Damian Harvey - Writing

Damian Harvey

AIM High Writing

Summary

Age range 3 - 12 years
Books Yes
DBS Checked Yes

Booking
Contact
+44 (0)1535 656015
aimhigh@caboodlebooks.co.uk

Damian has written over 140 books for Primary School aged children (a mixture of fiction and non-fiction) with a range of publishers including work on popular reading schemes such as Project X and Treetops (OUP), and Big Cats (Harper Collins). Right now he’s busy writing more.

About Damian
Damian has visited hundreds of schools and libraries across the UK, and abroad, where he gives lively interactive performance sessions for children from Nursery to Year 6 that are designed to get children enthused and excited about reading and writing for themselves. Damian is a member of the Society of Authors, Literature Wales and the National Association of Writers in Education.

Damian’s AIM High Writing Days

Working together with pupils from other classes can be a little daunting, even more so when the children are coming together from different schools, so Damian like to start the day by spending up to 45 minutes in which everyone chats and Damian introduces himself, answers some questions, shares some stories/excerpts, funny poems and gets the audience laughing, feeling at ease and looking forward to the day ahead.

The aim of the day is to show the children how they can go about creating a story from a blank sheet of paper.

Everyone starts off by talking about what they think makes a good story; characters, settings, problems, action, events etc. Damian tells them that he thinks of a story as being a journey for the main character. Working together the group then creates a ‘simple character’ and ‘simple setting’ and works to gradually build them up into a believable character for the story. Whilst doing this the group thinks about names and attributes, we think what sort of problems or dilemmas the character might be facing and how they can overcome it. Knowing where things start and having a vague idea of where or how we want the character to end up gives us a very rough map for the story journey; : and something which the children can keep referring back to see if they are on course.

Throughout the day we look at dialogue and ways of creating drama in our stories. We will look at editing and re-writing and also talk about how every writer has their own ideas and own style – ‘the authors voice’ – because although the day started with the same basic character, every writer in the group has their own ideas as to what they want to do so by the end of the day there will be lots of story variations. Children are encouraged to use their imaginations and not to feel that there is a right or wrong way of doing things.

At the end of the day Damian encourages those that want to, to share what they’ve written with the class. Damian is also happy to share more stories, chat and answer more questions and sign books etc at the end of the day.

If teachers would like Damian to focus on a specific genre then he is more than happy to do so.

Ideally, Damian likes to be able to use an interactive whiteboard and pen for these sessions as the work he does with the group can be saved and shared between classes.

A Selection of Damian’s Books

In Arctic Adventure, the heroes travel to the frozen Arctic to find out what’s happening to the polar bears. Whilst there, they learn about global warming and the effect it has on the natural habitat of the wildlife.  

In Bushfire Rescue our heroes travel to the Australian outback to save wildlife trapped by burning bushfires. There, discover what conditions lead to sudden forest fires, what is causing the planet to heat up and how they can help stop the fires from raging. They also come face to face with the villainous Evilooters.

In Waves of Waste, the Global Heroes are sent to Brazil where plastic waste is being washed up on the beaches and is blocking the rivers. Where does it come from and who is responsible?

Bookings
To book Damian Harvey please contact
aimhighcaboodlebooks.co.uk

Damian also offers visits to schools and other settings, click here for more information,