Blocks, Banksy & Books

Today got the Oli Blocks out again (bought them last week) They have been great for stirring the imagination. They connect either by ball and socket or magnet and people have made sculptures like the one to the left, bridges, creatures and communities.

Banksy came up again this week, he got a mention in the Tuesday's Independent (the one Bono edited & 1/2 proceeds of which go to AIDs in Africa) . Showed some of the young people the Banksy Site.

One person who had seen Banksy's work at club went on to do an art project at school based on it. The few who saw it this time were also impressed and want to improve the graffitti in the area with some Banksy style art work. And I found out that there's a chalk spray we could use if we wanted to do it...so now all we need are ideas...

We were talking about our favourite books last night. Usually I can't think what mine are but Catch 22, Wuthering Heights and most of Roddy Doyles came to mind...I must read Catch 22 again...can't remember why I liked it. Books the young peole had liked from school were Of Mice & Men and the play An Inspector Calls, both also favourites of mine. One of the young people, T. reminded me of when we were taking a car journey and he mentioned Eva Smith was astonished to hear me say Daisy Renton, after which we had a long converstion about his coursework essay on An Inspector Calls. T, keen to do more reading, but finding it hard to get through a Martin Luther King biograpy and looking for some shorter books (which I am a great fan of) borrowed my Animal Farm and The Last Children.

I plan to get some of the Quick Reads which were lauched this year on World Book Day, with another batch that came out yesterday. They are a great idea, exactly what they say on the packet, quick reads from established authors and only 1.99 with the book token that can be printed from the website.