A Selection of Polly's Books
Polly Ho-Yen
Type of Artist:
I can offer:
- Interactive author talks
- Immersive writing workshops
- Cover design art workshop
- Readings and Q&A sessions
My author talk demonstrates how your surroundings and all of your experiences are fuel for your creativity. I explain how I have used the world around me to come up with ideas for books and show how I developed those ideas into finished stories.
My writing workshop enables students to write their own apocalyptic stories, set in their own world. If possible, we take a local area walk where we mine inspiration from the school and its surrounding streets.
In my cover design art workshop, we take the journey from doodling to exploring patterns to creating cover artwork.
Details
Preferred age range:I work with any age group and have worked with Years 5-9 in the past.
However, I have also worked with KS1 and sixth form and can adapt my content accordingly.
Maximum number in any one session:
Negotiable but from my experience, up to 30 for a workshop and up to 150 for a talk works well.
No of sessions per day:
Negotiable – depending on what groups you would like for the day and timetabling.
(For instance, a Year 6 year group of 2 classes might have a talk for the whole year group and a workshop for one class in the morning, followed by the workshop for the other class in the afternoon)
Session Length:
60-75 minutes – but session lengths are negotiable and can be worked around your timetable..
Areas prepared to travel to:
Anywhere, if overnight expenses are met.
Transport:
Public transport.
Fees:
Website:
Titles include:
The Last Dragon
The Girl who Became a Fish
The Day that No One Woke Up
Dark Lullaby
The Boy who Grew a Tree
Fly Me Home
How I Saved the World in a Week
Boy in the Tower
Where Monsters Lie
Testimonials:
An amazing day, both classes got a huge amount out of both the writing and cover art workshops and I've rarely seen them so excited to tell me their stories!
- Seven Mills Primary School, London
The visit was more than we could have hoped for. Polly liaised with me about the format it should take and planned sessions to meet the needs of my class. She was able to combine question and answer sessions about her book based on the pupils’ curiosity and enthusiasm, with a well-planned, interesting and motivating writing lesson which enabled the children to plan their own post-apocalyptic story.
Polly’s delivery was warm and engaging. She was interested in the children, their views and their ideas. She listened as much as talked.
During each step of the way, Polly referred to her own experiences as an author. It was hugely motivating for the children to hear about the ups and downs of writing a novel: the pleasure, the satisfaction, the hard work, the time, the editing, the doubts and the triumphs.
Testament to the success of the visit was that the pupils wanted to continue to write. The visit was motivating and inspiring, to pupils and teacher alike. The stories came to fruition and left more than one pupil wanting to be an author ‘like Polly’.
- Coulhill Primary School, Alness, Scotland
Published work: