Doodling on the radio is it really possible?

Do not be fooled. I will stop at nothing to get you doodling... I even attempted a radio doodle last week.

Myself and Gráinne Clear attempted a Live Christmas Doodling workshop on RTE Junior's Little Pages Programme yesterday morning. We even got a mention on Tubridy last Thursday.  Ryan called it  'The nations first live doodle! Thinking outside the box...' Thanks Ryan!

Our interactive-doodling and doodle dinodeers left a tail of glitter all over the RTE radio studio. And if you missed it don't worry you can now down load it On The RTE Junior Page.

So is it really possible? Please send in some of your photos of your doodle to info@childrenslaureate.ie so we can see! 

Monster Illustrations at The Ark

As part of Telling Tall and Tiny Tales at The Ark, Dublin and as the Children's Laureate I was given a free reign at a GIGANTIC ILLUSTRATION WORKSHOP aided and abetted my three illustrators friends: Steve Simpson, Marie Louise Fitzpatrick and Michael Emberley to help create Monster pictures with children last weekend. 

We used huge rolls of canvas and acrylics to create huge panels that will be made into a giant picture book. The theme was Leggit! We created various creatures including hedgehogs, fish, Skeleton Detectives and Chesseburger eating robots legging it after each other.

Amazing creativity burst forth. I particularly loved the brainstorming session with Steve and the 10-12 year olds... And the limited palette of Ikea really suited the robot piece! 

On the Road featured on Today with Pat Kenny!

Kim Harte, Dubray Children’s Book Buyer and Siobhan Parkinson, author and Laureate na nÓg, were on Today with Pat Kenny this morning to talk about their favourite Christmas books for children.

Picture books got a great mention, Kim featured three Walker Books authors who are all Irish! Myself, Chris Haughton and Kevin Waldron.

I was really delighted get a mention, Kim described On The Road with Mavis and Marge as "Hilarious; it's the Thelma and Louise story with a cow and a chicken!"

So if you are looking for the perfect Christmas present go have a look at all the books Kim and Siobhan recommended at www.kim-harte.com. There's books for all ages, so no excuses! The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness is amazing, a must have for teenagers. Go have a listen back here, fast forward to 1.37.

Go forth and buy BOOKS! Books for Christmas!

Books, Books, BOOKS!