Take the kids on a visit to Grubtown
Faber and Faber have launched ‘Visit Grubtown’ (www.visitgrubtown.com), an exciting new online home for Philip Ardagh’s Roald Dahl Funny Prize-winning Grubtown Tales series, drawing on the weird and wonderful characters and settings from all six Grubtown books.
Here’s how ‘Beardy’ Ardagh described the event’s significance for Grubtown’s denizens:
Excitement ensued earlier today with the official launch of the Grubtown Tourist Board’s new website www.visitgrubtown.com. Grubtown Tourist Board Manager, Flighty Bitpart, unveiled the site at the official launch party this morning at the Tourist Board Offices. The launch suffered a delayed start due to the theft of the Tourist Board’s only computer. Luckily, Police Chief Grabby Hanson was quickly able to establish that he had stolen the computer himself and returned it, having first arrested himself and then let himself off with a caution.
‘This is a significant day for Grubtown,’ said Mr Bitpart, ‘too long overlooked as a tourist destination, due largely to our unfounded reputation for grubbiness, we can now show the world that Grubtown is a force to be reckoned with as a holiday destination.’ Responding to criticism that the positioning of buildings and other areas or interest on the site bore no relation to where they are located in reality Mr Bitpart said, ‘People should be grateful – until now we haven’t had a website at all. The fact that it may not represent in any way the actual layout of Grubtown seems a petty complaint. I am proud to say that now, anyone with internet access is able to get a very vague idea of what our town in like.’
The launch was attended by Mr Bitpart, his assistant Fergal Twine and two ducks. It is believed all the other guests got lost on the way having attempted to find the Tourist Board by using the map on www.visitgrubtown.com. I was there by chance having popped in to ask Fergal Twine for some money he owes me.
Visitgrubtown.com features six distinct Grubtown locations – including the fan favourites: the Daily Herald newspaper office, the Duckhouse/Museum and Smoky’s cinema. From April 29 until June 3, a new location unlocks each week, treating users to a special Grubtown story, delivered in instalments. Readers are encouraged to interact with characters and objects, and can discover exclusive downloads. The site incorporates fun audio and video, and drives users back to other books in the series.
The Daily Herald location will offer children a unique and entertaining way to apply their creativity by writing and submitting Grubtown news articles through the site. Using a bespoke Grubtown silly name generator to obtain a ‘press pass’, and assisted by a set of helpful writing tips, sample articles and Philip Ardagh’s own blog entries, their submitted stories will be published online.
Faber are teaming up with Newspaper Club (www.newspaperclub.co.uk) to give children the fantastic chance of having their work published in a limited edition of 500, 16-page printed copies of the Daily Herald, which will gather the best stories from the five weeks, as selected by Philip Ardagh.
The newspaper also presents a great educational opportunity. Faber aims to motivate school classes to participate and has developed classroom activities for teachers and resources for libraries. One of the authors of the selected stories will also be chosen to win a special class visit from the hilarious Philip himself who will rewrite their story as a special mini Grubtown Tale!
As well as a pioneering online accompaniment to a book series, visitgrubtown.com offers a safe, fun and educational environment for children online that can be enjoyed on their own or with a parent and aims to encourage reading and creative writing.
