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I keep having this ideal for my blog, that every day I should post a new drawing. It's tricky, when I spend all day drawing stuff my publishers don't want me to show you yet. But here we go, a pub drawing from last night. Viviane Schwarz did the bottom half, and I did the top half, upside-down.



Viv and I met at St Pancras station and walked over to the new Central Saint Martins art college building. It's ENORMOUS. High ceilings, vast slabs of concrete, reclaimed brickwork, huge panes of glass. You can just see it in the background here, behind Viv swinging in this rather quirky little pavilion in the middle of the Kings Cross building site.



We started off the evening at the party to launch Christopher Brown's new book, An Alphabet of London. I've been excited to see this book, because Chris was one of my visiting lecturers on the MA Illustration course at Camberwell art college, and he loves that luscious, heavy, solid look you can get with lino cut prints, and I do, too! His publishers, Merrell, also had an earlier book on sale that he'd illustrated, A Pack of Dogs, and both books are very yummy. Nom Nom.



Here's a little peek at the page for T; Viv and I got a laugh from T is for Trepanning. It took us awhile to remember where we'd seen that carved wooden tiger mauling the colonist. I thought it was at the British Museum, but in the back of the book, it says it's Tippoo's Tiger at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Ah yes. And it's from 1793. If you've been to London, you'll undoubtedly recognise the art museum at the top of the page. The others are harder to guess: Trinity Buoy Wharf Lighthouse in Poplar, Temple Church in the City of London, oh, and there's a tourist in the corner.



At the party, we got to see his original lino cut prints on display, so lovely! It's a great conversation piece, trying to guess all the letters. This book will make a perfect London souvenir for people visiting London, a Londoner's gift for friends abroad, or a book for a Londoner to have on a coffee table to give everyone something to talk about at awkward dinner parties, ha ha.




I just had to get a photo of these lovely chappies. There were more than a few excellent twiddly moustaches present. (I have no idea who they actually are. Chaps, if you read this, please identify yourselves!) :)



Besides the alphabet, Chris gives us, in the back of the book, a big of a description and photos of how he set about making the prints. I'm itching to do a book of lino prints, starting with the trees in Greenwich Park, but I don't want to approach a publisher about it yet because I want it to be something I do for the pure enjoyment of it, not be freaking out about a deadline. Because making lino cuts

First, here are a couple more pics I made for the Beauty & Beast boutique in Monsterville. These will pin up next to the mirror where people (and monsters) will go for their fancy wig fittings.



And here's a little tailor chappie to greet you when you come into Beauty & Beast. It's sort of like those funny gentlemen shops you find on Jermyn Street with big shaving brushes and shoe-horns. Except it also sells Marie Antoinette alien wigs.



It's funny, I'm not much of an expert on gentlemen's fashion, and I keep thinking, if I had more time, I'd love to get in three illustrators who know loads about this kind of thing. They would be my dean from art college Christopher Sharrock, Philip Reeve and David Roberts. These guys know everything about men's fashion, ha ha. Oh...Hurrah! I just saw that David Roberts finally got himself a website! I'm bookmarking it to go back and have a long look. David's attention to clothing detail - well, everything, really - is AMAZING.


Christopher Sharrock, David Roberts (I couldn't find a good full-outfit photo so one of his characters is standing in for him), Philip Reeve

So you can come see my monster boutique Lolliplops old-fashioned soda fountain and ice scream shop. And the other fab stuff Ed Vere and Neal Layton have been coming up with! Here are the details:

Welcome to Monsterville - FREE OPEN DAY - Sat, 28 May - All day
***To ensure a space on events please call 020 8536 5555 to pre-book.***

Set off a Monster Bank Holiday by coming along to the FREE launch of Welcome to Monsterville with the brilliant Sarah McIntyre (Morris the Mankiest Monster), Neal Layton (Emily Browne and the Thing) and Ed Vere (Mr Big).

11.30am 0+ Mini Monsters: Enjoy Story time for babies and toddlers in our Story Glade in the garden (inside if wet!)

1 & 2.30pm 5+ Monstrous Trail: Our Story Builders will take visitors on a tour around Monsterville - can you spot all the monsters lurking in the shadows? Are you up to the challenges and games?

12 - 12.45pm 4+ Ed Vere: Author of Mr Big and The Getaway will be coming along to delight us with live drawing we can join in with. Introducing us to his new book Bedtime for Monsters and telling us how he came up with his monster creations for Welcome to Monsterville.

1-145pm 4+ Sarah McIntyre: Fabulous illustrator Sarah McIntyre will be reading from her absolutely disgusting book Morris the Mankiest Monster and talking about how she created Monsterville's Lolliplops Cafe and Beauty and Beast Salon.

2.30pm 4+ Monster Draw-off: Monsterville makers Ed Vere, Sarah McIntyre will be drawing to become the most despicable champion monster creator of all time. Who will fashion the most terrible creature? Who will you vote for ?

3.30pm 4+ Neal Layton: Join Neal Layton illustrator extraordinaire as he shows of his sketchbooks and talks us through how he produced his amazing range of monsters for Welcome to Monsterville. Discover's Story Builders will then present Emily Brown and the Thing.

Monster Top Trumps: Drop into this event and draw your own monster, decide what their special pow

Following the last post about the Booktrust Best New Illustrator award night, Viviane Schwarz, Joe Berger and Anthony Browne were on BBC breakfast telly this morning! You can watch it here! (Although I'm not sure for how long, and if it's available internationally).



I only recently realised that not only did I sit next to Joe Berger at the Bishop's Stortford Picture Book Award ceremony, but he's the guy who makes Berger & Wyse, with Pascal Wyse for The Guardian! And funnily enough, I have one of his cartoons taped up on the side of my bookshelf, a foot away from where I sit at my computer, so I see it a lot.

A huge congratulation to fab friend and Fleece Station founder Viviane Schwarz for being one of ten people to win Booktrust's Best New Illustrator award last night! You can read the full list of winners and read about them on the Booktrust website here. Thanks to John Huddy at the Illustration Cupboard for hosting the sparkling evening.


Polly Dunbar, Alexis Deacon, Viviane Schwarz, Emily Gravett, Anthony Browne

You can see a bunch of their illustrations and hear Children's Laureate Anthony Browne talk about the award over on the Guardian website.




Lauren Child (right) with another illustrator (can anyone remind me of her name?)


Ros Hickinson (first violinist for the English National Ballet who rushed in between performances of Swan Lake), Axel Sheffler, Axel's friend Nils



Alice Melvin (who'd come down from Edinburgh to collect the award) and me


Levi Pinfold


Lauren Child & Anthony Browne presented the awards, along with Nikki Marsh from Booktrust


Katie Cleminson, Joe Berger, Salvatore Rubbino


Claudia Boldt


Polly Dunbar, Viviane Schwarz, Emily Gravett


Viv's friends Alexis and Gwyn


Bath lit fest coordinator John McLay & Random House Children's Book editor Sue Buswell


Axel Sheffler & me




Ness Wood, the fab designer who worked with me on 'Morris the Mankiest Monster' and my current book with David Fickling


Celebratory pizza with Viviane!

Yesterday, the Oundle Festival of Literature hosted my You Can't Eat a Princess! event in this appropriately palatial hall. They squeezed in exactly 301 children and we had a great time drawing aliens and designing space ships.



Here's Leigh Giurlando, who organised my visit, and Joanna Patterson Gordon, who runs the beautiful Oundle Bookshop in the town's market centre. And a lovely chappie who helped with the setup. Fellow princesses, take note: no ball gown is ever complete without a fetching piece of string tied round the waist.



Sadly, when Viviane Schwarz met me at Kings Cross station after returning from Peterborough, I was no longer wearing my royal apparel. We went for coffee and I got to see the American edition of her marvelous new hamster book with Alexis Deacon, A Place to Call Home. Which she illustrated while she was moving house, which rather suits the theme.



Viv and I went on to lovely Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street for the launch of an exhibition of beautiful painted illustrations by Polly Dunbar. Nearly everyone in children's publishing must have been in that room! Here's Polly in her smashing new dress and shoes, with Alexis Deacon and his comely angel halo.


The exhibition, The Picture Book World of Polly Dunbar runs until 24 March, so do go on over and have a look! And Daunt Books has loads of Polly's books for sale, which you can have her sign tomorrow, 19 March.


I'd only ever spoken with Book Sniffer by e-mail, who had gone by Mr P, which made me assume Book Sniffer was a man. But no, it's a blue stuffed dog and the lovely Emma. I've promised her a blog entry, so you might see that before too long.





I see Philip Reeve has blogged about his first Skype-based event, in America. I need to think if I want to do that sort of thing; it would be great for doing low-cost events in other countries.

Here's a brand-new Ants comic from James Turner (eruditebaboon).

And one more thing, a video of the remarkable Warwick Johnson Cadwell drawing a gorilla. A great way to end a day's entry.


YouTube link

I just had a marvelous contribution to The Pickle fall into my Inbox from ten-year-old Ellie Bennett, whom I met a couple weeks ago at the Bishop's Stortford lit fest. Thanks so much, Ellie, you rock!





(I read it carefully, that's mole problem, not male problem.) There are so many starters for new stories buried in this page! I wrote to Ellie,

I'm so curious about Victoria and what she's doing to help Vern with is mole problem. Poor Cabbage, she might be getting more than she bargained for with the bunnies. And I'd love to see a diagram of The Mole Catch; I wonder if it is a standard mole trap or a bizarre contraption involving tuba soundwaves, or something else completely.

Ellie's friend Heather has also written to say she's drawn a page, so I'll be very curious to see it. Click here if you'd like to contribute to The Pickle! (You'll find submission guidelines on the first couple pages.)

More news, the fabulous Viviane Schwarz just got her first copy of her new book she made with Alexis Deacon. Hurrah! She made the book while we were still sharing a studio, so I got to see her drawing and cutting out lots of little bits of paper and sticking them together. I couldn't believe the way she'd make her roughs; she'd get a blank book cut to the right size and number of pages; then she'd take a permenant sharpie pen and just sit there and draw the whole book - right into the book with the sharpie pen - in about two hours. Of course, the other stuff took a lot of time, but I've never seen someone make roughs like that.



Go have a look at Viv's blog to find out more about A Place to Call Home, and other things like an amazing fish hat her mum in Germany knitted for her and general Schwarzville goodness.

Ha ha! It gets better! Following the last post, Viviane Schwarz right now is taking Vern and Lettuce out for lunch in Peckham, to one our favourite cafes. I told her that Vern likes watercress on his sandwich and Lettuce likes to drink ginger ale with lots of ice.

Ha ha! Best thing ever! I've been buried under an insane workload and freaking out a bit about deadlines, and the amazing Viviane Schwarz just sent me these photos!



It's Vern and Lettuce's tractor! And she found this fabric in the street, that looks just like farmland. How cool is that?



Here's the link if you want to download your own Vern and Lettuce tractor to print, colour and cut out.

This morning I finished off my contribution to the illustrators' game of Consequences that's been going on over on the Booktrust blog, organised by the fabulous Polly Dunbar. (Remember her and her penguin from my Wigtown post?)

The only thing is that I can't show you until it goes up on the Booktrust blog, so instead, I'll show you the one that went before me, by the supercalifragulistic Viviane Schwarz. (Have a look at the original Booktrust blog post here!) Viv's just just been given the packet by Alexis Deacon, who'd added his bit, after Polly drew on it, then Emily Gravett and Petr Horacek. So I walked over to Viviane's and she worked on it while I did a bit of sketching then took a catnap on her lovely new red sofa. Here are some photos I took of her drawing:


Viviane Schwarz



Ta-DAH! Here's Viv's finished drawing and all the drawings spread out and pieced together on her floor:




I'm sure you know Viviane's cat books, but she's also coming out with a graphic novel this spring with Walker Books called The Sleepwalkers. Oo, I just found a synopsis on the Waterstone's website:
Bad dreams just got good in this inventive and bold new graphic novel from Kate Greenaway shortlisted Viviane Schwarz. When you are afraid to fall asleep, when all your dreams are nightmares, write us a letter, put it under your pillow, we will rescue you...It is almost time for the old and tired Sleepwalkers to return to the waking world. But before they go, they must conjure and train three new replacements. For who else will look after the Sleepwalking House and be there to answer the call of a child frozen stiff with fear, trapped in a nightmare? This is the story of the new Sleepwalkers...Filled with action and adventure, and all things that go bump in the night, three brave new heroes tackle the weird and the wild in this uplifting and reassuring story about pulling together as a team and having the confidence to stand up to your fears. This is a striking new direction for Viviane Schwarz, shortlisted for the 2010 Kate Greenaway Prize. This is the perfect antidote to any child's worrisome, sleepless nights. Created in the classic tradition of comic books, this accessible format is ideal for newly-independent readers, and developing visual literacy.

The envelope is getting pretty shabby, but everyone's adding bits to it as well:





If you're as much a fan of Viv's work as me, don't miss her brilliant sounding event at the new Just Imagine storytelling centre in Chelsford, Essex (only a quick ride from central London by train, ten minutes' walk from Chelmsford station). Just Imagine will be getting a website, but for now you can find out about its events over on the Just Imagine Facebook page.



And the next person to take up the baton is the marvelous Ed Vere, who is also working with me and Neal Layton on Monsterville at Stratford's Discover centre. Good times!

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By Ulinka Rublack

I will never forget the day when a friend’s husband returned home to Paris from one of his business trips. She and I were having coffee in the huge sun-light living-room overlooking the Seine. We heard his key turn the big iron door. Next a pair of beautiful, shiny black shoes flew through the long corridor with its beautiful parquet floor. Finally the man himself appeared. “My feet are killing me!”, he exclaimed with a veritable sense of pain. The shoes were by Gucci.

We might think that these are the modern follies of fashion, which only now beset men as much as women. My friend too valued herself partly in terms of the wardrobe she had assembled and her accessories of bags, sunglasses, stilettos and shoes. She had modest breast implants and a slim, sportive body. They were moving to Dubai. In odd hours when she was not looking after children, going shopping, walking the dog, or jogging, she would write poems and cry.

Yet, surprisingly, neither my friend nor her husband would seem very much out of place at around 1450. Men wore long pointed Gothic shoes then, which hardly look comfortable and made walking down stairs a special skill. In a German village, a wandering preacher once got men to cut off their shoulder-long hair and slashed the tips of the pointed shoes. Men and women aspired to an elongated, delicate and slim silhouette. Very small people seemed deformed and were given the role of grotesque fools. Italians already wrote medical books on cosmetic surgery.

We therefore need to unlock an important historical problem: How and why have looks become more deeply embedded in how people feel about themselves or others? I see the Renaissance as a turning point. Tailoring was transformed by new materials, cutting, and sewing techniques. Clever merchants created wide markets for such new materials, innovations, and chic accessories, such as hats, bags, gloves, or hairpieces, ranging from beards to long braids. At the same time, Renaissance art depicted humans on an unprecedented scale. This means that many more people were involved in the very act of self-imaging. New media – medals, portraits, woodcuts, genre scenes – as well as the diffusion of mirrors enticed more people into trying to imagine what they looked like to others. New consumer and visual worlds conditioned new emotional cultures. A young accountant of a big business firm, called Matthäus Schwarz, for instance, could commission an image of himself as fashionably slim and precisely note his waist measures. Schwarz worried about gaining weight, which to him would be a sign of ageing and diminished attractiveness. While he was engaged in courtship, he wore heart-shaped leather bags as accessory. They were green, the colour of hope. Hence the meaning of dress could already become intensely emotionalized. The material expression of such new emotional worlds – heart-shaped bags for men, artificial braids for women, or red silk stockings for young boys – may strike us as odd. Yet their messages are all familiar still, to do with self-esteem, erotic appeal, or social advancement, as are their effects, which ranged from delight in wonderful crafting to worries that you had not achieved a look, or that someone just deceived you with their look. In these parts of our lives the Renaissance becomes a mirror which leads us back in time to disturb the notion that the world we live in was made in a modern age.

Ever since the Renaissance, we have had to deal with clever marketing as well as the vexing questions of what images want, and what we want from images, as well as whether clothes wear us or we wear them.

Ulinka Rublack is Senior Lecturer in early modern European history at Cambridge University and a Fellow of St John’s College. Her latest

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Hurrah for Viviane Schwarz! She's done it again!



Here's some video footage I shot at the launch party last Friday:

YouTube link

Thanks for hosting to the fabulous indie bookshop, Review, on Bellenden Road in Peckham. Go browse their stuff, that place is full of treasures!




Good launches require fancy hats.

Editor Lucy Ingram, Art Director Ben Norland

Writer and illustrator Alex Milway arrived with brand new Monster Books, which will be part of this coming weekend's Crystal Palace Children's Book Festival. (Don't miss Viviane's event!) Professional illustrators and kids have been making monsters, all published together! You can catch a glimpse of my monster here. Head over to the festival website to read interviews with participants, including the Etherington Brothers (Monkey Nuts) Gary Northfield (Beano's Derek the Sheep and loads more!



And I just have to show off my poster again, heh. THIS SATURDAY! Don't miss it!



Alex Milway has been a busy bee, not only making his editor Ben Norland stay the latest he's ever stayed at work, but planning the festival and writing articles for the Guardian! Here's his latest, about the importance of school visits. (Woohoo! He included my robot-sheep war with Neill Cameron!) Children's authors in schools: literature's road warriors


Happy reader at Library Mice

Thanks a million to the Library Mice book blog for such a wonderful, personalised review of Vern and Lettuce! Really chuffed! I love the bit about her husband wondering why he keeps seeing the book everywhere. Read it here!

And another huge thanks to Book Zone 4 Boys for your brilliant review! Thanks for getting the word out about Vern and Lettuce, I'm really proud of this one!

And I can't remember if I mentioned it already, but hurrah for Big Issue Scotland for your review. You guys rock!

Today I went with my parents, Stuart and Viviane Schwarz to see a place my mother had been wanting to visit, Wisley Gardens. I had no idea how HUGE those gardens are, and we struggled to get around them all in the blazing hot sun. But they're amazing, so many things to look at. (If you're coming from central London, take a train from Waterloo to Surbiton, then the very infrequent 515 bus to Wisley Gardens.)



I managed to catch photos of Viv doing some full-on tree hugging, thought they didn't come out too badly!





Here's my dad comparing gear with Pan.



My mother about to get eaten by a giant rhubarb:



And the crazy fish in the pond that freaked me out by actually SUCKING my fingers when I dipped them into the water. Talk about a weird sensation. They were practically crawling out of the pond, you can see them here half out of the water.



I'm going to take a break from my blog for a week or so while my parents are visiting, but then I'll sure I'll have lots to talk about. See you soon! (Lots of upcoming events listed here.)

On Monday, Alex Fitch from Panel Borders came to the studio to find out about the three of us who work at the Fleece Station. Gary Northfield had a meeting and couldn't be there, but Viviane Schwarz and I chatted happily to Alex about comics, picture books, gossip about Gary, and how we got together to find a studio, and you can hear it all here!



I've also posted my own very short interview with Viviane (who was messing about with boxes) over on the Fleece Station blog.

(Thanks for linking it, FPI blog.) :-) From last weekend in Cambridge, you can see sketches posted by Natalie d'Arbeloff, a review by Matthew Wivel, and a conference-inspired comic by Prozacville.

If you're interested in some Morris the Mankiest Monster activities, I've designed a couple pages where you can make your own monster, plus a 'Pin the Eyeball on the Monster' party game and a couple other fun sheets. You can download them here!
(Or here's the direct PDF link.)





Thanks for the fifteen or so concerned people who have contacted me about the Random House Children's Book site listing the illustrator to Morris as Nick Sharratt. I've complained four times to the publicist, editor, publisher and web guy, David Fickling has apologised twice, and apparently the website people live on a totally different planet and it's easier for me to change my name to Nick Sharratt than it is for the website to change the listing. So you can call me Nick now, it's a rather nice name, I suppose. The other Nick Sharratt is a fabulous illustrator and a lovely guy, maybe we can do a collaborative project now that we're called the same thing.

Hooray, I just turned in my picture book artwork! Yesterday I went up to Oxford and had two great meetings, one with David Fickling and my editor Hannah Featherstone, and the other at Oxford University Press with the editor and designer who have been working with me on this particular picture book: Helen Mortimer and Molly Dallas.

First, the exciting news from David Fickling: Morris the Mankiest Monster has almost completely sold out of its first print run!
I think Random House are rather astonished, since the trade in hardback books is kind of slow right now, but they're racing around making sure there will be more books printed up so people can buy it for Christmas gifts - Go go go! :-D Thanks to everyone who's bought copies and is making it a success, yay!!!
Edit: I've sold out of all my copies and I know the warehouse is empty, but I see you can still get some on Amazon.co.uk.

I'm moving on to three more projects with David Fickling, starting with something involving both books and comics and co-created with my fab friend and fellow comics jammer, David O'Connell. More about that soon! The other two projects involve Vern and Lettuce, which is really exciting because I've really missed that sheep and rabbit.


Molly and Helen at Oxford University Press

Moving on to OUP: So I can't say too much about the picture book, it won't come out til next autumn, and I still have to make the covers and do some hand lettering and spot illos, but it's going to be a rollicking great adventure story! Helen said I could give people a peek at one of the pages. I love this page because it's such a great example of collaborative work; I initially was having a hard time getting the look of this book just right, and in particular, really fighting with a drawing of a dinosaur. So I turned around to my studio mate Gary and said, 'Hey, can you draw me a dinosaur?' Without missing a beat, he scribbled something onto a post-it note in about five seconds, and whadya know... he nailed it! So I've been calling it 'Derek the Dinosaur', because it totally looks like Gary's sheep:

click to buy Derek!

That was a bit of a turning point in the book, things flowed much better after painting that page. Woodrow and Viv have also given me some great pointers and book loans and I'm so grateful because, at the end, it's not about how much I've done, but how good the book is. And it's way better for having really talented people around during its creation process. Thanks, Woodrow, Gary, Viv, Helen and Molly!

Edit: Don't miss today's radio interview with Viviane and me! 5pm on Resonance 104.4 FM, streamed at www.resonancefm.com and podcast soon after at Panel Borders:

Alex Fitch sums it up: Strip! - Banal Pigs and Constabulary Sheep
Concluding this month's series of shows on 'collectives and anthologies', we're looking at two very different animal themed collectives. In an interview recorded at this year's Small Press Expo in Bristol, Dickon Harris talks to Steve Tillotson and Gareth Brookes about their self published comics, including The Manly Boys Annual, Can I borrow your toilet and The Banal Pig Landscape anthology; while in an interview recorded in the Old Police Station, Deptford, Alex Fitch talks to Sarah McIntyre and Viviane Schwartz, who illustrate books for children and share a studio with Beano artist Gary Northfield that they affectionately call The Fleece Station...

Hurrah, the studio I share with Gary Northfield and Viviane Schwarz is officially warmed!




In the morning, Viv and I baked cupcakes and made sheep heads and legs, with Alexis Deacon inspecting them for quality. Gary was putting together our music play list and chipped in with the icing when we arrived at the studio






David O'Connell and James Petrie approved of the cupcakes.


Architect Barnaby Gunning and his family were some of the first people to show up. Barnaby's the dude who helped us find our studio, and he spearheaded the 'Save the DFC' campaign. His kids amazed us with their knowledge of comics, and we thought he had the coolest parents ever... their dad's building a real house entirely built of LEGO!

The Yorkshire guys won the prize for coming the furthest for the party: Hugh Raine (shug_comics) and Darryl Cunningham (tallguywrites)

Hugh, Al Maceachern and runner-up for distance (Brighton) Joe Decie (joedecie) Thanks for making the trip, guys!


Joe, Akanksha Awal, writer (and sometimes illustrator) Fiona Dunbar, Darryl and the James Turner (Super Animal Adventure Squad in the DFC)


Comics reviewer Matt Badham (hey Matt, where did you blog go?), comics artists Francesca Cassavetti (visiting with her rock star partner Nicky Tesco), David Baillie and Dan Lester.
And writer (and British SCBWI webmaster Candy Gourlay drawing a sheep on our blackboard. That board was looking fab!


Creator of Good Dog, Bad Dog from the DFC Dave Shelton and Cartoon Museum artist-in-residence Mark Stafford. Comix Influx's Stephen Betts checking out the cells with Mark, photographer Anna Mondo and designer Rian Hughes.


Akanksha and James having a thumb war (John Aggs (DFC's John Blake) and designer Peter Stanbury in the background)


Comics guru Paul Gravett, illustrator Heather Kilgour and her web designer partner


Candy, me and Fiona (you can see a little of the dress I bought on my way to Viv's house to make cupcakes)


Painter and printmaker Ashley Fitzgerald (who, with his partner Helen, was a huge help to us moving into the studio)


Gary looking way cool at the bar with our sheep dip punchbowl. We had Barnaby's kids helps us add some chocolate-covered raisins to the punch to look like sheep poo, but after a few hours, the bits of chocolate floated off and gave the drink a pond-scum look that made ellenlindner wince but drink up bravely.

Here's Viviane Schwarz reading from her brilliant cat book!



Isn't it the most beautiful and simply ingenious book you ever saw? And I love listening to the way she reads! (Wait, Viv, how did you do that underwater voice??) Here's her blog post about it, everyone, go leave a comment for her!

And very excitingly, Viv's going to be sharing a studio with me, starting this August! And the other awesome person we are going to share with, Gary Northfield, just had his Derek the Sheep book taken up by Booktrust's Booked Up reading scheme. Two million kids will get to choose one free book from a stack of twelve... I bet they'll all go for Derek, heh heh! I feel sorry for the other eleven people whose books were chosen that don't have any pictures, they can't compete with a sheep going crackers.