WWE at the Roald Dahl Museum

Last weekend we were invited to the Roald Dahl Museum, one of the kids favourite places to an event which linked WWE and Roald Dahl together - an unlikely combination you might think! Celebrating World Book Day, We were there to meet WWE's very own "BFG" Jack Swagger and learn more about the Wrestle mania - WWE's reading challenge which aims to inspire children through reading.

During the event Jack told us why he loves Roald Dahl so much, citing how he loves that Dahl's words jump off the page and create a wonderful story. For a willing and ready audience, Jack read an excerpt from The Twits with good expression and characterised the characters very well. He really engaged the children in the story and also shared one of his quotes from Roald Dahl:

“If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

After story time was a chance for the kids and adults to ask questions. Through a group interview, we found out that:

• Jacks favourite book is the Twits.
• He takes Inspiration from Sophie in the BFG - you may be tiny but you can be the whole world to somebody. No matter how down you are, you can always be successful.
• Jack chose to become a wrestler from age of five as he loved wrestling and particular wrestlers before him like Kurt Engel, Chris Jericho and the Undertaker.
• He grew up and was inspired watching the movies Matilda and James and Giant Peach.
• He has an English bulldog named beefcake. 
• We also found out that Jack had to write lots of Book reports at school and he advised the kids to stay in school because the smarter you are, the better sports person you will be. Whilst some children may think that literacy doesn't apply to them because they want to be a sportsman (perhaps a famous footballer or rugby player), actually sports is always evolving, so some children may not see the point, but the smarter you are, the more it will help you learn how to take care of your body. However you take care of your body, you must also take care of your mind. 
• As Jack is really tall, he was actually directed towards basketball at school but he really wanted to do wrestling. 
• Jack's final piece of advice was that can do everything - you just have to believe!

My girls definitely enjoyed the event and found it very inspiring meeting Jack and learning more about Roald Dahl.

The event was followed by a visit around the museum. Where the children had lots of fun enjoying all of the different activities and exhibits that the Museum offers.

Thanks to the Roald Dahl museum and WW E for inviting us.

Disclosure: we were invited to the event and received a free goodie bag.