[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-fun-and-games-in-leicester":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Look at the fabulous \u003Ca href=\"http://www.summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/\">Summer Reading Challenge\u003C/a> team I got to work with in Leicester on Wednesday! I know marvellous multilingual storyteller \u003Cb>Jyoti Shanghavi\u003C/b> from previous visits (blogged \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/282517.html\">here\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/312741.html\">here\u003C/a>) and \u003Cb>Farida Mohammed\u003C/b>, the fiery one on the right, was assigned to look after me all day and had me in absolute stitches with the funny things she'd come out with.\\r\n\\r\n \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_team2-8891f09a8b.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd we made board games! The book of mine we read, \u003Cb>\u003Ci>When Titus Took the Train\u003C/i>\u003C/b>, reads a little bit like an adventure board game, and making games is such a fun, easy way to get even very small children creating stories. Basically, they choose a starting point (a railways station? their house? a dark cave? the inside of a stinky shoe?) and finishing point (where do they want to go?) on their big paper, draw a curvy railroad track between them and make lots of exciting and disastrous things happen between the two points. ...Ta-dah! A story.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_game3-d520f7eecc.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe had some stories set in Candyland, some in space, some at sea, even a game charting someone's fashion development. I didn't manage to get any photos at the event at \u003Cb>Leicester Central Library\u003C/b>, but here's the team, including some fab volunteers, at \u003Cb>Rushey Mead Library\u003C/b>. (The paper in front is the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/titus.php\">downloadable Titus board game\u003C/a> I made, that we gave kids to take away at the end.)\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for more photos under the cut!-->\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_team1-bb36c8f3b0.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI think this board game ended in heaven.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_game4-109f7c02cb.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThis one was made by a great father-daughter team.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_game6-66ab790f51.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's a close-up of a board game that ended in a forest in Uganda. How cool is that? When I asked the kids about trips they'd taken, we had a long run of kids saying 'India'. Farida told me the local Gujarati population call themselves 'Gujjus' for short. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_game5-2ae6eab7d3.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nOne little girl's lovely mermaid. (You get to go forward two spaces when you land on the mermaid's square.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_game2-2487c8e789.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd this guy very creatively used stars instead of a railway track, going from Waterworld to Fireland.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_game1-c6b7a71148.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nLunch time was funny, I had some lovely company and was plied with loads of food and drink, but no one could actually eat with me because it was Ramadan. (Two of the ladies said they do Lent as well!) Then Farida found out that I'd been raving about a Gujurati restaurant called Bobby's, which I'd visited \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/312741.html\">last year\u003C/a> with my friends Selina Lock and Jay Eales, and said we had to pop in. Sadly, the owner I'd met on the first visit had died; he was a real pillar of Leicester business, but the manager was very welcoming.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_bobbys1-e9b91b3323.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHe even gave us free Indian sweets. Score!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_bobbys3-9ef2aaf7d0.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIndian sweets are so beautiful, but you can't eat too many because, wow, they are \u003Ci>SWEET\u003C/i>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_bobbys2-2acd37bc4d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThanks to Farida, Sandy Gibbons, Paul Gobey and everyone at Leicester libraries who made my trip such fun and run so smoothly! As soon as I got back, I raced from St Pancras station to the cinema, where I met my friend Caroline Smith to see the last \u003Ci>Harry Potter\u003C/i> film (a big deal as neither of us get to the cinema much these days). I had a giggle when quite a few scenes were set at St Pancras station, which made the experience a bit of a busman's holiday. And there was this one scene, where we think Harry might be dead and he asks Dumbledore where he is; Dumbledore replies 'King's Cross Station' and everyone in the cinema started laughing. I think American audiences might find that a bit more exotic, but to that crowd it was almost like saying, 'in the produce section of Sainsbury's'. Here's a picture Caroline's daughter drew of the two of us (Sarah, Mummy) watching \u003Ci>Harry Potter\u003C/i>. I like the perspective; it's like one of David McKee's books.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/dulcie_cinema-c8444ce677.jpg\">","2011-08-12T06:07:00.000Z","fun-and-games-in-leicester",[],"fun and games in leicester",1776628720561]