Type of Artist:
Assembly style talk, creative writing workshops, craft workshops related to spirit birds, readings
Years 5 – 7
Workshop 30 max assembly style 100 max for talk
Maximum of 3 – prefer to have them all in the morning
Eg Assembly style followed by 2, 1 hour workshops
Talk : 40 mins followed by 10 min QA
30 min signing – usually following talk
60 mins workshop
Anywhere if overnight expenses and travel are met
Train & taxi
Have a current basic DBS
Yes via Society Of Authors
Asha And The Spirit Bird
Tamarind And The Star Of Ishta – due out in August 2020
'It was a joy to have Jasbinder attend our festival. Jasbinder thrilled the audience with her beautiful and uplifting book 'Asha and the Spirit Bird’. The children went away with lasting memories and images of India and the Himalayas. Jasbinder set the room alive with Asha’s magical and colourful adventure. Look forward to having Jasbinder speak at our festival again.’
Paul Scully, Festival Director.
Jasbinder Bilan visited our Junior School in January 2019 to talk to years 4 and 5 about her new book, Asha and the Spirit Bird. She did a really fascinating talk, about how she came to write her book and what had inspired her and then led a writing workshop, which went down very well with our children. She was extremely professional and managed the group of 120 children very well indeed. We’d love to have her back!
Widcombe Church of England School
Writing Workshop with Jasbinder Bilan:
It was great to have an author working with our Year 7. Jas' clearly personal story, the way she opened up the process from her first ideas for the novel, and on to drafting was wonderful for students to follow. Jas brought the fantastical to life and engaged them in creations of their own which we were then able to share around the class. For any student who ever thought books were written by examiners, or publishers or somehow dropped from the skies this was a total tonic.
Year 7 were captivated by Jas’ talk about her exciting and deeply moving story Asha and the Spirit Bird. The students were captivated by details of Jas’ family background and found themselves identifying with the two young central protagonists who, in their quest to save Asha’s family from ruin, find themselves struggling to survive in the harsh Himalayan Mountains. Jasbinder’s author talk brought to life the richly detailed life of this Himalayan community, evoking magic and wonder alongside the themes of family, loyalty, friendship and hope.
The idea of a spirit guide lit up the student’s imaginations and left a lasting and vividly drawn impression in their memories and engendered lots of lively discussion.
Ralph Allen School, Bath
My talks are interactive and I like to engage the children and ask them questions as we go
I use a Powerpoint for my talks