A PRIZE-WINNING children's author has been enthralling youngsters at a series of school workshops across Pembrokeshire. Andy Stanton - winner of the Red House Children's Book Award - visited seven secondary schools and entertained around 1,000 pupils in a whistle-stop tour of the county last week. Organised by Pembrokeshire County Council's education department, the workshops were aimed at inspiring pupils with a love of words and reading. Described as 'more an experience than a lecture', the workshops were a big hit with students, who appreciated Andy Stanton's anarchic delivery, as well as his unconventional and crazy writing. Clr. Islwyn Howells, cabinet member for children and young people, said that in today's computer age youngsters were still able to develop a love of reading given the right encouragement. "A love of books and good writing can stimulate the imagination and is still a key passport to learning and knowledge," he said. Andy Stanton was a film script reader, cartoonist and NHS worker before he turned to writing. His first book 'You're A Bad Man Mr Gum' won the Red House Children's Book Award in 2007 and was also short listed for the Branford Boase Award for a debut children's novelist. Following the success of the book, there have been two more in the Mr. Gum series and he is currently working on a fourth. Previous winners of the Red House Award include Jacqueline Wilson, J. K. Rowling and Roald Dhal - one of Andy Stanton's own favourites, who appreciated that children like books in which adults are shown as tyrants! The Pembrokeshire workshops were funded by a grant from the Basic Skills Agency and were part of the Read a Million Words in Wales campaign aimed at enthusing youngsters, particularly boys, with words. Andy Stanton visited Ysgol Dewi Sant, Pembroke, Greenhill, Milford Haven, Ysgol Bro Gwaun, Tasker Milward and Sir Thomas Picton schools.
