We were fortunate enough to secure a visit from an international bestselling author Cornelia Funke.  This event was arranged through our contacts with the local bookshop Tales on Moon Lane.  Cornelia was in London to launch her new book Reckless.  So far she has sold 15 million books and has had some made into movies including her best selling Inkheart series.

To make best use of the visit we invited over 300 year 6 students from our feeder primary schools as well as the whole of our year 7.  Being so early in the academic year it was quite a challenge to get everything organised.

Cornelia gave a reading from the first chapter of Reckless.  She did a personal signing for students who had their own copies, or wished to buy a new one. She also did an extended question and answer session lasting over half an hour.  There were still large numbers of students with questions at the point when the session ended.  Such was the general enthusiasm.

This is what some of the students had to say:

“I learned a lot about Cornelia Funke,  from her dogs name to her first book.  She gave quite a few tips on how to write a story and what to include.  The way she read felt like you were transported into the book”

“I would like you to know how you have influenced my interest in reading different books.  Cornelia was so inspiring and gave me ideas about how she wrote her stories, and where she got her ideas and inspiration from!”