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Read
Lydia's review of The Inventors and tell us what you think too
There can't be many 11-year-olds who can stroll
down to the local book store and see their story stacked on the
shelves - but Jamie Webb is one of them.
The Norwich schoolboy has helped to write a children's
adventure book, called The Inventors, with his half-brother Alexander
Gordon Smith, 28, who is known to his friends as Gordon.
The story has just been brought out by a top publishing
firm, Faber And Faber.
Although The Inventors has made it into the shops,
Jamie has had a hard time persuading his friends that he's telling
the truth about it.
"None of them believe me, although my close
friends do," said Jamie, "even though I went to school
with The Inventors T-shirt and a proof copy.
"I've told them they'll be able to go into
the shops and have a look on the shelves - it's really annoying!"
Pick of the class
Jamie tries out an experiment in the lab. |
Soon, though Jamie's school friends will all get
to know about The Inventors as his teacher has asked the young author
if she can read the book out to his class.
Someone else who is proud of Jamie - and Gordon
- is their mum.
"Mum's more thrilled than us. She keeps asking
the people in the book shops to put the book in the window,"
said Gordon.
The Inventors made it into print after coming second
in a national book competition, which was judged by a panel including
TV presenters Fern Britton and Phillip Schofield.
The idea for the book came when Gordon had a dream
about an evil genius.
The next morning he raced round to Jamie's house
and they started work on turning the dream into an action-packed
tale.
Race against time
When Jamie saw a book competition called Wow Factor
in Waterstone's in Norwich they decided to enter the first three
chapters of their story.
But soon they had a race on their hands. The competition
organisers phoned to say they liked the story but needed a whole
book ready within a week so it could be entered.
Jamie likes inventing gadgets and making things
like rockets, so for the next seven days he stayed up late, to write
paragraphs of the book and help Gordon with ideas for the story
and tell him what the children in the book might think and say.
After they finished their writing marathon Jamie's
mum made him go to bed early for a week so he could catch up on
all the sleep he missed!
"Pure adventure"
Jamie's name has made it onto a book cover -
even though he's just 11! |
Gordon describes the book as a "pure adventure"
with the baddie Ebenezer Saint a bit like Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka.
The action starts when keen inventors Nate and
Cat win a scholarship to stay with the world's best inventor Ebenezer,
but they soon find out that they will have to outwit him if they
ever want to see their families again.
While Gordon is a talented writer, he's not much
good when it comes to inventing things, so Jamie had to come up
with some good ideas.
"If we were the same age we wouldn't have
written it," said Gordon. "The book wouldn't have been
the same without Jamie."
Change of direction
Although Jamie did want to be an inventor when
he grows up, he's now changed his mind.
"I used to want to be an inventor and now
I'd like to go into acting," said Jamie.
The brothers hope their book could be made into
a film.
"I'd like to play Nate if it's picked up for
film," added Jamie.
For now though Jamie is sticking to writing - a
follow-up to The Inventors is planned for release next year and
Gordon is also writing another children's book.
It's a busy time for Gordon, who studied at the
Hewett School in Norwich and the University Of East Anglia.
He is about to bring out his second book on creative
writing - after collecting lots of tips while working on The Inventors.
He also writes stories for the X-Files Magazine
and set up his own publishing company, called Egg Box, before letting
someone else take over the running of it.
The Inventors is published by Faber And Faber and
is suitable for children aged 10 and above.
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