Festival of Children’s Literature Birmingham November 9th
I am very chuffed and proud to be part of The Federation of Children’s Book Groups Festival of Children’s Literature in Birmingham on November the 9th. It is a starry sparkly day to celebrate the joy of reading, with a distinctly theatrical flavour.
My workshop event is based on Bubble & Squeak, the book I collaborated with James Mayhew on, who is also appearing at the Festival. I wanted it to be something special: I think this is my most ambitious project yet…
I have sourced the most beautiful ribbons,
and buttons,
and paper with a theatrical feel (I’m thinking old Drury Lane here)…
I’ve made tiny red velvet curtains,
and found miniature fairy lights – how lovely!
Then the tricky part, turning plain white matchboxes into mini theatres, with an opening for the stage and another at the side for the actors…
Finally, a cast! A Bubble and a Squeak, a Yo-Yo to bring ices during the interval, plus a couple of blanks for the young artists to come up with ideas of their own:
And there it is – all ready for the children to roll up their sleeves and get busy and inventive with pens and glue and scissors.
I’ll be drawing and reading from the book too, and this is the greatest treat for me. Bubble and Squeak are the most easy-to-love characters, the story so charming, the author so brilliant. That was a happy day, when the idea came to James in a thought bubble (!) over his head.
And a massive HIP HIP HOORAY for Zoe at playing by the book who has worked tirelessly, encouragingly and cheerfully to get this festival up on it’s feet.
Bravo, Zoe!
So roll up, take a seat, and have an ice cream from Yo-Yo’s little cart – any flavour you like – complements of the Bubble & Squeak show!
Could I please have three scoops: one honeycomb, one devon clotted cream, one madagascan vanilla, please? Perhaps with just a little bit of drizzly melted chocolate over the top?
Fortunately VERY near to the Festival of Children’s Literature, and by that I mean less that 50 metres away, there is a genuine icecream parlour where we could all go to celebrate afterwards….. Or perhaps takeaways will be in order? Hmm, I think I have a new thing to put on the final jobs-to-do for November 9!
What a dreamy ice cream you’ve ordered – coming right up!
I think that’s a grand plan, yes please… let’s hope they deliver in a small stripy cart pushed along by a sausage dog…X
Wow, my fingers are itching to play, especially with ribbons and fairy lights. Do you know Michelle Cartlidge’s books? When I was a child every time the Red House Post had one of her activity books my mum would buy me one and we’d make the lovely models. One was a book of matchbox scenes, I remember one opened up to be a doll’s house, another a Punch and Judy show. Your little theatres reminded me of them, I think I looked after them and kept them for quite a while. And now of course I’ve had to go and look her up online and have discovered all her more recent books that I would love to have.
Thank you for calling by and for your lovely message, Katherine! I don’t know those books, so now I am rushing to look too. What a special memory, making models with your mum. It sounds as if we love the same things (I guessed that already…) X
🙂 I thought you’d go and have a look!