Feb - From Portugal to Las Vegas to my Local Libraries
Hi all!
I’ll keep this post super short as I’ve still got a bunch of things to do today, including drawing a picture for a competition winner, drawing a picture for childhood friend and a surprise drawing for a friend’s birthday. Feb is always a busy month in the book world. We have the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and World Book Week to prepare for. Plus, my book deadlines always seem to land in Feb!
Signing copies of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at Speenhamland School is Newbury a few days ago.
Because of this, I haven’t managed to find time to add any new activities to my website. I am hoping to record a ‘How to Draw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ this month. This year marks Chitty’s 60th birthday, and I am keen to do something special to contribute towards the celebrations!
Today is my first proper ‘day off’ in over a month, so this blog post will read like a rushed journal entry. It’s sunny outside but I’m determined to clear my ‘to do’ list, and writing Feb’s blog update is on that list.
One of the favourite parts of my job is getting to travel and meet all sorts of lovely people who are passionate about picture books. I’ve always said that I think picture books are the most powerful form of literature, so it was great to have the opportunity to speak before an audience of teachers about how picture books can be used in the classroom as a tool to help awaken the creative potential of children. Most of what I said came from teachers. I gave my plenary at APPINEP’s 25th Anniversary Seminar on Teaching and Developing at the Politecnico De Leiria in the beautiful city of Leiria in Portugal.
The day before, I visited the pre-school Centro Social Parochial dos Pousos where I was greeted with a huge Rainbowsaurus banner, created by the pupils. The whole school performed their Rainbowsaurus song with singing and dance moves. They even baked Rainbowsaurus shaped cookies! It was lovely to meet all the teachers there (photo below).
A little later in the month I found myself in Clark County Library in Las Vegas. The library service included Please Mr Panda in their top 100 recommended reads for pre-schoolers, which is part of a free program to get more kids reading. While there I drew them a picture of Mr Panda for their library. I also took Mr Panda on a whistle stop tour of the colourful city.
Closer to home I ran a creative workshop in the centre of a shopping mall with the charity, Swindon Story Shed. I also spent a morning at the charity, Croft Playgroup. There I read some of the books from my Cat Nap series, which is aimed at toddlers.
I ran a creative workshop in Swindon Central Library for a group of 20 teenagers who entered an art competition. This is something I do annually as part of the Swindon Youth Festival of Literature which is run by Swindon’s Secondary School Librarians (I drew all of the librarians in my front cover illustration for the 2024 spring edition of the School Library Association’s quarterly magazine, TSL - The School Librarian. Speaking of which, I’ve literally just finished the cover illustration for this spring’s edition. Again, it features a real-life school librarian. I also read a few stories and drew some pictures at Beechcroft Community Library. I plan on returning later this year.
Below are some photos from Feb, including a couple taken at my friend, Patrice Lawrence’s, book launch for her new book, People Like Stars.
That’s all for now!
I’ll hopefully be able to update my site with more school and library activities this month. I hope you all have a fantastic World Book Day! I’m all packed and ready for a week of school visits.
Stay creative!
Steve
