The Bite My Shiny Metal Book competition
Leicester City Council’s Building Schools for the Future Programme and the Whatever it Takes initiative ran the Bite My Shiny Metal Book competition in November 2012. The competition was designed for 7-16 year old children and young people across the city to make short films about the books they think are brilliant. The competition was designed to unleash young people’s creative potential, demonstrate their technical skills and promote reading.
The makers of the three films that in the Judges opinions were the most persuasive and creative were invited to see their films shown at the Phoenix Cinema on November the 21st. They were screened to educators from across the city who attended the Book IT conference on technology to support reading and literacy. Councillor Vi Dempster presented the winners with a tablet computer, and prize winner’s schools also won £200 worth of digital or hard copy books.
You can view the winning videos at the BSF SchoolsTech blog.
All four winning entries demonstrate the qualities the judges were looking for – an inventive, imaginative and compelling approach to using technology to recommend their favourite books. Each clearly demonstrates and conveys their enthusiasm for reading, and reminds us how enjoyable a great book can be.
Prize Winners:
Grace, 12 Years old
Sir Jonathan North Community College
Book: The Lost Island of Tamarind, by Nadia Aguiar
The judges were particularly impressed with how Grace used animation to communicate a sense of mystery and danger – conveying the themes and mood of the book.
Holly, 9 years old
Home schooled
Book: Katie and the Cupcake Cure, by Coco Simon
Holly particularly impressed the judges with the amount of thought she had put in to scripting her review. She used a range of different approaches to narrate her review, including using green screen technology to add animated cupcakes, and directing a group of her friends in scenes that reinforced the commentary.
Appearing alongside Holly in the video are Rebecca, Imogen, Georgina, Kacey, Lucy, and Nanetta.
We will be donating the schools element of the prize to Holly’s local primary school, Dovelands Primary School, at Holly’s suggestion.
Danielle, 15 years old
Willow Bank Children’s Hospital School
Book: The Harry Potter book series, by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter is a character appearing in a very well-known and well-loved series of books, so bringing a fresh approach to reviewing the series is an extremely hard task for anyone. The judges felt that Danielle’s enthusiastic and well researched review of the series managed this – Danielle made great use of the resources available to her in the classroom to capture her informative review. Danielle successfully makes a strong argument for reading the books themselves, rather than just watching the films.
Highly Commended
Hibaag and Nafisa, 14 years old
Soar Valley College
Book: Guantanamo Boy, by Anna Perera
The judges were very impressed by this joint entry from Soar Valley and awarded it Highly Commended. They were impressed by the way the entry used location and pace to capture the book’s themes and style.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to our prize winners and to all of the children and young people who took part in the competition. The high quality of entries demonstrated very clearly how talented and imaginative the city is!
Our three winners will each receive a shiny new Nexus 7 tablet computer, and their schools and nominated school will each receive two hundred pounds worth of digital or hard copy books.
The story featured in the Leicester Mercury –
Video clip competition aims to encourage Leicester youngsters to read
Young film makers work screened at the Phoenix
