Apr
Uncategorized
Mar
16
The Snatchabook Pops Up in Hackney
The Snatchabook and I had lots of fun visiting Harrington Hill and Orchard Primary Schools in Hackney last week through Pop Up. We acted out the story to music composed by Gerry Smith (see the Resources page of my website), and pretended to be Eliza Brown and the Snatchabook. There were lots of great dragons, witches, pirates and princesses, too!
Mar
16
Inspiring Reading in Young Children: Lambeth Early Years Conference
Last week, I was invited to give the keynote speech at an Early Years conference on reading at the Oval, London. The theme of my talk was the importance of reading aloud to children every day – in my opinion, the best way to inspire in them a lifelong love of stories, and to motivate them to read. I started by reading The Snatchabook, and many of the delegates (all teachers and Early Years practitioners) told me how nice it was to be read to, for a change! My talk also touched on another subject that is close to my heart: diversity in picture books. In the afternoon, I led workshops on practical ideas for using books in the classroom, and how to build a classroom library.
I had a wonderful time meeting so many committed teachers who share my passion for reading and for books. Infant school teachers (and librarians) have such an important job: inspiring the next generation of readers.
Feb
22
Do You Remember? comes out!
My new book, Do You Remember? was launched in half term week in Oystermouth Library, Mumbles, with the support of Cover to Cover bookshop. It was brilliant to hear everyone’s stories of the first time they did different things – from riding a bike to sleeping in a campervan!
Later in the week, I had lots of fun reading and signing books in Griffin Books, Penarth.
Feb
02
Fantastic Abracazebra wall display by Ruby Class at Braybrook Primary, Peterborough
I had a wonderful time visiting Braybrook and Woodston primary schools in Peterborough through Pop Up Projects. This beautiful wall picture had been created by Ruby Class (Year 1) at Braybrook primary, bringing Abracazebra to life. The children (and staff!) in both schools had put in a lot of work before my visit, creating invitations to Abraczebra’s magic show and profiles of Goat and Abracazebra. We all had lots of fun on the day, too!
Dec
08
Abracazebra shortlisted!
We’re very happy that Abracazebra has been shortlisted for the Bishop’s Stortford Picture Book Award. The winning book will be voted for by primary and secondary school children, and announced on February 10th 2016.
Nov
05
Watch Abracazebra on CBeebies Bedtime Stories!
Click on the image to watch Aaron McCusker read Abracazebra on CBeebies iPlayer (UK only – sorry!)
Oct
14
Fantastic turnout for Storyopolis workshop: An Adventure at Sea
Tom and I had lots of fun leading the first public Storyopolis workshop in Swansea on Saturday 10 October: An Adventure at Sea.
We were joined by over 40 enthusiastic young local story-writers. They all put a huge amount of effort into producing their very own book to take home, complete with illustrations and an “About the Author” feature on the back cover!
The space we used, at the Volcano Theatre premises on Swansea High Street, was perfect for our workshop (we even had a Dalek watching over us!).
Many thanks to Tim Batcup of Storyopolis and Claude Conway of Volcano for organising and facilitating this event…. hopefully the first of many.
Sep
16
Abracazebra in Ireland
We had a wonderful time meeting Piotr Bujak (shown here with his wife, Laima) in Ireland. Piotr adapted Abracazebra for stage as part of the Abhainn Ri festival in Callan, Co. Kilkenny, this summer. He showed us a video of some highlights from the show, which was performed by adults with learning difficulties. It looked fantastic, and such an achievement for all involved!
Piotr has since established a new theatre company, with our blessing: Abracazebra, Theatre for Everyone
Jul
