BookFest Fever!

It's Book Festival time! I am the official Book Festival Illustrator. For this year’s poster competition CBI are asking you to come up with a name for the book-eating monster who appears on the Children’s Book Festival poster. You could win some fantastic prizes for your school or library! Enter here!

For my BookFest tour dates I'll be visiting libraries in Dublin and Cork this year. I am also one of the illustrators exhibiting at Images Beyond Borders, a new exhibition of illustrations from children’s literature, featuring work by Irish and Austrian illustrators. It is the result of an exciting collaboration between the Irish children’s books laureate, Laureate na nÓg, Siobhán Parkinson, and the Austrian Embassy, and will run for three weeks. The exhibition of orignal art including the Book Eating Monster opens at The No Grants Gallery in Temple Bar this Friday at 7pm. Info here.

Bookfest Fever!

What a week, Wednesday was Laundry at FilmBase. Here's me with my little devil, I mean my little brother Fergus at the opening night.

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Then it was off for the last of my Bookfest events, I travelled to so many places this month and thanks to all you doodlers out there, now hundreds of Mavis and Marge's are now free to wander.

Here's me in action doing my step-by-step how to draw Marge the chicken...

Here's are a few we did earlier...

Wowsers!

Brillo!

Fantastic!

People of Ireland I have to tell you to go visit your local Library, they are so brilliant. I had a mobile library in Swords that came once a week when I was a kid, and I thought that library was awesome.

But check out Abbeyleix Library,

they have a Gallery (which we took over...)

and a dedicated Children's floor. How amazing is that!

It was so wonderful to meet such dedicated teachers and librarians over the past couple of weeks. It makes a huge difference to an author when you arrive to be met with a friendly face and kids who are genuinely excited to meet you. Everyone gets so much more out of the event.

The children made the festival for me. I loved the way they take ownership of the author who visits, they truely make it into their Book Festival.

Hope to see you again next year!

From the other side of the ocean

Book festival fever is world wide this October! There are some great webcasts of authors reading and talking about their work on the The Library of Congress website. If you have a moment check out David Shannon and Jon Scieszka's one, it's wonderful and very funny :-)

My workshop went great on Monday, painting the mural for Lucan Library with Lucan Educate Together School. If you are in the area run in to look it is called Book Bugs watch out for them!

Book Festival Fever!

Oh today is so, so rainy in Dublin. Yesterday was blue skies all the way. Today it is like a shock to the system. I love autumn but the wooly scarf wearing running through leaves autumn. Not the rainy, or the cold damp kind. But sure to cheer myself up I spent my tea cuppa time this morning reading the FREE Bookfest catalogue.

October is Bookfest in Ireland and there are great things going on around the country. Check out Children's Books Ireland for events in your locality. I will be appearing in Lucan, Balbriggan and Baldoyle Libraries for starters!

CBI has also set up an online home Write Stuff for the CBI author residences to showcase the work of the children participating in the workshops. Which is brilliant!

So as I listen to the rain pelting on the window of my attic I have to smile as I try to remember where are my wellies!

This is the first morning that I'm off duty! I have been doing lots of Library visits as part of The Bookfest. Yesterday I was in Balbriggan and on Tuesday I was in Malahide. Top photo is from Slane Library fromlast week. Bottom photo is from Malahide after reading and drawing we sat down to watch The Ravenous Beast on DVD its an animation made by King Rollo Films.
I have also been designing the Trocaire Christmas Cards which I delivered on Monday so watch out for them I will post up the images soon.

BookFest Fever!!!

I've been running about from Library to Library doing workshops as part of Children's Books Ireland Bookfest for the past two days! The children were amazing...and the teachers and librarians too.
I was made feel very welcome in Ashbourne, Duleek and Slane Libraries. Thank you to all the children who came along and doodled with me.
I am off to France on Friday to do more childrens' workshops! I have been learning French for the past few months myself by CD. I think it will be very funny giving my workshops in french I hope they understand me!
Here are a few photos from Ashbourne Library from yesterday taken by Joe Fannning.