Sunday 30 October 2011

Writing for Children

In January 2008 I signed up for a course in writing for children at City University in London, taught by Amanda Swift. The course changed my life - it's where I started writing When I Was Joe.
Amanda's now giving up teaching the course, and I'm very honoured to have been asked to take over. It runs for ten weeks, starting January 17 or April 24; it will cover many aspects of writing for children, from picture books to Young Adult. It's for everyone, whether you're aiming for publication or just want to get out of the house on a Tuesday evening.
One of the most fun aspects of preparing for the course was thinking of a list of recommended books. There were so many I could have chosen, but in the end I picked the following:

Auslander -  Paul Dowswell

Tall Story -  Candy Gourlay

The Tiger Who Came to Tea  Judith Kerr

The Cat Mummy Jacqueline Wilson

Charmed Life Diana Wynne Jones

How I Live Now  Meg Rosoff

Showbiz Sensation: Showbiz Superstar   (Stunt Bunny)  Tamsyn Murray

There are so many other books I could have chosen, but this is a list with picture books and chapter books to YA, male and female protagonists, fantasy, historical, dystopia, realism, humour, 


I'm excited about taking this new step -  and a little nervous too. I've often thought I'd like to take the course again -  never imagined this would be how. If you're interested in signing up, details are here.

10 comments:

  1. Great stuff. You'll be very good and will love taking the class. Well done. Look forward to hearing how it goes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oooh, congrats! I'm sure you'll do a great job, and you picked a fine list of books!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations and good luck! I can't take the course this year, but will bear it in mind in the future - and it was your experience on this course that prompted me to do the OU creative writing course I'm doing this year, so thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations and good luck with it. What an honour to be asked to run the course!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's wonderful, Keren. And what a great list of books you've chosen! Congratulations.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi - Are you also going to be teaching the one-day courses that they run at City Lit? I'd love to do the evening one but real life would never allow me 10 clear Tuesdays!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Anon..No, City Lit and City University are quite different.I'm not sure who runs their courses, but I've heard good things. No plans for day courses at the moment, but if that changes I'll put something on the blog.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oops, sorry! Clearly need to improve my proofreading skills! No hope, then - would never make it to EC1 and back. You'll have to do some in Hertfordshire next time!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Happy to...if someone wants to arrange them!

    ReplyDelete
  10. omg how late can i get ... thanks for using my book dear keren! just shout if you need me!

    ReplyDelete