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! 

What a Great Picnic!

Here's my teddy Bedford on his way to The Picture Book Picnic last Saturday. It was part of the Made in Temple Bar Festival organised by Walker Books, The Gutter Bookshop and Children's Books Ireland.

It was so wonderful doing an event for the really tiny ones; there were lots of babies and families there. Everyone joined in singing and dancing the Hugglewug song and there was plenty of doodling games too! And a surprise visit from Maisy Mouse at the end.

The Dare Project has a great review and some wonderful photos of the afternoon here. I loved her description that it was like a 'Love bubble.' I couldn't agree more as I was smiling all afternoon after the event. It really had a lovely warm vibe. The wonderful Bob also has some great photos up on The Gutter Bookshop's Facebook.

Dalkey Book Festival

Before I forget I will be doing a workshop at the Dalkey Book Festival this Sunday at 11am. I'm afraid that it's booked out but I will be around after my event at Photogenic @ 11.45 if you want to meet me and get books doodled on! The line up is amazing now we just need some sunshine.

Mega-Monster-Mash-Doodle!

This Saturday Fingal County Council are hosting a National Drawing Day at Newbridge House as part of our National celebration of Dooodling! Oh Yeah, Smirktastic! I will be leading a Mega-Monster-Mash-Doodle at 12pm and 1.30pm on GIGANTIC rolls of paper with fantastic messy oil pastels!!!! I cannot wait.

Event is Free! Yipp-ee but you must book on 01-8708449. Download PDF here.

Library Week, some doodles and The Bisto!

Happy Library week everyone! Enjoy this wonderful movie as part of the Library week celebrations.

It's been a busy few days for Books; what with World Book Day and World Book Night over the last week. Don't forget to spend your €1.50 tokens you got last Thursday. Mums and Dads they could be rolled up in a hairy ball at the bottom of the school bag! There are some wonderful videos of the authors reading on the World Book Day Site here.

Huge congrats also to my fellow Walker Books picture book makers Kevin Waldron and Chris Haughton on the Bisto Shortlist. It's great to see so many picture Books on the Bisto Shortlist. 5 out of 10 titles are Picture books!

On a sobering note, Mags Walsh of CBI in the Irish Times, calls out for the new government to reinstate the school book grant to schools and libraries. She says the abolition of the grant two years ago has "fundamentally affected access to books for kids who don't have access to books at home".