New book!

My newest book, 'The Gingerbread Man' is now out!
You can grab a copy in time for Xmas by following this link;

http://www.thecepress.com/product/the-gingerbread-man/

YAY!

Just heard that my book - 'Little Red Riding Hood....' Has made it through to the finals of the People's Book Prize!
Very many thanks to anyone who voted for it.

NEWS!

Sorry for the scarcity of posts of late - have been extremely busy with lots of exciting new projects - more news to follow.
The big news is that my book 'Little Red Riding Hood...' has been shortlisted for an award! I would really appreciate it if you would consider voting for it.







http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/book.php?id=1437




Many thanks.

EXCITED!

As I type this my book has gone to print! It should be available to buy in a couple of weeks at the most. Fingers crossed we manage to sell some! 

Don't worry. As soon as I know the link I'll post it!

bears & cityscapes 2

The y1's have been reading 'Peace at Last' by Jill Murphy. So we decided to have a go at drawing bears - they did a 'before' picture and then with some simple guidance as to shapes they created some much more recognisable images.

They then used clay to sculpt some semi-relief bears, using similar shapes.

The y6's have followed up their James Rizzi inspired sketches with 3d card models. We've decided the next step is to create them in clay! we might even go so far as to create slab containers and paint them in a 'James Rizzi' style!!

little red riding hood

Have just listed copies of my unique, innovative book in my Etsy shop. Decided to get it out there before someone else comes up with a similar idea and am tired of waiting for a very slow response from the real publishing world. No wonder book publishers are being left behind and struggling to combat electronic alternatives- they are still working to an incredibly slow model that was fine a few years ago but doesn't even go near the mustard these days, let alone cut it!

I feel better for that! Please tell your friends to snap up a copy in time for Christmas - it will be the best stocking filler at pocket money prices that they will buy this year!! It's a story book, colouring book and a find the 'hidden' mouse book all rolled into one!!!

artwork auction

Snapped a few of the celeb artworks that are in the auction that runs alongside the art exhibition this week. These are by Jacqueline Wilson, Bob Hoskins,Frankie Dettori, Korky Paul and Jan Pienkowski - can you guess who created which one? (No prizes!).

art week 1

Been trying to do lots of art this week - in between all the other frantic end of year stuff. The overall theme for the week is 'Line, shape & pattern' which hopefully gives all the staff quite a loose rein to cover a very wide range of stuff.
My class started off by looking at Picasso's use of line, in that he conveys and represents a recognisable image using the minimum of marks, often in the form of a continous line. Here's one of the children's pics;




Today we looked at Paul Klee and his mix of line and shape.We used watercolours to paint images in his style - these are looking very promising;

The idea is to, next week, hold a week-long exhibition of pieces created by the whole school. We're going for quality rather than trying to display every single piece by every single child. Hopefully serves as a bit of an incentive/pride thing.

Alongside the exhibition we are also holding a 'running auction' of celebrity 'artworks'. Several months ago I 'invited' over 100 celebs, film stars, sports & TV personalities to send in artwork based around the letter 'H'. Why the letter 'H' ? Because the proceeds from the auction will go to the charity 'Help for Heroes'. I've managed to get 20 pieces from: Korky Paul, Jan Pienkowski, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Bob Hoskins, Bernard Cribbins, Frankie Dettori to name just a few. Some are real works of art, some are doodles, but all are unique! Hopefully they should raise a bob or two. Might post some images up later in the week. If I was a bit more technically minded perhaps I could have listed them online at the same time thereby inviting internet bids. Never mind, maybe next time.

Phew- back to report writing!

further thoughts!

Have just been pondering how the concept of multiple imagery could be developed and have hit on the idea that you could publish books that have four stories in them linked around a common theme. If you held the book a certain way then one storyline would unfold whereas rotated 90 degrees, a different narrative could be read. I think this has fantastic collaborative possibilities where 4 different authors + an illustrator could weave wonderful stories within the same book. Linked, but at the same time completely separate (unless of course the stories merged!). Such a book would be fascinating for younger readers. It's not beyond the realms of possibility to have collaboration between past and present authors or even have four different language speaking authors narrating themed stories within the same book. I hereby (!) claim all intellectual rights to this idea!! Publishers why are you not leaping at the chance to license this idea from me ?! Imagine, only one set of printing costs instead of four. Think of the possibility of overseas sales without the need for translation! Admittedly the authors/illustrator would only get 20% of the royalties each instead of 50%, but the mega sales such a book would generate would easily compensate.
Yes, other books have run two stories side by side on opposing pages but I've never heard of 4 at the same time, on the same page.
I might try this in class with the children collaborating around specific themes/illustrations.
Again, any thoughts would be most welcome. Am I just having a senior moment or is this possibly the best idea to hit children's (or adult) literature since...

(This must be a brilliant idea - it's the longest blog entry I've ever posted !)