Hey, blogosphere! I can’t even put into words how excited I am to be posting in the Blue Peter Book Awards blog tour (And hosting the first post…. SQUEAL!). The list of books for this year’s awards are absolutely fantastic, and you can read more info, over here.
Onto the blog tour post! So, enjoy this written coverage of Malorie Blackman’s event with Booktrust at the Imagine Festival…
Booktrust and Malorie Blackman’s day with Blue Peter
On Saturday 15th February, team Laureate battled through the wind and rain to head down to the Southbank Centre, which was teeming with families all taking advantage of the Imagine Festival. With so many author events, storytelling and interactive workshops to go to, there was no danger of children getting bored this half term! We parked up in the café with some strong coffees to get ready for… A DAY WITH BLUE PETER! As part of the Blue Peter Book Awards, the show has been running all sorts of special book content. One of these features is “A Day in the Life of an Author” – and what better author to choose than the Waterstone’s Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman? And as Booktrust manage the Laureate and help out with the PR for the prize, we had double reason to go along. Nothing to do with a secret hope of getting a Blue Peter Badge out of it……
Malorie pulled up with the Blue Peter crew and presenter Lindsey Russell, who had been interviewing her en route
– we all headed into the green room at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, where Malorie had a huge stack of books to be signed ahead of the event. We amused ourselves by making use of the glitzy dressing room all for Malorie – with lights around the mirror and everything! Malorie also had a go at playing the green room’s piano – despite protesting she sounded rubbish, Random House publicist Lauren and I were VERY impressed!
Malorie busy signing
Next we headed into the main auditorium where Malorie recorded her answers to some of Blue Peter’s viewers’ questions. They had some great ones, including “what’s your favourite cheese?” and “Would you rather have a bath of baked beans or a bath of custard?” !! But now it was time to get serious, and have a chat with her event chair Damian Kelleher (who also had his very own dressing room!) The Imagine event was brilliant, with over 600 children who all seemed to have questions for Malorie. Blue Peter dashed about filming the event and a few lucky audience members’ questions.
Malorie with a Blue Peter Presenter
After the talk, it was time to tackle THE EPIC SIGNING QUEUE! There were so many children and teens, bursting to meet Malorie, and lots were interviewed in the queue by Blue Peter too, which only added to their excitement! After an hour and a half, the crowds finally dispersed and Malorie got to rest her hand and voice, but not before the Blue Peter crew and presenters lined up to get their books signed too…
Lindsey and the producers were so lovely, we had such a great day with them – we can’t wait to watch the show which is on TODAY on CBBC at 5:30pm!
The Blue Peter Book Award winners will be announced on World Book Day, 6th March on Newsround at 7:40am. www.booktrust.org.uk/bluepeter
I am SO jealous- I couldn’t go to this… but the event sounded awesome! I’m looking forward to seeing the show. Make sure to keep up with the Blue Peter Book Awards blog tour! Here are the dates and bloggy details:
Thursday 20th Feb = The Bibliomaniac – Booktrust and Malorie Blackman’s day with Blue Peter
Saturday 22nd Feb = Much Loved Books – Rooftoppers
Monday 24th Feb = Being a Mummy – Whale Boy
Wednesday 26th Feb = Bare Naked Mummy – Tony Robinson’s Weird World of Wonders
Friday 28th Feb = Live Otherwise – Marvellous Maths
Sunday 2nd March = Book Sniffer – Animal Infographics
Tuesday 4th March = My Book Corner – Oliver and the Seawigs
Thursday 6th March = Winged Reviews – Marcus Sedgwick on being a Blue Peter judge
the bibliomaniac book blog 
Do you know how much this post suits your blue blog? It’s a cool stop & you’ve introduced me to something I hadn’t heard about! So, the book trust wrote this post? I think I’m most looking forward to the post on Saturday & the last one 😉 Marcus is a fabulous author too & I’ve loved his books before, like SINI. We talked about Malorie a lot but I wanted to pop in & make the effort to comment… You’re rather lucky to be first, it’s super awesome you got that opportunity I must say!
It’s also great that they’ve spread out the blog tour more, it’s better than most blog tours but still gives the build up! 😉
Haha, thank you! Yes, I love the schedule. I’ll definitely be following it along. I’m so glad I got to join in, thank you!:D SINI is awesomeness. Thanks for commenting even though we had a long chat over twitter, haha! You’re awesome:D
(and whoa this does match the blog theme. Epicness.)
Awesome post. Love Malorie’s enthusiasm!
I looooooooooooooooooooooooooooovE somen blue peter and Love MB did you take picture keep following blog tour go to the blog now.
Yay! 😀 No, I didn’t- unfortunatly I couldn’t go! All photo credits to Rosi Crawley, the lovely lady at booktrust- she wrote the guest post, too 🙂 Enjoy the rest of the tour!
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