First school visits

Over the last two weeks I've been busy visiting secondary schools in St Albans, meeting pupils, signing books and talking about imaginary friends.

I started at Nicholas Breakspear, then onto Beaumont School, after that I visited St Albans Girls' School, finishing up at Sandringham School.

I was pretty terrified before the tour began, but whaddya know, I loved it.

I've discovered that there's nothing quite like standing up in front of 30, 60, 100, even 200 pupils and talking about how a book comes together, except perhaps answering everyone's BRILLIANT questions afterwards.

Probably the best bit of the talks was when I asked everyone to try and remember their imaginary friends. At least half of the people, including the staff (and more like three quarters at STAGS!) did remember them, and it was so great to see the look on so many faces at the moment when that memory pinged back.

So, to sum up, I feel like I've learnt a lot over the last few weeks, including:

1. Year 7 and 8s are really knowledgable about books and FULL of questions, many of which are utterly brilliant ones that really got me thinking.

2. Librarians always have really nice biscuits for visitors.

3. I can't wait to visit more schools very soon.

Many thanks to all the schools for having me!