Thursday, February 25, 2010

Virtual Authors at Scottish Book Trust

An astounding 90,000 children in 1,000 schools across the UK and overseas have already signed up to Scottish Book Trust’s ‘Meet Our Authors’ programme. Scottish Book Trust, Scotland’s leading agency for the promotion of literature, reading and writing, created the programme to allow children, young people, parents and teachers across the world to get up close and personal with some of the world’s leading children’s authors, free of charge, with support from the Scottish Arts Council’s National Lottery Fund.

The programme consists of:
Children’s author events broadcast live over the internet, in conjunction with the BBC Digital resource of quality content about children’s authors, including Facebook and YouTube campaigns featuring exclusive clips of children’s authors, in conjunction with Scottish Friendly Assurance Competitions for parents to win exclusive prizes related to the work of the UK’s finest children’s authors, in conjunction with Scottish Friendly Assurance

The series of live events is the centrepiece of the programme and will feature household names such as Michael Rosen (March 4th), Julia Donaldson (May 6th), Eoin Colfer (October 7th), Philip Pullman (December 9th) and Jacqueline Wilson (January 27th, 2011) who will talk to a live audience whilst being filmed and broadcast simultaneously over the internet. The first live broadcast will take place on World Book Day, Thursday 4th March, with former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen who will be doing two events - one for primary schools and one for secondary schools.

Michael Rosen commented: “I'm really looking forward to this event. I think it's the first time I've ever done a live performance that can be watched by thousands of children in their schools. I've heard that kids all across Britain are going to tune in. And more than that - there are schools abroad joining us too. One thing that excites me is thinking that this is really a brand new kind of television. It's a new way for us to entertain and talk to each other. So thanks a million to Scottish Book Trust for inventing this day, and I'm going to do my best to give you a great show. Oh yes!”

www.scottishbooktrust.com

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