Teachers! Following a really great experiment, would your class in the autumn term enjoy a virtual visit from yours truly as author/illustrator? Looking to roll this out from September.
Cost… er, one book!
You get:
- full pdf of illustrations so that you can read the book with the children and they can see pictures on the interactive white board
- PDF instructions of how to draw Geoff
- If the children write to me (works anonymously) you can send a digital copy of the letters and I can answer their questions by recorded video that you can show the class.
- The video has me reading the first chapter.
How it’s worked elsewhere
This has been in development since Christmas 2019 alongside schools responding to their requests, and I think I’ve just about nailed it. The final piece was a school in the North who found my book on Amazon, which is a twisted fairy tale, and they used it to study novel writing.
- Kids love the book
- Got some life lessons in there if you really want about valuing who you are made to be.
- It’s structured in a way which is deliberately using proper grown-up novel writing technique.
This is what was tweeted by the school (you can find this on my revdjpriest twitter page, pinned to the top post)
“What a treat for our Year2 children who have been working hard on their virtual study of A Giant Disaster … a special virtual visit from real live author (amongst many other things!) – Andy S Gray! You can catch it here: “
Teachers have used this up to year 4, and as young as year 1.
I can send you more details / talk to you on messenger.
The reason I can keep this cheap is I’ve found that quite a few parents go on to buy the book for their children – anything to get them reading! So it makes it quite economic as I am not having to travel or stay over anywhere.
In return, I would be hugely grateful if you would then let me have any lesson plans that I can then offer to other schools, plus if you could leave a review on Amazon. Oh… that’s where you buy the book!
This is what other teachers have said on the Amazon page for the book
A super story that will make you smile!I read this book with my class of Year Three and Year Four children (ages 7-9 years). We loved it!!
I was able to show the class the pictures using the handy PDF that Andy sent me, so the children were able to enjoy the illustrations as well as the story.
The idea of telling the story of Jack and the Beanstalk from the Giant’s point of view is really good from a teaching perspective but was also really liked by the children. The children and I thought that it is a suitable book for the age range of my class.
‘Brilliant….amazing….really funny….silly…..fabulous….made me giggle!’ All words used by children in my class to describe the story. The children found the whole story amusing but picked out specific incidents that they thought were especially funny – Geoff being called a ‘poop giant’ and the bucket falling on his head.
We would all definitely recommend this book and as one child said, “Andy, you should write more books!”
A different point of view to a famous story. loved it!Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 November 2019
Verified Purchase : I really enjoyed this. As a teacher it would be a great tool for retelling the famous fairy story from the Giant’s point of view to make kids think about it differently. I loved the humour and the jokes made me laugh out loud. Kids would love this.
This is what the video looks like that you would get, personalised of course in response to YOUR class’s questions. (shared with permission by the school I did this for)
Contact me at
Looking forward to hearing from you!