Jay Jay Burridge feels passionately about the education of children through a better understanding of the world around them — especially if this message can be presented to them in a creative and captivating way.
Jay Jay talks to children about how dinosaurs were first discovered, what we currently know about them, and why they died out. He then discusses the concept behind the creation of his alternative World of Supersaurs: what would dinosaurs be like today if they had had an extra 66 million years of evolution?
The 45 min / 60 min talk is filled with slides containing original sketches, paintings, and photos, and concludes with how he transitioned from being a trained artist to becoming an author. Jay Jay is dyslexic, so books and words have always held their own challenges for him, but this does not mean that creativity and imagination should suffer, and neither should story telling.
check out some photos of an author school visit
read some testimonials from schools Jay Jay has visited
“It was wonderful to meet Jay Jay today. His talk was extremely interesting and the children were en– thralled by his presentation and slide show.
At lunch today it was the hot topic of conversation!“
Miss S Proctor
English Teacher
Hill House International Junior School
Knightsbridge, London
“Amazing session, today!!!
We all loved meeting Jay and his talk was superb. My class are all reading the book so it was a great thrill to meet our local author. We can’t wait to see him again.“
Rhiannon Abberley
English Teacher
Leafield Junior School
Leafeld, Oxfordshire
“Jay Jay’s books have come just at the right time for the children in my class who have now embraced that magical feeling of not wanting to stop reading. The quality of the read means that even without the brilliant App you can be con dent that the children are encountering diverse vocabulary within a challenging and stimulating story. We read The Raptors of Paradise as a class reader and used the APP on the interactive white board as well as on i-pads in small groups. We used the text as a basis for a range of literacy projects, Guided Reading sessions and a whole host of vocab and spelling tasks. The artwork from the books have inspired everyone to explore their imaginations and create their own magni cent saurs that now adorn the classroom walls.“
Mrs Zoe Duff
English Lead
Burford Primary School
Burford, Oxfordshire
“The children were blown away by the app , and were listening carefully to what he had to say about being dyslexic. Two of our boys who are dyslexic were very happy to be able to interview Jay about it. A special thank you for that, as we will show the clip to our children next week when we celebrate Neurodiversity in our school. The teachers also loved it and really liked the idea of combining reading and technology.
Kathlyn from the bookshop Tales on Moon Lane came and helped and she said she was surprised that the publishers didn’t make a bigger noise about this, as she found it totally original, very informative and exciting for both the adults and children.“
Ms Rowley
Head Teacher
Thomas’ School
Clapham, London
“The children were inspired by Jay Jay’s work and journey to this point in his life, becoming an au- thor. Being dyslexic, posed a huge barrier for him as a young boy but he demonstrated to the children how, despite this challenge, he worked hard and succeeded. Jay Jay told us that he hopes that his books will inspire children to read and also to write even if they nd it challenging as the outcome is well and truly worth it.
The children were totally inspired by him and he really got their imaginations going, they did have some great ideas. I came across one boy working on a Power Point presentation in our after school club yesterday, it was all about dinosaurs, he said it was Jay Jay’s visit on Friday that had inspired him! “
Ms Southend
Head Teacher
Belmont School
Mill Hill, London
“Just to say we absolutely loved having Jay Jay here with us this morning. It wasn’t just the children that were transfixed! He came into school to talk to the children about the first people who discovered dinosaurs, some mind blowing facts about them and that what we know about dinosaurs is constantly being updated the more we dig up. Then he got everyone thinking what life would be like if they had not died out. Then he intoduced us to his fantastic book series and told us how he gets his ideas and writes them down. Amazing to think he is Dyslexic! The children had lots of questions and found out a lot about the life of an author. It was very inspirational and many of the children are now enjoying reading his books“
Rachel Smith
English Teacher
Winchester House School
Brackley, Northamptonshire