We were delighted to be invited along to a Breakfast with the BBC and CBBC Live: Awesome Authors weekend in Birmingham last weekend. It was based outside Birmingham Library and I took my eldest two daughters Lily and Poppy. They had a wonderful morning. While I had nipped off to get coffee, Poppy went to meet Mark & Sam, and got some photos! Great blogging sidekick.
Credit to P for the snaps, she was very happy with herself.
The breakfast itself was really lovely, some of the stars of CBBC were around and talking to all the kids in attendance, we also watched a few show reels and listened to some really interesting talks from Joe Godwin, Head of BBC Midlands, Cheryl Taylor, Controller of CBBC and Helen Foulkes, Creative Director of BBC Learning. I’ve grown up watching the BBC, my girls have all watched CBeebies and now watch CBBC so it was lovely to see and hear so much about what goes on back stage. At the heart of it all is good quality viewing, wholesome kids programmes and a huge range of educational shows. Alongside that, the educational aspect is supported online too. So it’s a very rounded programme they’ve got.
The day was pretty lovely,
Authors appearing at the Library of Birmingham on the 16th July included Dame Jacqueline Wilson (Hetty Feather); Alex T Smith (Claude series); David Baddiel (The Person Controller); David O’Doherty and Chris Judge (Danger Is Everywhere); Jeremy Strong (The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog) and Lucy Hawking (George’s Secret Key To The Universe). On Sunday 17th, the authors were Liz Pichon (Tom Gates); Bali Rai ((Un)arranged Marriage); Frank Cottrell Boyce (The Astounding Broccoli Boy); Andy Riley (King Flashypants and the Evil Emperor); Robin Stevens (Jolly Foul Play) and Ross MacKenzie (The Nowhere Emporium).
There were a lot of activities to keep the kids entertained, we even took part in a Guinness World Record attempt, building a wall of words. We went for Happiness, Dinosaur and Love and we got our stamp to show we had done our ones and prevent us going back and trying to add more.
We also did a quick art workshop, where we drew a self portrait and it was printed on a 3D printer, then made into a book mark. While we were waiting for ours to arrive P ended up on CBBC Newsround having a live interview!
I think what I loved most about the day was it was all about encouraging kids to do something. Journalism, football, arts, crafts, it celebrated reading and book swapping and enjoying it all. Even though you have BBC, CBBC, Cbeebies on the telly and online, the day was about so much more than that. It left both my girls feeling happy, creative and with an extra love of words. It was a completely positive and empower experience for the girls and I am really happy that we went along.
