Eamon puts Mavis and Marge on stage!

Sé O'Donoghue sent me these amazing photos of his son Eamon who had to pick his favorite story book and make a model of it to bring in to class. Sé said Eamon spent the whole day reading, drawing and making the model. I think it's amazing! I LOVE them, especially the 3D one. When I asked Sé would it be ok if I post them on my blog he said that, 

'Eamon can't quite get his head around the writer of the book getting his pictures and replying !

But he is dead chuffed with himself.' 

Keep up the drawing Eamon they are really fantastic!

Mavis and Marge Colouring Pages!

If you enjoyed watching On the Road with Mavis and Marge on CBeebies last week you might like to download these activity sheets from the Walker Books Website here or from my site.

Mavis and Marge on Cbeebies!

Kym Marsh on CBeebies Bedtime Stories does a wonderful rendition of On The Road with Mavis and Marge!

Mountains To Sea

Toady I'm off to Dunlaoghaire for my Animal Madness with Mavis and Marge event at The Mountains to Sea Book Festival. Can't wait! Full Family Programme available here.

Picture Book Picnic Trailer!

Here's the wonderful Picture Book Picnic trailer from Walker Books. Can you spot Mavis and Marge from ON THE ROAD waving from the top of a mountain!

Go check out all the wonderful Picture books here.

The Picture Book Picnic

Walker Books have just set up The Picture Book Picnic, which is a campaign to encourage families and friends to share books like they would a picnic. I love this idea!!! I'm so delighted that On The Road with Mavis and Marge is one of the titles and that I am one of the authors.

If you would like to win a free copy do pop over and comment on Tim Atkinson's reading On The Road to his son Charlie on his blog, Bringing up Charlie.

On the Road with Mavis and Marge is now out in Paperback. To celebrate there are some free colouring pages you can download from Walker Books here.

Click on RTE Junior Today

This is me in studio for RTÉ Young Peoples it's up on the RTE Junior site.

It's only up for today so you have to be quick!

The Irish Book Awards!

On The Road with Mavis and Marge won The DAA Children’s Book of the Year!!!! I am thrilled!!!! Thank you so, so much to all my friends and family from all over the world who voted for Mavis and Marge. Thank you especially to Walker Books!!!!!

We had the best night...

at the best table,

with the best Sarah!

The best Mo!

We even had two Bonds...Conor and Chris!

The brilliant Jo!

The lovely Robert Dunbar and my totally rocking deadly designer Deirdre!

We had the wonderful Jane Harris!

The fabulous Susan!

And of course the best rep in the universe! (Conor Hackett!)

And a very, very late night :)

HURRAY!

Bridge Street Books

I had a wonderful day yesterday at the fabulous Bridge Street Books.

Thanks to the hard work of Hilary and Joanna who made it such a memorable day. Hilary and Joanna were wearing Hugglewug and Mavis and Marge T-shirts that they made. And Maisy Mouse was there all day too. I loved getting a cuddly Maisy hug. I never knew that she has a spiky tickly nose!

The bookstore was packed full of so many little people we had to do two sessions. They were super and did amazing drawings of little aliens, cows and chickens! Mavis and Marge loved coming to Wicklow. Thank you for such a lovely warm welcome Bridge Street Books!

Maisy, Mavis and Marge!

Tomorrow I will be at Bridge Street Books, Wicklow with Maisy Mouse!!!!

Maisy promises to bring lots of goodies to hand out. Oooooh free stuff!

I'll be reading, doodling and signing 'On The Road with Mavis and Marge' from 2.30pm.

Should be a fantastic afternoon, so I hope to see lots of you there. I can't wait!

StorySpark at The Ark!

I was filming excerpts for RTE today. It's part of highlighting StorySpark, a celebration of children’s literature that promises to light up even the darkest of winter days.

Children's Books Ireland are taking over The Ark for the month of December. So if you love reading stories and Illustration book here so your not left in the dark!

The Reading Room line up is mind-blowing; Roddy Doyle, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Philip Ardagh, Oisín McGann, Marcus Sedgwick, John Boyne, Derek Landy, Sarah Webb.

And two Trapped By Monsters cave dwellers Ali Sparkes and me!

Do you like Marge the chicken made by my lovely friend Sarah O'Kelly?

Watch out for me around Skerries with Marge in my bike basket. My daughter Megan who's only 9 took the photo of Marge and Me in my studio.

Irish Times Today.

Lovely write up of 'On The Road With Mavis and Marge' in The Irish Times today.

'Once we had Thelma and Louise. Now, with Niamh Sharkey’s On the Road with Mavis and Marge (Walker, £11.99), comes another couple of lively ladies in search of life and adventure. But this Mavis is a cow, this Marge is a chicken and their chosen mode of transport is a red bicycle – all very fine until their first puncture and their first encounter with a sequence of other creatures who assist them on their way. A map incorporated at one point into the text seems to suggest that their travels begin in north Antrim – this might well explain their permanently excitable state – before taking in the Antarctic and outer space. But home (and a surprise) await. This is the Sharkey of The Ravenous Beast and I’m a Happy Hugglewug, pictorial inventiveness bursting out of every page. Watch out especially for Albert, the perkiest of all bespectacled penguins.'

Fantastic mention too of my fellow Walker Books friend, Chris Haughton and his wonderful new book, A Bit Lost.