School readers for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize

Edmund Waller Primary School in south-east London received copies of the shortlisted books in the ‘Funniest Book for Children Aged Six and Under' category, and West Lodge Middle School in Pinner (which Michael attended as a child) received copies of the shortlisted books in the ‘Funniest Book for Children Aged Seven to Fourteen' category.

"At Edmund Waller, we were absolutely delighted to be asked to be school readers for the first ever Roald Dahl Funny Prize. As soon as we received copies of the six shortlisted books we started reading and talking about them. Some teachers read the stories to their classes and some children read them on their own. In buddy reading, where older and younger children are paired up to read together, some of the older children read the short-listed books to their younger buddies. We explained to the children that we were going to choose our favourites and discussed which books we liked best and why.

It quickly became clear that different classes had different favourites. In Year 2, Elephant Wellyphant was the clear winner - we especially liked the flaps and the puns got the biggest laughs of any book. In the nursery, the children loved Stick Man and they made their own Stick Man to star in a whole series of adventures. One reception class was so enthralled by The Great Paper Caper that they made their own giant paper plane and spent days searching for clues and bringing evidence back to class. As teachers we wondered if our own preferences, and the consequent enthusiasm of our readings, might have influenced our classes.

Higher up the school, a group of Year 6 children planned and starred in their own book discussion programme (our tribute to Newsnight Review) and also interviewed the younger children to find out what they thought. They tried to compare and contrast the books and thought about how well words and pictures went together, how original the ideas were and lots of other questions.

Teachers and children love funny books because nothing brings a class together more than laughing at the same thing. We have really enjoyed being part of the prize this year and all six books have been appreciated by children from 4 to 11 (and some adults quite a bit older too)."

Tim Souster, Edmund Waller Primary School

"We are very lucky at West Lodge Middle School that our children are enthusiastic readers and join in with book fairs, author visits and World Book Day very keenly. We were, therefore, delighted to be involved in the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. West Lodge Middle School's children have been very busy participating in a variety of ways:

• Staff explained the prize to the children in assemblies and read extracts of the books to give them tasters and get them interested. Children were very excited about being involved with a Michael Rosen project and had lots of questions which we have emailed to him. As well as attending this school himself as a child, Michael has visited us a few times so children are keen to continue this contact with a "real author".

• Each class teacher is either reading one of the six shortlisted books to their class as a class reader, or is using extracts as part of their Literacy lesson. This is to ensure that all of the children in school feel involved in the project.

• We are running a voluntary Book Club for 30 children from across the school who are trying to read as many of the books as possible! We meet at lunch times to chat about the books and what they are enjoying and why - it has been very popular and we have had very positive feedback from parents who tell us their children are reading even more avidly than usual!

• Our local bookshop is selling the books with a slight discount for West Lodge children and our Scholastic Book Fair have also included a "funny" section with the six shortlisted books and others.

• Our theme for display boards around the school has been "authors" and each class is studying a different author and his/her books - we have tried to keep it to authors of humorous books to tie in with the prize and all of the short listed authors are being researched.

• Two of our recent class assemblies (to which parents are invited) had a book theme - one to celebrate Children's Book Week and the Booked Up scheme and the other focusing on the shortlisted books.

The whole school community has enjoyed being involved in this project and it has helped us to maintain a high profile for reading at the school."

Hilary Haines, West Lodge Middle School