Last week I went to the official opening of a new school in Bow, just down the road. It had been open just 30 days. Here's a sketch I did of some of the 5 year-olds lining to tell a big audience of parents and partners why they liked their new school.
On the left is Helen O'Donoghue, a warm, wonderful headmistress, who returned to found this school in London after years working in International schools abroad. This school is free - parents don't pay. And yet it is as international as East London.
Here I am a week later making and drawing Mini Books with them - a 6 page folding book with no staples, made from a single sheet of paper - thanks to a clever slit in the middle (note - must upload this on my next activities page!)
I was the school's very first author to visit for their very first Book Week. Here's a table at one of the 3 classes I made books with - the oldest class of 5 year-olds.
At assembly I showed a slideshow to the whole school - where I work, my drawings, how I plot books out, rough books and finished books and the long list of covers which they counted together with the headmistress.I also showed them this photo.
I'm not sure they all believed that this little 4 year old girl below with her nose in a picture book was me.
I ended by reading Hush, hush! from my illustrations on the big screen. How I wish I could have taken a picture of the little boy who after all the others had got up, was left sitting in the middle of the room, eyes closed, face turned up in a blissful doze. Now that's a bedtime story that really works!
A big thanks to CWISL for putting me in touch with this exciting local school!
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