Fun author event with Swiss International School, Basel

One of the best things about writing children’s books is meeting young readers. I had a fantastic time a couple of weeks ago meeting children and teachers from the Swiss International School in Basel at an event held in Basel West Library.

The difficult thing beforehand was trying to think of activities that they would enjoy. The last thing you want to do during these kinds of events is end up with something dull, because the kids will soon let you know it!

As my first book was called “My Alien Penfriend” and was about a school child on earth becoming friends with an alien child on another planet through exchanging letters, we thought that would be a good starting point. First I asked the children how they thought the two might have become friends in the first place. They came up with some cool ideas about how this unusual friendship might have come about. I think most of the children thought that the alien had crash landed on earth during a visit. When I told them the real reason (which you’ll have to read the book for!) they were pretty interested.

Next we asked them if they would be interested in writing to an alien – and of course they said yes. I mean why wouldn’t you?! So I suggested that they draw an alien they would like to become friends with. Also I asked them to come up with a name for their new alien friend and also give some details about the planet. For some odd reason a lot of the children chose Pluto as the home of their alien friend. I guess they must have studied it in school and the controversy over it being demoted to “dwarf” planet status.

Afterwards we had some volunteers from the audience come up to the front to do a small presentation about their new alien buddies. All the contributions were fantastically creative and some of them were so wacky and hilarious that it was hard for me to stop laughing and continue with that part of the event. It was a pity that we ran out of time as every presentation was such a lot of fun to hear.

We also had a little prize draw for some books (in English and German), but I made sure that everyone who took part got a little present. It was a ‘thank you’ to them for such a fun and entertaining morning. All the children were so positive and upbeat. It was a pity that I had to return to the realities of every day life just a couple of hours later.

Anyway, what really made my day was when I received a stack of thank you letters from the children later that week. I really appreciate the time they took to write back and was a bit overwhelmed by the compliments. When you get glowing feedback like that from readers it gives you extra confidence about your writing. It’s a good feeling to know that at least some out there likes your books 🙂

Children from Swiss International School Basel drawing their new alien friends

Thank you letters from the children at Swiss International School, Basel