Zoom Time: Brussels, Milan, Tipperary
I've just done a series of Zoom Author Visits, with The British School of Brussels, The British School of Milan, and Tipperary Children's Book Festival. I don't particularly like doing Zoom visits; it's nowhere near as good as working with children in person, but it's the best thing we can do right now, and definitely better than nothing. With Zoom events, I miss being able to walk around and look at the individual drawings, and comment on them. And I miss the easy back-and-forth banter with the kids, asking them questions and hearing their ideas. But there are still ways to get some interaction, and these last few events have been pretty good.
Here I am, in that awkward time when I'm all set up at my desk but there's not really time to do anything else but fret.
The best ones are the events I do with my co-author Philip Reeve; here's the drawing I led the Tipperary schools in making today, when Philip and I were talking about our new book, Kevin vs the Unicorns:
And the drawing was not wasted! My little neighbour friend (aka Studio Baby) and her granny helped colour it in, and presented it to me this evening.
I've had a lot of fun with these guinea pig minor characters in Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit.
Here are various Neville & Beyoncé comics I made during the events, taking the children's suggestions for what would happen next. While I explain how clarity is vitally important in makinug comics, I also have to get used to my drawing not being anywhere near perfect - if I did that, we'd never get the story told! In this comic, the children decided that Neville and Beyoncé wanted to steal a Kevin book, so they could scrub out all the pictures and draw themselves as the main characters.
In this comic, Nev & Bey used a flamethrower to melt their way out of their hutch, then fly a drone to the Louvre, where one of the guinea pigs distracted everyone by the Mona Lisa while the other nabbed a lady's big diamond. Then they hitched a lift with some other burglars (who just happened to be doing a heist at the same time).
In this third adventure, Nev & Bey blast their way out of the hutch with a cannon, then take a toy rocket to the Planet of the Sweets (in search of sweets). They rob an alien sweet shop and steal a UFO to fly back, with a hapless alien trapped on board.
One of the differences between working with festivals and with schools is that festivals always want me to talk about my newly published book, but schools are very often interested in the older books. Oliver and the Seawigs was our very first Reeve & McIntyre book, and there's been time for news of it to filter down through the school systems, largely thanks to organisations who connect teachers and librarians with books, such as the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) and the UK Literary Association (UKLA). The school in Milan had been studying Oliver and the Seawigs - including making their own Seawigs! - and wanted me to talk about that book.
We made up some new mythical marine creatures (the top half of one looks very much like one of the Pugs of the Frozen North), and drew Sea Monkeys.
Here's a Sea Monkey comic. Most of my events run 50 minutes to an hour, but I did a longer comic-making session with these kids. They were great, but I found it very challenging and I'm not sure I'd do it again; I really need to be there, on site, so I can help kids if they're struggling to make their own comics. I hoped they were able to keep up, but it was frustrating not being able to walk around and check. I don't have pictures of their comics, but here's the one we made together:
Here's Philip in his excellent Zoom set-up; no one would know he was using an ironing board and wearing slippers...
And this was my setup until Studio Baby took over my seat and assigned me to hot-desking for the rest of the day.
Big thanks to organisers Ceri Seymour in Brussels, Laura Thomas and Julie Ward in Milan, and Sarah D'Arcy with Cashel Library in County Tipperary. And to all the children who took part, thanks for your enthusiasm!
So that's my Zoom run; I'm not taking on any more events for the near future, I need to get on with making books now! :)
Here I am, in that awkward time when I'm all set up at my desk but there's not really time to do anything else but fret.
The best ones are the events I do with my co-author Philip Reeve; here's the drawing I led the Tipperary schools in making today, when Philip and I were talking about our new book, Kevin vs the Unicorns:
And the drawing was not wasted! My little neighbour friend (aka Studio Baby) and her granny helped colour it in, and presented it to me this evening.
I've had a lot of fun with these guinea pig minor characters in Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit.
Here are various Neville & Beyoncé comics I made during the events, taking the children's suggestions for what would happen next. While I explain how clarity is vitally important in makinug comics, I also have to get used to my drawing not being anywhere near perfect - if I did that, we'd never get the story told! In this comic, the children decided that Neville and Beyoncé wanted to steal a Kevin book, so they could scrub out all the pictures and draw themselves as the main characters.
In this comic, Nev & Bey used a flamethrower to melt their way out of their hutch, then fly a drone to the Louvre, where one of the guinea pigs distracted everyone by the Mona Lisa while the other nabbed a lady's big diamond. Then they hitched a lift with some other burglars (who just happened to be doing a heist at the same time).
In this third adventure, Nev & Bey blast their way out of the hutch with a cannon, then take a toy rocket to the Planet of the Sweets (in search of sweets). They rob an alien sweet shop and steal a UFO to fly back, with a hapless alien trapped on board.
One of the differences between working with festivals and with schools is that festivals always want me to talk about my newly published book, but schools are very often interested in the older books. Oliver and the Seawigs was our very first Reeve & McIntyre book, and there's been time for news of it to filter down through the school systems, largely thanks to organisations who connect teachers and librarians with books, such as the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) and the UK Literary Association (UKLA). The school in Milan had been studying Oliver and the Seawigs - including making their own Seawigs! - and wanted me to talk about that book.
We made up some new mythical marine creatures (the top half of one looks very much like one of the Pugs of the Frozen North), and drew Sea Monkeys.
Here's a Sea Monkey comic. Most of my events run 50 minutes to an hour, but I did a longer comic-making session with these kids. They were great, but I found it very challenging and I'm not sure I'd do it again; I really need to be there, on site, so I can help kids if they're struggling to make their own comics. I hoped they were able to keep up, but it was frustrating not being able to walk around and check. I don't have pictures of their comics, but here's the one we made together:
Here's Philip in his excellent Zoom set-up; no one would know he was using an ironing board and wearing slippers...
And this was my setup until Studio Baby took over my seat and assigned me to hot-desking for the rest of the day.
Big thanks to organisers Ceri Seymour in Brussels, Laura Thomas and Julie Ward in Milan, and Sarah D'Arcy with Cashel Library in County Tipperary. And to all the children who took part, thanks for your enthusiasm!
So that's my Zoom run; I'm not taking on any more events for the near future, I need to get on with making books now! :)