Cathy Lewis

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• Cathy Lewis
• Email cathy_at_froghopper-design.co.uk
• www.froghopper-design.co.uk

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• The UK has just had the least
• sunny summer since records
• began

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A dream come true
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• Interpretation for children What can we learn
  from the top childrens authors?

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What we are going to do

• Consider the tricks of the trade used by
  successful authors and how we can apply these
  principles to interpretation
• Look at how to target the age range, hook their
  interest, keep them excited, create characters,
  use illustrations and introduce activities for
  all ages.
• Focus on what todays children like and want
  using popular books as an example
• Think about how to encourage intergenerational
  conversations

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How I hope youll feel after the course

• Inspired to give it a go
• Re-enthused about todays children
• Excited about the possibilities of childrens
  interpretation at your site
• Confident about targeting different age groups
• Able to distinguish between educational projects
  and interpretation projects.
• Ready to have FUN!

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Wake up!

• Whizzpopping words

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Maybe it wont be dull and boring.Maybe it will
beFUN!
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Myth one

• Children dont read anymore

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• Tell that to JK Rowling!

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What do all these block-buster movies have in
common?

• Harry Potter
• Stormbreaker
• Eragon
• Lemony Snickets A Series of Unfortunate Events
• The Spiderwick Chronicles

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• They all started out as best-selling
• books

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Screen and paper literacies have formed
a symbiotic relationship. Popular books are made
into block-buster movies, and as a result, more
books are bought and read. Childrens stories
have been transformed into films, television
series, computer games and intricate websites.
All these exciting, cutting-edge texts have one
thing in common they started out as books.

• Prue Goodwin, Reading in the Middle Years (9-11),
  Books for Keeps, September 2007

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So words can still do it for kids

• But they have to be the right words!

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Myth two

• Children dont know how to play
• anymore

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Myth three

• Children cant enjoy themselves
• without technology

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From a study by the Childrens Society charity

• When it comes to making happy memories,
• a day out is better for children than playing
• with a must-have gadgetA good memory has an
• element of magic about it

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About kids reading

• A study of childrens reading habits carried
  out in 2005 by the National Literacy Trust
  states
• When asked specifically about fiction
  preferences, the most frequently chosen types
  were adventure, comedy and horror/ghost stories.

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So your interpretation should include

• Adventure/excitement
• Humour
• The promise of FUN
• And a ghost if you have one!

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It should not be
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1) A Mrs Trunchball Teaching Tirade
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(No Transcript)
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2) A Twits Trail
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The six rules for splendiferous interpretation
1) Choose the right writer 2) Know children 3)
Target the age range 4) Hook them! 5) Create
characters 6) Lose the parents!
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1) Choose the right writer

• Writing for any audience is about respecting that
  audience
• Writing for a child does not demand less skill
  than writing for an adult
• A childrens guide is not an adult guide without
  the big words
• Write for children not at them
• Make sure you pick the right person for the job

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2) Know children

• Your interpretation must engage with todays
  children. To
• do it right, you need to know them.
• Listen to children, observe them, read their
  books, watch their tv programmes.
• Talk to them in a language they relate to. Chat,
  gossip, giggle with them. Dont teach or preach.
• Avoid hip jargon like Totally radical,
  Whatever!, Oh, man, Well lush (or the
  Australian equivalents!)

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Horrible Histories by Terry Deary

• The best-selling childrens non-fiction books
  ever. They appeal to boys and girls.
• Why? They are funny. They are subversive. Theyve
  got lots of toilet humour!
• They have made history appealing to many children
  who would never have read a conventional history
  book. Read them! 

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3) Target the age range

• Childrens books are rigorously divided into age
  groups
• 4-7s Picture books
• 5-8s Illustrated first readers
• 9-12s Novels
• 12s Novels and cross-over fiction
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• Authors have to be absolutely sure which age
  group they
• are writing for. The sentence structure, plot
  complexity,
• word count, etc, must all be tailored for the age
  range.
•  

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In the world of interpretation, the compromise
is to produce one piece of childrens
interpretation, but layer it   4-7s Will
read the stories told in the illustrations.
Parents and older children can then read the text
to them and explain as necessary   5-8s Will
read illustrations, headings, subheadings and
captions.   9-12s Will do all the above plus
read the body text. Write your text for them.  
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• Try to make your activities as broadly-accessible
  
• as possible to target all the age groups (even
  granny!). For example, get them to
• Imagine a scene
• Explore/find/discover
• Follow a quest, undertake a mission
• Try something new
• Interview others in their group
• Come to their own conclusions
• Do fun things like

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Pull ugly faces
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Crawl on their knees
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Take a different perspective
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Wake up!

• Amazing activities

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4) Hook them!

• No matter how fantastic a story or piece of
  interpretation
• is, it wont get anywhere unless children read
  it. So you
• need to hook them.  
• Hook them with
• A punchy title or sub-title
• Fun or imagination-grabbing illustrations
• An introduction that makes it irresistible
• The promise of FUN

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Read the opening sentences of these childrens
books

• Old Granny Greengrass had her finger chopped off
  in the
• butchers when she was buying half a leg of lamb
• (The Peppermint Pig by Nina Bawden)
• Until he was four years old, James Henry Trotter
  had a
• happy life
• (James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl)
• Something was tickling his feet. His bare toes
  had come
• into contact, buried under the quilt, with
  something odd
• (The Shapeshifter by Ali Sparkes)

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A mysterious phantom haunted our school. No one
ever saw him. No one knew where he lived. But he
haunted our school for more than seventy
years (Goosebumps by R L Stine) It was 7
minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the
grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs
Shears house. Its eyes were closed (The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark
Haddon) What a lot of hairy-faced men there are
around nowadays (The Twits by Roald Dahl)
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Case study Winchester Cathedral childrens trail
All this does is confirm a childs suspicion that
cathedrals are boring!
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(No Transcript)
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Wake up!

• Cook up a hook

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5) Create characters

• Children relate to children. People relate to
  people.  Think of all the
• fantastic characters in todays fiction,
  characters that children get to
• know, become friends with
• Harry, Ron and Hermione (Harry Potter)
• Lyra Belaqua and Will (Northern Lights)
• Alex Rider (Stormbreaker)
• Artemis Fowl and Holly Short (Artemis Fowl)
• Think of the wizards and witches, dragons, ice
  bears, trolls, dwarves,
• fairies, daemons and all the other wonderful
  creatures that fill
• childrens books

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What characters and stories will ignite
childrens imagination at your site?

• Who is going to tell the story?
• How is he/she going to tell it first person, in
  character?
• Dont just talk about the importance of a place,
  talk about the people who lived or worked there
• Dont just talk about the importance of artefacts
  talk about the people who used them
• What did children do in those times? Give your
  child visitors something to relate to
• Give comparisons about life then and now

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Wake up!

• Childrens books of today.
• Whats hot, whats not

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    6) Lose the parents! A top principle of any
childrens story is to lose the parents! In
fiction, children cant have a proper adventure
if a parent or guardian is present. How many
childrens stories can you think of (other than
picture books for the youngest readers) where the
child goes through the adventure together with an
adult?
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 For example JK Rowlings Harry Potter
(orphan) Jacqueline Wilsons Tracey Beaker
stories (orphans) Phillip Pullmans Northern
Lights trilogy (one orphan, and one child with a
single mum who happens to be ill) Enid Blytons
Famous Five or Secret Seven books (parents are
always away, so the kids are left in the care of
weird or doddery relatives) Roald Dahls James
and the Giant Peach (parents eaten by an enormous
angry rhinoceros!)  
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How to lose the parents in interpretation

• In interpretation, write your childrens guide
  so that the child can lead.
• Let them run ahead and find things for
  themselves, explore, have an adventure, face
  danger (finding secret passages, dark dungeons,
  the witchs tree, etc), then run back and show
  their parents what theyve discovered
• Dont produce a family trail which is designed
  for mum and dad to use as a preaching tool as
  they frogmarch the kids around a site.
• But equally dont produce a childrens trail that
  excludes adults. Encourage inter-generational
  activities. Make it fun for the grown-ups too.

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Magic moment

• Corfe Castle story

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The big difference

• Interpretation is NOT a book on a wall.
• Keep it short, snappy and fast-moving.

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Case Study New Corfe guide

• Casual mention of ghost
• and dungeon on front cover!
• Illustrations reconstruct the medieval world
• Back cover summarises content
• Toilet humour
• NT best-seller

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Case study Contemporary art exhibition

• No right or wrong
• Encourages kids to interview others
• Have to give reasons why like or dislike
• What each piece makes them feel

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Case study Ghosts trail

• Tells the ghost stories but asks kids to
  investigate
• Have to rate each area Ghost free zone or
  Seriously spooky
• Gallows and dungeons
• Bogey jokes!

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Case study Tank Museum

• Life in a tank snippets
• Did you knows?
• Naughty names!
• Toilet humour

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Is he cracking the WW1 toilet joke?
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Downe House audio trail

• Charles Darwin found school boring, thought his
• university years were a waste of time, and felt
  sick
• at the sight of blood! So how did he get to
  become
• one of the worlds greatest scientists? Find out
  as
• you follow this amazing audio trail

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Headings to hook them

• Bird-watching, that famous boat trip and the
  importance of dead pigeons!
• Boundary Oaks Where Darwin got beetle-maniabut
  what was bugging his girlfriend?
• The Church and how Darwin managed to upset
  everyone
• Great House Meadow Where Darwin went back to
  beesand did weird experiments with worms!

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Wild Things

• Aimed at 4-7 year olds
• First introduction to wildlife
• Give common animals and plants a memorable twist
• Toilet humour poo, bottoms and belching!
• Used by lots of interpreters

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Summing up Childrens text, whether fact or
fiction, is not a dumbed-down version of adult
text. Learning is like vegetable puree The
right words always have, still do, and always
will, ignite childrens imagination.   
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Magic moment

• Bens story

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And finally, two messages
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A MESSAGEto children Who Have Read This
BookWhen you grow upand have children of your
owndo please remembersomething importanta
stodgy parent is no fun at allWhat a child
wantsand deservesis a parent who
isSPARKY(From Danny the Champion of the World
by Roald Dahl)
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A MESSAGEto Interpreters Who Have
Attended This SeminarWhen you provide
interpretation for childrendo please
remembersomething important stodgy
interpretation is no fun at allWhat a child
wantsand deservesis interpretation which
isSPARKY(Cathy Lewis with a little help from
Roald Dahl)
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Cathy Lewis Email cathy_at_froghopper-design.co.uk
www.froghopper-design.co.uk