Bath Festival of Children’s Literature (2)

This second week-end at Bath KidsLitFest was indeed very exciting!

Sarah McIntyre
Yay, we finally met Sarah! I had really been looking forward to this and so had my children. everybody loves Sarah’s work in my house! This event focused on You Can’t Eat a Princess! one of the only “pink” books (along with “Dogs Don’t Do Ballet”), that my son will entertain. But it was more about aliens than princesses and after Sarah gave us an insight about how she started to draw and how the artwork of You Can’t Eat a Princess! came to life, the children got to draw their own aliens too.  Sarah creates a lot of activities around her books, and they can be downloaded from her website; it is well-worth checking out  (see here).
The children really enjoyed themselves, and Sarah drew some lovely illustrations inside their books, so they were well chuffed.

Janey Louise Jones
My daughter has been a mad Princess Poppy fan ever since it came out as a Word Book Day £1 book. She was so excited about this event; I wasn’t so, I have to say. But the author, Janey Louise Jones, is a real pro and she certainly works really hard at making her events a success. She even wears a special pink gown! There were a lot of little girls there (and one lonely little lad) and Janey has memory games and all sorts to help the audience concentrate. Then they made a princess crown.  Although the books are not to my taste I must admit this was a very successful event.  And we have one happy little miss at the end of it, who was first in the queue to get her books signed! That’s my girl! :0)

Chris Riddell
I didn’t go into this event as my other half took the children but my son came out absolutely inspired by Chris Riddell and full of little anecdotes (inlcuding a hilarious one about his teenage daughter being the inspiration for Mr Munroe’s fantastic hair do).  I think he really admires him; we love his work of course, and especially the Ottoline series but I think to my son Riddell’s artwork is really special.

Cornelia Funke
Unfortunately photographyaphy wasn’t allowed in this event so I was unable to take a piccie of Cornelia’s amazing Reckless dress! However, you can find photographs of the event there.
I have only read Inkheart and I am now reading Reckless, so I wouldn’t call myself a fan. But hearing Cornelia talk was very special. She talked about how she was inspired by fairy tales for Reckless and how the book came to life. It was fascinating, and I was glad I decided to go after all.