BLISTERINGLY HOT FINISH!
This post was written by peterjmurray on July 19th, 2022 10:39 am Comments Off on BLISTERINGLY HOT FINISH!After the wonders of Whitley Bay, we returned to our second base on the Isle of Wight. The island really is ‘wight’ at the moment due to day after day of heat and lack of rain!

Lord Louis Library in Newport
On Monday 4th July we made our way to the Lord Louis library situated in the centre of Newport – the main town on the island. Our quest was to enthuse and entertain around 60 year 4 and 5 pupils from the nearby Newport C of E Primary School. We’d had several visits to this school some years ago and so this particular event presented a good opportunity to regain contact.
…And that’s exactly what happened! After a dramatic Mokee Joe presentation, the pupils (and staff) were captivated and as a consequence we now have two school visits scheduled for next term. We called in at the school the next day and were amazed just how many of our audience queued up to acquire signed books…many purchasing all 6 books of the series. Fantastic!
Penultimate school visit of the term was to our very best friends at Pheasant Bank Academy. We love this school!

Pheasant Bank Academy
It’s where we launched our WW1-themed book, POPPY WARRIOR. On this occasion I was invited as a guest of their summer reading festival. Ten O’ Clock Caller was the book I chose to work with with lower KS2 and Scabbajack with upper KS2. Needless to say Kath and I were well-received by all of the pupils and staff and had a fabulous day there. A massive ‘thank you’ to Mr Schofield, the Head teacher. He is such a supporter of our books and a great ambassador of all we do to inspire reading in schools. We are hoping to keep in touch with the leavers (Year 6) by attending their next school in September – Rossington All Saints. See you all then…have a lovely summer everyone!

Great School!
FINAL school visit, during the blistering heatwave, was to Langold Dyscarr Community Primary School. Our son and author, Simon, had just visited the school to promote his famous Icky Doo Dah books and had offered to call again to do a talk for KS2. Unfortunately, he couldn’t keep his appointment, so guess who stepped in for him? Yes – you’ve guessed – dear old Dad…Peter J Murray! Our first visit to this school proved to be a great success and the KS2 audience went ‘crackers’ to get involved in all aspects of the Mokee Joe series. To say it was almost the end of term and that parents had already paid out for lots of summer school activities and what with the record-breaking heat during the day, we were totally amazed how many pupils queued up at the book signing to get their hands on our books. We were so impressed with the response. In fact all three of the schools referred to in this blog should be proud of the ‘reading culture’ they have developed amongst the school community. Oh, by the way, Kath and I love bees and have all sorts of pictures and cushions etc decorated with these lovely insects, so we were so pleased to learn that Langold Dyscarr has adopted our stripy friends as emblems of their school…COOL!
Oh well…that’s all for now. Over the summer I shall be completing my next new book ready for publication. It’s all quite secret at the moment, but watch this space as they say. I will never run short of ideas for scary stories and the scarier the better! Judging by the term we’ve just had, we won’t be running out of readers to digest them either! Brilliant! Stay cool and we’ll be back with you all again in September. Dark nights will be then be approaching! Watch out!
PJM (and Kath with a ‘K’)
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