Livingston Village pupils’ book launch

Jan 21 2010 by Marjorie Kerr, West Lothian Courier

Livingston Village pupils’ book launch

PUPILS from a West Lothian primary school have turned over a new leaf and wrote their own book.

Pupils at Livingston Village Primary decided to write their own Christmas story to create a personal, handcrafted book as an extra special gift for a loved-one.

For the last four weeks, they have worked hard to meet this challenge .

And their efforts have brought great success with the youngsters creating some truly imaginative stories with titles such as, “The Boy Who Saved Christmas”, “The Twelfth Angel” and “The Spider’s Shoes.”

Head teacher, Louise Turnbull, has been full of praise for the achievements of the pupils who have shown real imagination and skill to create their own books

She said: “Weaving together many of the skills they have been taught at school, each child created their own characters, setting and plot to design and produce their own completed books.

“One of the key motivating factors for the children during the exercise was that they decided in advance the special person for whom they were writing their book.

“This enabled them to think about who was going to read their book and actually write it as a gift for that person.

“This helped us to build intellectual, social and emotional engagement with the writing.

“The children have loved every minute of the project and they have all worked extremely hard,

“I am delighted with the effort from everyone and all of the pupils deserve the highest praise.

“The quality of the writing has been of a very high standard and I am immensely proud of all the children who took part.

“The completed books are simply stunning.”

A book launch was held to celebrate the success of all their young authors, with parents invited to visit classrooms, hear recitations, read books, meet the authors and relax with a coffee and mince pie.

This event was a huge success and thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended.

This writing project has been part of the schools focus on improving the quality of writing.

One budding author added: “Usually my dad gives me a bed time story before I go to sleep.

“Now I’ve given him a good story to read before he goes to sleep too. I really enjoyed writing it. I hope he likes it.”