Thursday, 6th May 2021
Being Me: Poems about Thoughts, Worries and Feelings
A book launch and KS2 teaching resource
An audience of teachers, poets, librarians, poetry fans and even a couple of psychologists attended the May launch of Being Me for the third in our series of Manchester Children’s Book Festival/Manchester Poetry Library children’s poetry events at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Joined by poets Liz Brownlee, Matt Goodfellow and Laura Mucha, illustrator Victoria Jane Wheeler and Manchester Poetry Library Director, Becky Swain, the fabulous Katie Thistleton conducted a symphony of “chaotic realness” (to coin a comment from the chat) to create a “warm”, “inspiring”, “enjoyable”, “brilliantly presented”, “well structured”, “fabulous”, “fantastic evening”, “full of insights” (also comments taken from the chat).
Readings from Being Me by young people from the West Acting Workshop in Sussex and pupils from Lily Lane Primary School in Manchester also featured, their wonderful performances edited into three short films by Liz’s husband Pete Brownlee. (See below to view.)
The good feeling surrounding the launch of this collection is testament to Being Me. As one teacher at the event, who has already used the book in their school said “…a great collection for transition and acknowledging and talking about feelings.”
Being Me can be purchased direct from the Otter-Barry Books website.
A Summer Writing Challenge
To support other schools wanting to use the book in their classrooms, Manchester Children’s Book Festival has produced a free Teaching Resource with ideas for reading, sharing, writing and drawing in response to the poems.
There is also a challenge in the resource for schools who use the collection in their classrooms. Details about how to get involved are in the resource. As soon as we are able, we plan to invite all participating schools to join us for another celebration of poems about “Thoughts, Worries and Feelings” at the Manchester Poetry Library. So stay in touch and get writing…
