The Wilds of Kildare

Last week was another busy week, as I was invited to take part in the Children's Books Festival organised by the Kildare Libraries: Newbridge, Athy, Kildare Town, Maynooth, Leixlip, Naas, Celbridge... the county holds no secrets for me now.
I met with hordes of enthusiastic Senior Infants, 1st and 2nd class, plus, once, an entire school where children aged 6-12 all had some excellent questions about the writer's job and the intricacies of Disaster David. They were not alone in this. Everywhere I went, the kids were full of chat and ideas and comments, in the best possible way.

We did a lot of predictions and wondered if people could break their legs in a book for children (they can). We looked at how a book was made and explored the role of the illustrator, the writer and the printer (sorry editors and publishers, you were only briefly mentioned!). We talked about giants and about how we might live if we suddenly became one: would we play football with the moon or basketball with humans? eat our breakfast out of a bathtub? use lots of planes as a jetpack to go about the world? wear trees or houses for clothes?

There were some brilliant suggestions there and some terrific drawing of what life might be like if we had a Gigantor (a gun for making everything giant-sized), if our entire family could fit in the palm of our hand, if we could (literally) break into banks and so on. Some of our giants were too big to fit on the page, one of them (stroke of genius!) even had her head on the other side of the paper!

A week before the end of the school year, one might have worried about a certain lack of focus or too much excitement (in one school they still had the bouncy castle from Active Week up and running, an actual BOUNCY CASTLE!). There would have been no need: those kids were so on the ball and into it, and SO well behaved. Special mention of the school I met in Athy who came into the library, sat down on the mats and just listened without anybody telling them to do any of these things. And also a special shout out to the ladies of Presentation Girls in Maynooth, all 60 of them, who were awesome.
To everyone, thank you so much! It was a pleasure meeting you and sharing stories with you (some young writers in Celbridge actually brought in their own productions!). Have a brilliant summer!

In full swing

And so, the 2012 Children's Books Festival is entering its second week and going strong. This is my first year taking part from the author side of the fence and it's been quite something so far!
After 7 events in as many days, my brain has started getting into high-spin mode, but I still have plenty of adrenaline left in my system to buoy me up through the exhaustion, the rain and the lack of chocolate around the house. (I hope).
Last week saw my partner in workshop Sadie Cramer and myself visit the sun-flooded library in Stillorgan where we met two bunches of very keen and very alert ladies. Both were 5th class, the first lot came from Mount Anville, the second from Saint Raphaela's (whom the book is partly dedicated to) (yes, it was a bit of a shock to them) (long story). We saw some very cool heroic logos created there and some terrific cliffhangers written (I for one want to know what became of Juliette Froggy Girl please!).

On the Friday I ventured all on my lonesome to meet this strange species called... boys, in Willow Park School in Blackrock. Like the girls before them, two groups of third class tried their hand at writing about a superhero of their making: how he/she/it got superpowers, what happened when he/she/it first met Santa/monkeys from outer space/another hero, that sort of thing. To spice it up though they had to include a random word (given by me) in their story, in any shape and guise they wanted. Which is how we ended up with Kettle Man. (And also Super Hot Dog Man but that had nothing to do with me or the approaching lunch time).

Finally on Monday 8 October, I joined forces with Sadie again to explore Castletymon Library in South Dublin, where we were awaited by three(separate) groups from St Kevin's GNS, Scoil Aonghusa and Scoil Cholmcille. There was some serious writing and illustrating here too. The last class we met was actually reading Chop-Chop, Mad Cap! so it was a slightly different experience for us. For them too, in fact, as they got a special treat in the shape of an extract from Mad Cap's next adventure and as they made suggestions of titles and plot lines for the third or fourth instalment in the series.
Those guys were very optimistic! Thanks!
Over the week we got lots of brilliant, pointed questions ranging from technique to inspiration via career, money and 'can you speak French to us please?' But I think I should leave you with the best questions of all, asked by one of the lads in Castletymon:
'How big would you say is your love of writing?'
Can anybody trump that? I think not!

For more pics of the week that was, head over to Sadie's blog here.

Back at the ranch | CBF 2010

Meanwhile, some people have been busy. The Children's Books Festival (aka CBF) has been kicked off with gusto up and down the country. For plenty of worshops, talks, readings, etc. wherever you might be, check out the CBI website. They have an events calendar and a festival blog.
If, however, you're desperate to go but are stuck at home with a bad case of flu, pesky attention-seeking babies or a heavy wardrobe accidentally resting on your chest (stuff happens), you can also enjoy some action from home on Tuesday 12 October at 11.30. Read on:

To celebrate Children's Books Festival, Laureate na nÓg Siobhán Parkinson will participate in a special webcast. Siobhan will be in conversation with Bisto Award winning author and illustrator Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick and school and library groups all over the country are encouraged to tune in from their own classroom or library via South Dublin Libraries live stream.This event will be live streamed from County Library, Tallaght. You can tune in live on October 12th or you can view the interview at a later date by visiting www.southdublinlibraries.ie/videos
Young readers can submit their questions to Laureate Siobhan Parkinson in advance
of the broadcast by emailing info@childrensbooksireland.ie. A selection of questions will be answered during the event and any questions that don’t get answered on the day will be answered afterwards by Siobhán on the Laureate’s special website - http://www.childrenslaureate.ie/.

So off you go now!

Bookfest 2010 out now!

The Children's Books Festival is still a month away, but the deadly poster (by Kevin Waldron), the reading guide (edited by yours truly) and a heap of goodies from stickers to bookmarks, have arrived from the printers.

"Bring Festival Fever to your library, school or bookshop this October with the gorgeous new promotional materials from Children's Books Ireland! To download an order form (including prices and quantities) please click here."

Bookfest Poster Revealed

CBI has just launched the poster for the next Children's Books Festival. Nothing to do with being a cat person or anything, but I think Kevin Waldron's picture is deadly. There'll be posting galore about the festival (taking place throughout October) and Bookfest (the accompanying reading guide), but in the meantime, you can get more details here.