeping Army is Brighton- the Norse gods of the Vikings. The author based illustrator and author Adam Stower. Adam achieved teeth that were discovered on the Isle of Lewis helps us enter this alternate world effortlessly a first class honours degree in Illustration from Norwich (west of Scotland) in 1831. Most of them are School of Art then followed this by completing a Masters in with little details like days of the week called now kept in the British Museum in London. Narrative Illustration at the University of Brighton and he ‘Wodensday’ and ‘Thorsday’ and people has been illustrating professionally ever since. Most historians believe that they were made exclaiming “oh my gods” all the time. It’s a Adam illustrates work by a great variety of authors as well in Norway but nobody really knows how they fabulously imaginative and well-crafted conceit as several books he has written himself, the most recent arrived in Scotland. that leaves plenty of room for class discussion. being Troll and the Oliver (Templar). Adam works with publishers in the UK and the US and his picture books have been translated into many languages around the world. 3 Events proGraMME FRANCESCA SIMON LIVE VIKING ADVENTUREs – YCR FAMILY FILM SCREENINGS Thurs 22 May, 1.30 – 2.30 pm MoreFurther Viking stories Reading & Norse Myths Brighton Dome Concert Hall Every Sunday in April, 11.15 am The Lost Gods by Francesca Simon Tickets £3 Jubilee Library, Brighton The Hand of the Viking Warrior by Terry Deary On sale at the end of February FREE drop in Norse Myths and Legends by Anita Ganeri 01273 709709 or brightonfestival.org Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman The Orchard Book of Viking Stories Also look out for . by Robert Swindells WORLD BOOK DAY Thor and the Master of Magic I BELIEVE IN UnICORNS by Kevin Crossley-Holland IllUSTRATION WORKSHOPS BY WIZARD PRESENTS Viking Longship by Mick Manning and Brigitta WITH ADAM STOWER Granstrom ‘Breathtakingly beautiful and utterly Tom Trueheart and the Land of Myths and Legends by Ian Beck Thurs 06 March charming… a must see.’ Traditional Tales from Norse Lands by Vic Parker Jubilee Library, Brighton Primary Times Edinburgh More fantasy titles Selected schools only This intimate one-woman show is set in a library full of books that hold more than stories The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett within their pages. It is a tale of the power of Skellig by David Almond LIBRARY VISITS FOR YOUR ClASS books, and the bravery of a young boy called How to Train your Dragon by Cressida Cowell The Tale of Despereauxby Kate DiCamillo Tomas. Add your own piece of magic by All schools participating in YCR can book Scream Street Series by Tommy Donbavand a FREE class visit to one of Brighton & Hove’s bringing a children’s book to become part of the The London Eye Mysteryby Siobhan Dowd City Libraries set, and swap if for another at the end. The Travelling Restaurant by Barbara Else Please contact Lucy Castle on 01273 296977 Sunday 25 May, 10.30am and 1.30pm Stone Heart by Charlie Fletcher [email protected] Dome Studio Theatre The Eyeball Collector by F E Higgins The Lunatic’s Curse by F E Higgins Tickets £7 Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis Pirates by Celia Rees Muddle Earth by Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell Fergus Crane by Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell George and the Dragon by Chris Wormell 4 TheMES for discussion Courage or foolishness? Difference and tolerance A true heroine or hero needs to show courage and Snot, Alfi and Roskva are very different to Freya. strength of character. The brother and sister bicker constantly, and Snot Questions for Class Discussion: Do you think the Berserker wants to kill everything that moves Freya is a good heroine? Do you think she was (oh and he writes awful poetry!) brave or foolish to blow the horn at the beginning Question for Class Discussion: Can you of the story? Can you think of a time when you remember a time when you didn’t agree with had to be brave or show courage? Can you share someone’s point of view? What did you do? Do you that experience? think you have to agree with someone’s views to get on with them? Working Together Freya couldn’t have rescued the goddess Transformation Idunn alone. She was helped by her travelling Loki is a trickster and a shape shifter. He can companions. change into animals and people. Question for Class Discussion: How important Questions for Class Discussion: Imagine you are was it for Freya, Snot, Alfi and Roskva to work a shape-shifter.

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