Teach Primary Issue 18.7

Award-winning author Pari Thomson discusses her tried-and-testedways to get children thinking deeply about books, and creating fictional places of their own devising W hat is world- building? For me, it’s about imagining a place so fiercely that it feels real and tangible enough to step into. It’s about knowing how your new world looks – but also what the food tastes like, how the people sound, and the way the air feels against your skin. It’s a multi-sensory act of creation that says to the reader, “Come in and sit down; you belong here, too.” My book, Greenwild: The World Behind The Door, is about a girl called Daisy Thistledown, who steps through a hidden door in Kew Gardens in London and finds herself in an astonishing secret world called the Greenwild. It’s a place where plant magic is real, and where people called Botanists fight to protect plants that are under threat. A place of milk chocolate trees and giant lily-pad boats, and magical pomegranates capable of granting a single wish. Books in school When I deliver book events to Years 3 to 6, I usually begin by talking about my books and my inspiration – and then encourage them to dive into a creative world-building exercise. I discuss the books I loved as a child – ones that are full of the most astonishing, confident, glorious world-building. I’m thinking of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where it’s always winter but never Christmas; I’m thinking of The Hobbit, where Bilbo Baggins gets swept up in an adventure across Middle Earth, with dwarves and dragons and magic rings. What I love most are the details – the faun Mr Tumnus appearing beneath a lamppost in a snowy forest; the fact that hobbits are fond of crumpets and love to eat a second breakfast. These are the things that make the world feel tangible and knowable – so that you look up from reading with the feeling that you’ve been on a journey to another land. The big question Once I’ve talked about this in events, I encourage the children to create worlds of their own. This is the question I ask them: If you could find a secret, magical world, how would you get there and what would it be like? I tell the children that they can work on their own or in small groups of two or three. I make sure that they’re equipped with paper and pencils – the best tools for imagineering. And I give them the freedom of ten or 15 minutes of unstructured time to write or draw or doodle to bring their world to life. I’m always astonished by the sheer, wild creativity of what the children come up with. There are worlds entered through tree trunks and via video games; worlds full of sea dragons and places where you’ll never have a bad hair day. There are edible worlds with candyfloss trees and bubbling cheese volcanoes, and topsy-turvy worlds where small animals like mice are as big as elephants, and elephants are as tiny as mice. There are no stupid ideas here – only raw creativity. More often than not, the worlds the children describe come complete with characters who have to find magic keys, or maybe navigate their way through hidden waterfalls. The freedom to draw as well as write means the children can express the shape and dimension of the world they’re creating – often producing detailed maps with labels for lakes and mountains, caves and pirate ships. This makes me very happy, as all my favourite fantasy books have maps in the front – a promise that the world contained within will be intricate and that the adventure will unfold within a space that feels real and precise and possible to navigate with a compass and walking boots, if only you can find the way in. By the end of the session, the air of the school hall is full of magical worlds – countless seeds for stories that are ready to take root and spring into life. TP A whole NEW WORLD www.teachwire.net | 71 T E ACH RE AD I NG & WR I T I NG Greenwild: The City Beyond the Sea by Pari Thomson and illustrated by Elisa Paganelli is out now (Macmillan Children’s Books, £12.99) “I am always astonished by the sheer, wild creativity of what the children come up with”