I got home from Edinburgh on Friday night: what a wild week! But now it's back to some proper work. I really have to get on with Bears on the Stairs.
I got those first pieces nearly done before I left, but not quite. I generally allow 1.5 days per spread for pastelling the artwork, so my aim is to get the endpapers and cover finished off and do another 3 spreads by this time next week. This should be manageable if I don't get too sidetracked. I show you pics later, to let you know how it's going. 
In the meantime, these are a few shots from the festival. Unfortunately, my camera battery died during the first event, so this is all I got! These are all me with Peter Bently, author of A Lark in the Ark.
One funny anecdote before I leave you to get on with some work:
I had to be miked-up for the events, and during the Stinky! storytelling, I kept inadvertently getting too close to the speakers at the stage-side and causing feedback. At the end, as people were leaving, one little boy was standing by the side of the stage looking confused and troubled. His dad said he was very disappointed - he couldn't work out why he couldn't make the big noise by getting too close to the speakers!
Hello! I am at this moment sitting in the Author's Yurt at the Edinburgh Festival. It's a big tent, sort of a cross between an igloo and a tepee, where we can hang out between events. There is coffee (and wine!) on tap and they even supply freebie sandwiches.
My events are now all done. They went really well and I'm having a lovely time. It was great fun working with Peter Bently and Julia Jarman again - our sessions together were chaotic but hilarious (no real rehearsal time, as we live at opposite ends of the country).
I have been looked after really well by my publishers, who took me out for gorgeous meals the last couple of evenings (thanks guys!). I've been to a talk by Ian Rankin, and another by the wonderful Gerald Scarfe. For the first time ever, I met Simon Puttock, author of Big Bad Wolf is Good and I also sat in on the storytelling by my good friend Lydia Monks.
It's been REALLY windy and because the whole thing is done from inside tents, it feels like we could all be whisked away at any moment! It's mostly not rained in the end, but then the skies opened this morning, which of course gets rather noisy on the tent roof when you are reading stories! But the sun has just come out, so I think I will wander into town and see what is happening at the Fringe. Just got to sample another sandwich first...
Some random books from the shelves this week. Hope you find something that you and your children will enjoy!
Shark in the Dark, written by Peter Bently and illustrated by Ben Cort is adorable, literally, from cover to cover. The front cover features a cut-out that appears a shark is going to come right through, out at the reader and the text inside is filled with cute rhymes about how this shark scares all the little fish. When the shark meets someone even bigger than he is, a fish that wants to eat HIM, the shark begins to think a little differently about how he treats fish smaller than he is.
Cute, rhyming text, bright, bold illustrations, and a cute plot make for a great read aloud. Not too scary for the little ones, I promise!
Shark in the Dark
Peter Bently
32 pages
Picture Book
Walker Books
9780802798411
May 2009
The Frogs and Toads All Sang is a brand new collection of short little stories by the infamous Arnold Lobel, with color by Adrienne Lobel. The stories, discovered by his daughter, are as lovely and sweet as anything else you've ever read by Lobel, accompanied by familiar, soft illustrations, perfect for bedtime reading.
I felt comfort while reading this book, as it definitely reminded me of my childhood reading of Lobel's work. Frog and Toad will always be hits!
The Frogs and Toads All Sang
Arnold Lobel
32 pages
Picture Book
HarperCollins
9780061800221
May 2009
Maggie's Monkeys, written by Linda Sanders-Wells and illustrated by Abby Carter, is my laugh-out-loud pick of the week. Your kids will be giggle throughout each reading of this adorable book, filled with realistic characters (that I'm sure you're children can relate to!).
When little Maggie declares there are pink monkeys living in the refridgerator, everyone in her family, except for her older brother, is very kind to the "monkeys." Dad puts a "do not disturb" sign on the door, older sister helps Maggie make clothes for the imaginary monkeys, but her older brother is insistant that everyone is just crazy!!
A very cute read, perfect for storytimes, with bright illustrations and an adorable plot!
Maggie's Monkeys
Linda Sanders-Wells
32 pages
Picture Book
Candlewick
9780763633264
April 2009
Finally, Ballyhoo Bay, written by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Derek Anderson, is my do-good choice of the week! It's a sweet story of kids and animals teaming up together to save their beloved beach when highrise apartment buildings are said to be in the works.
Though maybe a bit of a complex plot topic for the younger kiddos, the older ones will certainly understand, and the illustrations are so bold and bright, they'll easily hold the younger ones' attention. Plus it's by Judy Sierra! Ya gotta read it!
Recommended for storytimes and for library shelves.
Ballyhoo Bay
Judy Sierra
40 pages
Picture Book
Simon & Schuster
9781416958888
February 2009
Peter and I were on at 10am - nice to get it done early. I got to meet his lovely family too (hello there!). Egmont had printed us some Lark in the Ark T-shirts to wear - what do you think?
There are even llamas in pyjamas on the back (these are in my garden - I forgot to take any photos on the day - duh!):
In keeping with the rain theme, we also had umbrellas and wore wellies. The projection worked really well. Peter read the story, choosing children to open the flaps, then I drew some of the animals for them to guess (I threw in the odd one that wasn't in the book too, to trick them, like kippers in flippers and giraffes in scarfs). Then the kids drew their own animals in silly outfits. We got them to call out suggestions before they started. One boy said 'an elephant with underpants on his head', so almost every drawing included underpants somewhere!
We finished with a song: changing the words of Old MacDonald Had a Farm, to 'Old Man Noah had an ark'. The kids enjoyed trying to work out what noises llamas, pandas etc made.
After Peter and I had done a bit of book signing, I sat in on a similar storytelling session by the wonderful illustrator Korky Paul. I'm always curious to see what other people do. He had the great idea of drawing portraits of the children, but as dinosaurs. He also used a splash of watercolour on the flip chart, which worked surprisingly well.
He read them The Fish Who Could Wish and got them designing fish. I scrawmed around on the floor with them, trying to capture what I could:
Before heading home, I was given some lunch tokens and, amazingly, ended up eating with none other than Micheal Morpurgo, a previous Children's Laureate. He was really lovely and chatted to me easily, as though I was his equal (as if!), then headed off to do his talk, to 800 people, while I headed back to the station.
I spent a good part of the journey chatting and drawing with this lad and his mum (hello Adam! - your email address didn't work by the way) and time flew by.
Hay Festival is historically rather unlucky with the weather. It is generally a mass of mud, and wellies are essential packing. This year was miles better though, and my 2 days were scorchers.
Which was great, because it's basically a network of large tents and wooden walkways, surrounding a number of big, lawned squares. The grass was covered in people between events, laid out or in deckchairs, all of them feverishly reading books. Wonderful sight!
Because of my delays, I had no time to check in at the hotel. A car took me straight to the site where I dumped my suitcase and dashed to see Philip Ardagh, the larger than life and dramatically bearded author of The Grubtown Tales. Very funny. It's so interesting to watch other people's events for children, to compare approach.
My next event of the afternoon was Micheal Deeley (producer of The Italian Job, The Deer Hunter & Bladerunner, amongst others) who was really interesting and told some great anecdotes. I now know Micheal Caine's 'idea' at the end of The Italian Job - there had to be one, so there was potential for a sequel! Any suggestions?
Another fascinating talk was Anthony Horowitz, who I knew for his Alex Rider stories, but who is also the screen writer of most British TV crime, including Midsummer Murders, Poirot and Foyles War. We got to see a sneak preview of the new series of Foyles War, which looks rather dramatic, and his new 5-day drama, Collision.
I met up with Peter Bently, to chat about our Lark in the Ark event next morning, and suss out the space. Then we did a spot of people-watching in the greenroom (basically another big tent, but with free wine and comfy chairs), where we were within feet of both Kate Adie and The Archbishop of Canterbury (what a combo).
Quite a full day, all in all. I went out like a light when I finally got to my hotel that night.
I've just spent 2 days glued to the computer (at least the weather's been so awful, it's not felt too bad). It's all to do with A Lark in the Ark...
When Peter Bently and I perform it at Hay Festival (May 29th) and Edinburgh Festival (August), we are going to project the illustrations as we read. Apart from looking really good, this will be really useful: it's nice to go into the audience and choose children to open the flaps, but it's tricky for anyone else to see what's underneath. This way, each time a flap is lifted, everyone gets to see it.
But the trouble with flap books, is that none of the artwork makes any sense outside of the book, so I couldn't just load my existing illustrations into PowerPoint, ready for projection. For example, there is a page that looks like the one above. You lift a flaps on the duvet to reveal baboons in pink pantaloons hiding in the bed:
...along with llamas in pyjamas:
Except, what I actually drew was this:
...and this:
So, I had to re-visit every illustration in Photoshop, joining all the bits together, turning them into images that match what you see when you are reading the real book. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered another issue: when you open a flap in a book, and it goes across someone's face, well, that's fine, but for a projected image I thought it would look weird:
So, perfectionist (or obsessive?) that I am, I did more fiddling around, moving background characters out of the way:
While I was at it, I moved some of the eyes, and even pasted in this wee wombat to fill a pregnant space created!
It's all done now (phew) and looks really fun. Egmont are going to print us T-shirts for the event, and we are going to use my 'doctored' version of the llamas in pyjamas on the back! I think Hay is now fully booked. I'll post details of the Edinburgh event in a few weeks.
One funny anecdote before I leave you to get on with some work:
And then a detail surprises you! (The boy and the noise)
Like a spark of raw imagination!
cheers!
Yes, kids have such uninhibited minds, they come out with all sorts: I showed my sketchbook during the event, including a sketch of John sleeping, and laughingly told the audience that he liked to sleep. A little girl shouted out 'My Daddy likes to sleep too'.