Children at Beech House, Bolton School’s Infant School for girls and boys aged 3 to 7 years, enjoyed a World Book Day visit from author Christina Gabbitas. Her visit came as a result of the generosity of parents Toni and Mark Hawthornthwaite whose daughter Valentina is a pupil at the School. The couple won an NSPCC auction for an author day and donated their prize to the independent day school. On top of that, they also bought a copy of Christina’s best-selling children’s book ‘Save Us’ for each of the 202 children, which the author duly signed!
The visit was the first of many World Book Day events that will take place across the Bolton School campus over the coming days.
Christina spent the day at the school addressing each year group. She delivered engaging and interactive sessions which involved her reading her stories in a range of voices, rapping her poetry with the children and giving an exclusive airing to a short animated film of her ‘Save Us’ book, which is due to be launched over the coming weekend at The Deep in Hull. She also spoke to the boys and girls about her own life and how she had become a writer; almost falling into it, having written some stories for her own children. She had been inspired, she said, by her mother’s adage that it is better to try and fail than not to try at all. She also explained how there are lots of people involved in producing a book including the publisher and the illustrator as well as the writer. Christina explained that she always includes an educational element to all her stories. In a questions and answers session she told how she is originally from Blackburn and now lives in Yorkshire, how she liked to mimic voices when she was younger, how she was originally drawn to poetry and that she has two sisters who appear in her books!
Christina’s books include the Felicity Fly series, Triangular Trev and Mohna Lott as well as ‘Save Us’ — a rescue story about a Seal, Sea Turtle and Whale, which addresses the problem of plastic pollution.
