BookFest 2019

Onjali Rauf - The Boy at the Back of the Class - KS2

There used to be an empty chair at the back of the class, but now a new boy called Ahmet is sitting in it. He's 9 years old but he seems a little strange. He never talks and never smiles and doesn't like sweets - not even lemon sherbets! But Ahmet really isn't very strange at all. He's a refugee who's run away from a War. A real one...

Onjali is the founder and CEO of Making Herstory, an organisation mobilising men, women and children from all walks of life to tackle the abuse and trafficking of women and girls in the UK and beyond. Since 2015, she has delivered emergency aid convoys for refugee families surviving in Calais and Dunkirk in France, and went on to establish O’s Refugee Aid Team in 2019. Shortlisted for various awards for her human rights works including the Emma Humphreys Award and the Care2Impact award, she went on to publish her first children’s book The Boy at the Back of the Class in 2018. 

Touching on the refugee crisis from a child’s perspective, Onjali will delve into her personal experiences of working in the refugee camps of Calais and Dunkirk which ultimately led to the creation of the multiple award-winning story, The Boy at the Back of the Class. Speaking about her second story, The Star Outside My Window, Onjali will be highlighting both her deep love of astronomy and the many injustices she has witnessed in her works aiding women and children fleeing domestic abuse. 

Teacher's notes for The Boy at the Back of the Class have been produced by Hachette and can be downloaded here https://www.hachetteschools.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/The-Boy-at-the-Back-of-the-Class-Teachers-Notes.pdf

Really Big Pants Theatre Company - Suddenly! - KS1/2

Red loves bedtime stories with Grandma. As well as reading them from a book, they make up their own too. But one evening, as they settle down with ‘Once upon a time…’, they are interrupted by their wily neighbour, Mr Wolfe, and a race begins to save their treehouse from a faulty genie and a wicked stepmother with a magic mirror (and a penchant for shopping) – before midnight!

Join Really Big Pants Theatre Company for a fast, fun twist on traditional tales. Help with a very special spell, ride on a flying carpet and battle some bad manners!

Running time 50 minutes

Really Big Pants is a theatre company specifically for primary-aged children. They wrote their storytelling show, SUDDENLY...!, to celebrate and encourage literacy, using recognisable elements of traditional tales (and some really big pants) to inspire and entertain, and they have performed it to thousands of children in schools, libraries, bookshops, theatres, and at literary festivals.

In 2018 they were thrilled to launch an illustrated chapter book adaptation of the show, plus two further adventures featuring Grandma and Red, to go alongside the audiobook version.

Willow and Joe are both avid readers and love nothing more than a great book. (Apart from cake maybe.) This will be their third appearance at the Beanstalk BookFest and they couldn’t be happier to partner with this brilliant organisation, doing such crucial work helping children to read, grow, thrive. Rock on, Coram Beanstalk!

Samantha Baines - Harriet versus the Galaxy - KS1/2 (age 7 and up)

Samantha is a multi-award winning comedian, actress, hearing aid wearer and author. You might have seen her on CBBC in Hank Zipzer or So Awkward and plenty of BBC comedies and historical dramas. She's delighted to be an Ambassador for Action on Hearing Loss and the British Tinnitus Association. Harriet versus the Galaxy is her debut children's book published by Knights Of about a little girl with a hearing aid who goes on intergalactic adventures!