• Thursday afternoon I visited Ysgol Emmanual, in Rhyl. This was organised by the Family learning group session.

    Melyndra Standring, who organised the event, and kindly looked after me, was hoping we may get twenty families signed up. It’s easy to get a class of children to come and sit down and listen to a story, but it’s quite different to get the children to organise parents and carers to come into school for the afternoon. By Wednesday morning, we were fearing the worst and thought that we would only have about ten families.

    We were greeted at the school by a happy Bernadette Thomas who informed us that seventy five families were coming! Duh! Melyndra didn’t have enough paperwork and had to quickly photocopy some more forms! I had met quite a few of the children on previous visits to Rhyl Library and their teachers had reminded them and shown them the drawings I had done for them before. I think that preparation was the cause of such a success.

    When all the forms were filled in and everyone was settled down, I told the Rudyard Kipling Just So Story of How the Whale got His Tale, that I’ve revised and re illustrated. Then I got everyone to have a go at drawing the whale – adults too! They were fabulous drawings. Many of the adult’s told me they hadn’t done any drawing since they left school – such a shame, and one of the reasons I do my drawing school.. I think adults are scared of drawing and making a fool of themselves but, like any other skill, they just need someone to show them how.

    It was a very special afternoon for me, seeing all the families joining in – there were quite a few dads there too, which is quite unusual. Well done kids for nagging the grown-ups and getting them organised and into school for the afternoon. Grown-ups can be such hard work sometimes – eh?

    Thanks to everyone who finally got this session organised. It was quite a few months in the making. Good luck with the rest of the project and have a great day out for all those who last the course!

    (Jelly fish was on the beach. I forgot to take and photos of the event!)

  • I had a terrific start to a long week of school visits at St. Aidan’s Church of England Primary School, where I didn’t take a pictures or video! (I overheard a wonderful story in the staff room that involved dolls that gave me all sorts of ideas that I had to write down, but I’m not telling in case anyone else gets the idea!)

    I spent the whole day telling stories and drawing pictures and having a great time. Reception did some fabulous drawings with me too. I love how young children draw. Sometimes their misreading of where a line should go is quite inspiring and makes me think about drawing differently.

    Thanks for a great day everyone and I hope toy don’t have anything else blowing off the roof of the church, next door!

  • I had a great day on Wednesday. St Oswald’s School, Longton, Nr Preston, asked me to come and officially open their new library. At a time when so many libraries are under threat is is heartening to know there are still people who recognise the importance of Libraries and do something about it.

    Lynette Little certainly has been hard at work with help from some of the children. The space used to be an outdoor passage, but it has been roofed and walled in and turned into a haven of calm. A huge fish tank hovers in the corner like the engine of the Tardis, ready to transport readers to other times and places.

    There was a huge display of drawing, inspired by my drawing school. You can see them in the video. They are all fab and wonderful to see how children interpret my lessons. I particularly like the Ferrari.

    Oh… and cakes in the Staff Room! Delicious! I particularly liked the lemon drizzle.

    Thanks for a wonderful day everyone and I hope you all use and enjoy your wonderful new library and all the fabulous new books.