Author visit: Tanya Landman
I have been a fan of Tanya Landman’s books since I read her first YA novel Apache. Sidcot students shadowed the Carnegie award last summer when her book Buffalo Soldier won the Carnegie medal. As the 2015 winner she will be one of the judges for the inaugural Amnesty CILIP honour medal. Buffalo Soldier dealt with issues including racism, slavery and gender discrimination. I was delighted when Tanya agreed to a return visit to Sidcot. She was a great hit in 2012.
Tanya worked with Year 10 students in their English classes developing story lines for historical settings and mapping out murder mysteries before embarking on writing atmospheric scenes. In the afternoon she entertained a large crowd in the meeting house. She told students about her career path to becoming a writer, which included her role as PR manager at Bristol Zoo and her time touring with a puppet theatre company. It was clear from her talk how much winning the Carnegie medal meant to her.
At the end of the talk Tanya signed books for students including copies for Alex, Adam, Emma and Jacob who wrote reviews of Buffalo Soldier when they shadowed the Carnegie award last year.
We hope students enjoy reading their books as much as they enjoyed the talk.
Wendy Worley
Librarian
In his review of Buffalo Soldier Adam wrote:
“…The style of the writing is quite interesting because it shows how the girl speaks and what her accent may be like. It makes you want to keep reading to find out what happens to the girl at the end. I like this book because it gives the point of view from the girl and shows what it was like for black people in slavery and how much they wanted to be free.”