‘My hero: David Walliams’
Rrrrrrrrrrinnnnnnggg! Saturday morning and my alarm goes off. I don’t usually have to wake up early at the weekend but today is a special day. I’ve got butterflies in my tummy. I feel funny. I am off to meet my hero.
Today was the first day of the Bath Children’s Literature Festival and the very first event was David Walliams. By the time I arrive, there are hundreds of children there. I wonder whether his hand will fall off if we all ask him to sign a book!
The first David Walliams book I every read was Ratburger. It was the first book that I really, really loved. Before I discovered David Walliams, I used to think reading was just something you had to do for school.
My favourite book is Grandpa’s Great Escape. We even went to The Imperial War Museum in London during the school holidays so I could see the Spitfire that Grandpa pretends to fly at the end of the book. I like imagining the action in my head and I like giving all the characters silly voices like David Walliams does when his books are on TV.
When David Walliams walks on stage everybody cheers and claps. Katie from CBBC Book Club comes on and starts asking him questions. She asks him when he first knew he wanted to be a writer. I can’t believe it when he starts to talk about his favourite author and his story sounds just like mine. He said:
“When I was around 8 or 9 I was not that keen on reading; I preferred watching TV. Then I found a story that I loved and that really turned me on to books. The book was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Then I read all the Roald Dahl books non stop.”
I am 8, nearly 9. I can’t believe he felt the same as me. Then he said: “I meet kids all the time that tell me that they are just not that into books and I think that they just haven’t found the right book yet.”
After a few questions, he read A WHOLE CHAPTER from The World’s Worst Children – the one about Windy Mindy and her nuclear bottom. It’s so awesome to hear a famous person talk about trumping!
At the end he told us a really funny story about his sister dressing him up when he was little – that was his inspiration for The Boy In A Dress – and then gave children who want to write books some advice:
“Keep your eyes and ears open all the time. You never know when a funny story you hear or a character you meet might come in handy.” He told us the inspiration for Burt in Ratburger came from a contestant on Britain’s Got Talent who ate live cockroaches.
He talked about how much he loves lots of pictures in his books and sometimes he asks the illustrator to do more… and more… and more. I do an illustration while I am listening to him read out a few pages from Ratburger. Here is my drawing. It’s David Walliams on stage with all his books.
At the very end, some children asked questions and then some of us queued up to get a book signed. He told us his favourite character out of all his books is Raj, the newsagent.
I got my book signed and had my picture taken with him. I felt very proud. I wanted to ask him what he would ask his hero (Roald Dahl) if he could meet him, but I felt a bit shy all of a sudden and I just smiled. David Walliams was epic – just like his books. I can’t wait for Show & Tell at my school next week so I can show them my signed book and tell my friends about this amazing day.
Billy Bond
Age 8