Barry Hutchison

By Guest Bloggers

On Friday the 25th of March a group of children from first year attended a trip to Auchinleck Academy to see the author Barry Hutchison. He was talking to us about some of his books, how he became an author and his childhood.

He told us a few very funny stories from his younger days. One of them was about SQUIRRELS!

Barry said that he is afraid of squirrels, because when he was five or six he was seeing his granny in Aberdeen, he saw a squirrel on the path in the park DEAD..! It was all mashed up with a leg missing and its brain pouring out its eye sockets. So now he hates squirrels!

Another one of his stories was when he was doing falconry, (because he is a bit scared of birds). He had the big glove on and the instructor gave him the bird, and said “throw it hard as you can and it will land on the perch.” So he did and it went flying through the air and kept going …AND GOING … (BY THIS TIME IT WAS WAY PAST THE PERCH)…and going till it hit a tree. It fell and flew back and bit him on the face!

We really enjoyed the trip and we definitely recommend his books to everyone of all ages.

By Kieran Madden Aaron Gilmore and Gareth Kerr


Barry Hutchison signing a book for some of our pupils.

Author visits

S2 pupils who have been enthusiatic participants in Accelerated Reader will be invited to go on the trip to Loudoun Academy to hear the author Gillian Philip talk about her work. The trip is in the morning of 15th March.

We have run a competition for S1 pupils to go to Auchinleck Academy to hear Barry Hutchinson talk about his work on 28th march. They were asked to write up to 200 words on why they wanted to go. We have 20 enthusiatic winners!

Spring Read Authors

This year's Spring Read authors are Keith Gray,Gillian Philip, Barry Hutchinson and Cathy Forde. If you are a fan and would like to be on the trip to go and see them, let me know.
To find out more about them click on the links below.
Keith Gray at Scottish Book Trust
Gillian Philip's website
Barry Hutchinson's website
Cathy Forde's website

Carnegie Medal Shadowing

This year for the first time, we are sadowing the Carnegie Medal as a class activity with Mrs Dorans' S2 class. They came into the library the day the shortlists came out and personalised our Shadowing Group home page, had a look at the shortlisted titles, found out more about individual titles and told other members about them.
To see our Shadowing site click here.

Theresa Breslin

A group of S2 pupils led by Miss Borthwick and Mrs Bax travelled to Kilmarnock Acacemy to hear the famous author Theresa Breslin talk about her work. She told us about using solid objects like shrapnel and gas masks to help with her ideas for stories. She explained about the 3Ps that she uses - People, Place and Plot, which are the ingredients of a good story. Ms Breslin read excerpts from Remembrance Divided City and told the pupils about the background to the stories. To help keep everyone interested there was a raffle with her books as prizes.
At the end she signed pictures of her book covers. Ross Tait asked a question and won a signed poster of Divided City.

Keith Gray trip

On Tuesday 9th March, Mrs Dorans' S2 class went to Auchinleck Academy to hear the famous author Keith Gray. Keith was very entertaining and told stories about his childhood adventures, travelling with his friend to Keith in Scotland and being a bear in a carnival parade. He also read from some of his books. Everyone enjoyed the event and thought he was great fun.

Cathy MacPhail visits Doon

The famous author Cathy MacPhail visited our library on Monday 8th March and spoke to S1 as well as some visitors from Auchinleck Academy as part of our Spring Read programme. Cathy chatted to pupils for an hour on her books, how she gets her ideas and what makes a good story. She has inspired some of our budding writers to put pen to paper.

Michael Rosen event

Click here to go to the BBC Author Live event and see Michael Rosen talking.

"Although he claims to have become a children's poet by accident he's become a great performer of his own work and is guaranteed to engage and entertain the audience. Michael will be telling stories from his childhood and performing a selection of his poems."

Cathy Cassidy

Local author Cathy Cassidy popped in to school the other day to be interviewed by some S1 pupils for our BBC School News Report.

Spring Read

For this year's Spring Read Festival we are having two author visits.
Catherine Forde is coming here to talk to some S1 and S2 pupils on 24th February in the afternoon about Fat Boy Swim.

We are taking a group of S3 pupils to hear Catherine MacPhail talk about her work at Kilmarnock Academy on 18th March.

Catherine MacPhail visit

On Thursday 20th March, the author Catherine MacPhail came to Doon Academy. Pupils from Cumnock and Auchinleck academies came to join us here and listen to her very entertaining talk.

She chatted about some of her books and where she had got the original ideas from. I am sure that lots of pupils will be borrowing her books from the Library next week. Towards the ned of her talk she decribed a ghost story set is a school. She asked the pupils to imagine lots of creepy things that might happen in a dark school library in the evening once people had gone home. Loads of people came up with creepy suggestions, fortunately none of them featured homicidal librarians!

After the talk she was happy to chat to pupils and sign autographs.

Nicola Morgan

Firday 14th March. Most of Miss Borthwick's S1 class went to Auchinleck Academy to hear the author Nicola Morgan talk about her work. She discussed Monday are red, Fleshmarket, her Highwayman books and Blame my brain. She told us how she was inspired to write Fleshmarket by a visit to the Royal College of Surgeons' museum in Edinburgh and seeing some of the gory exhibits there.

Author visits in the pipeline

Our spring Read programme will be running again in March this year. Among other events planned We have the authors Janet Paisley, Nicola Morgan and Catherine McPhail coming to visit school. We are also planning a Book Fair and the S1 and S2 Readers' Cup Quizzes.
Watch this space for more news.

Jonathan Meres

The next event in our busy Spring Read programme was a trip to see the author Jonathan Meres at Cumnock Academy. Mrs Gibson and Mr Taylor took a group of S1 boys and they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The boys reported back that he was very funny and a bit rude, not what they really expected of an author. Several wanted to know if he could come back next year, which is a real commendation.

Visit to Michael Kerins

Mrs Bax and Mrs Nicol took a small party of S1 to see and hear the storyteller Michael Kerins at Auchinleck Academy. He talked about his background and how he came to be a storyteller with lots of props, including Graham Davis who played Wee Tom.

He moved on to tell the story of Persephone and Orpheus of the underworld and how Persephone's mother, the goddess Demeter, persuaded the king of the gods Zeus to allow her daughter to live above the ground most of the year and in the underworld in the winter. That is how we got the seasons! All the pupils enjoyed the trip and were gripped by the story.

Cathy Cassidy visit

Cathy Cassidy, the author Dizzy, Driftwood, Indigo and Scarlett, came to Doon today to talk to some S1 pupils. Pupils from Cumnock Academy and Auchinleck Academy also came along to here what she had to say. Everyone really enjoyed her talk and she signed some books for pupils and chatted to them at the end. She talked about daydreaming and how not to get caught doing it in school!