Two weeks to go until GRRRRR! is out. It tells the story of Fred Bear who wakes up on the morning of the Best Bear in the Wood contest with no GRRRRR. What will he do???!
ps Anyone who has read Blown Away should keep a eye out for familiar faces ;)
Had a lovely time on Wednesday doing Blown Away events at the fabulous Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden. Probably the last penguin-based session, for a while at least. It’s all about the bears from now on.
Huge thanks to everyone who came - some very talented kids indeed - and to the staff at the museum for looking after me so well. If you get a chance you really should visit.
A sneak peak at GRRRRR! His name is Eugene.
Out on August 27
#sneakpeek
Pre-launch signing session :)
Not long now…
Hi. I’ve just realised that I haven’t posted here since April and as you’re obviously DESPERATE to see what I’ve been up to I thought I’d do a very quick round-up. That’s me all over, always thinking of others.
So, here we go…
At the end of May I did a couple of events at the Hay Festival. As you can see my daughters came too and they had a lovely time. Well, one of them did anyway. That’s Poppy on the right looking a bit grumpy.
The events went really well, were a lot of fun and they even sold out (see below). Hopefully that means I’ll get to go back next year.
One quick dash back down the M4 later, and we arrived at the Discover Children’s Story Centre in East London. Wow! What a FANTASTIC place it is. So much to do and look at including a fantastic Oliver Jeffers exhibition. You should definitely visit. Here’s a picture of me reading Blown Away…
…and here’s a better look at the lovely picture that we all made together.
What else? Well, the Game of Thrones finalé was big news in our house. No spoilers, I promise, but I will show you this picture I drew to mark the occasion. Actually, maybe there’s a picture book in it. HBO, if you’re reading this you know where to find me ;)
Then a very exciting thing happened. The first copies of my new book GRRRRR! arrived. It’s hard to describe the feeling you get when you hold your book in your hands for the first time. Surreal is the word I keep coming back to. Anyway, here it is…
And here’s the PLC (the hardcover thingy underneath the dust jacket). Am quite pleased with the way this turned out…
And finally it’s got a little showy-offy sticker on it. Well it would be rude not to, I guess…
At the end of June I did another event with the nice people at the Discover Centre. This time it was in the Olympic Park. It was called StoryFest and was hopefully the first of many. I was first up in the yellow tent…
I tried out a new event structure – the children and I wrote a rhyming story together. We actually ended up with a pretty decent tale about a Cat called Whiskers who lost her pet Spider. Don’t worry, it had a happy ending.
Last week I was very excited about the publication of the “new” Harper Lee book Go Set a Watchmen. So much so that I drew a little picture of Scout…
So there you go. That’s what I’ve been up to. Oh, and I’ve redesigned the Observer Magazine too. Keep an eye out for the new look in September.
Not long now until GRRRRR! hits the shelves. I will be posting a few teasers between now and publication day (August 27) but here’s something to keep you going in the meantime…
I am very pleased to be able to tell you about a couple of greetings card ranges that I’ve been working on with the nice folk over at Roger la Borde.
The first collection, Wild Things, is available now. I know that some of you have already spotted the cards in the shops. Thanks to everyone who has sent me pictures.
The range includes six general birthday cards…
and five age-specific ones…
There’s also some jigsaw puzzles and fun mosaics…
As you can see, there are a few cameos from the Blown Away crew. Clive the polar bear is front and centre in the Merry Christmas range (out later this year). Here he is wearing his best Christmas jumper on some double-sided wrapping paper…
and on a card…
and on a gift bag…
Click here to see both ranges in their entirety. You’ll also find links to online retailers should you wish to buy any :)
*tiny drum roll* Ladies and gentleman, I can finally reveal the cover of my second book. It’s called “GRRRRR!” (With five ‘R’s). I hope you like it.
COMING SOON…
#GRRRRR!
Over the last two or three weeks I have been sent lots of pictures from Waterstones booksellers around the country showing the brilliantly creative Blown Away displays that they’ve made for their branches. The amount of work they have put in is just incredible. From Hanley to Hull, Liverpool to Lincoln, Dorking to Durham, these are some seriously creative people. Very talented artists too. I need to watch my back.
Honestly, I feel very lucky (not to mention honoured) and would like to say how grateful I am. Hopefully I’ll get to come and meet some of you very soon so I can say thank you in person.
Here’s a little selection…
Special mention to the Waterstones Newcastle team who recreated my favourite scene from the book (See below) :)
Oh, and head over to my Instagram to see the brilliant MOVING display made by bookseller extraordinaire Leilah Skelton in Doncaster. Here’s a link:
It’s now the day after the day after the 2015 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize ceremony and I’m still in a daze.
Blown Away winning the Illustrated Book category was crazy enough…
…but the fact that it was also awarded the overall prize was almost too much for my tiny brain to comprehend.
I think it was pretty obvious to everyone at Waterstones Piccadilly on Thursday night how shocked I was. My speeches are a blur – I have no idea what I said. My only memory is of Melissa Cox (Waterstones Head of children’s books and awards chair) reminding me to thank my wife. And thank goodness she did!
Obviously I am absolutely thrilled to win this award, but making and publishing a picture book is very much a team sport. I wouldn’t be writing this now if it wasn’t for the efforts of a lot of people.
My brilliant agent, Jodie Hodges at United, turned everything around for me. She whipped my portfolio into shape sharpish, getting me to draw lots of kids book staples including pirates, aliens, dinosaurs and, crucially, penguins. Every single step of the way she has given me precisely the right advice at precisely the right time and I feel very, very lucky to have her in my corner. Julian Dickson and Jane Willis at United have also been extremely supportive, so huge thanks to them too.
The children’s book team at HarperCollins are just incredible. I want to thank every single one of them for being so welcoming and encouraging right from the start. My editors, Rachel Denwood and Lydia Madden, are total geniuses. If they had edited this blog post it would be twenty times better than it is. It’s a great feeling to have such talented people pulling for me and helping to make my books as good as they possibly can be. James Stevens art directed Blown Away and, again, improved it no end. He’s just got a fab new job which is great for him but very sad for me. He was fantastic to work with and I hope that our paths cross again at some point in the future. Finally, the HC PR team – Geraldine Stroud, Mary Byrne and Nicola Carthy – have done an amazing job of promoting the book. We’ve already put on lots of exciting events and had a ton of fun. Extra special shout-out to my partner in kite-making Nicola. She handles the glitter. I hate the glitter.
I want to thank the fantastic Waterstones booksellers, not only for voting for Blown Away but also for their enthusiasm and general loveliness whenever I’ve popped into a branch or met them at events. Melissa (the wife-rememberer I mentioned earlier) has also been incredibly supportive. She championed the book from the get-go and that really meant a lot. Also, we made our panel-event debuts together – hers as host, mine as guest. She was much better than me obv :/
Finally, I want to say how honoured I was to be shortlisted alongside such talented authors and illustrators. The five other books in my category are so incredible that any one of them would have been a worthy winner. It just so happened that this time it was my numbers that came up. I look forward to congratulating them all on the many awards that they will no doubt win in the future. Speaking of congratulations, well done to the other category winners Robin Stevens and Sally Green. Your books are amazing - I can’t wait to read them with my daughters.
Right, that’s it from me. I’m off to try and come back down to earth. Until then, here’s a few pics from the big night…
A couple of weeks ago I visited HarperCollins’ swank new HQ at London Bridge and recorded this interview for the BookD podcast. Huge thanks to host Tanya for making me feel so welcome :)
For those that don’t know, today (5 March 2015) is World Book Day. Mums and dads across the nation will be exhausted this morning having have been up all night making costumes for their children to wear to school. Two of mine, Poppy and Kitty, chose Alice in Wonderland as their theme. So one Alice and one Mad Hatter left the house this morning. I wonder if anyone will guess who they are meant to be (it was a loooong night)!
The Blown Away crew also wanted to get involved. Can you guess who they’re dressed as?
Well, today has been fun. Don’t be surprised if Sunday’s Observer Magazine has lots of blank pages - I had a hard time concentrating on the day job this morning.
So I woke up to 50+ twitter notifications on my phone from people congratulating me on Blown Away being shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. I know. I couldn’t believe it either.
What a huge surprise and honour. To be one of the seven people in with a chance of winning is just amazing. It’s not a very big chance of course - the other five books are so ridiculously good that it’s actually quite annoying - but nevertheless it’s a chance. Massive thanks to Waterstones for giving it to me.
The very best of luck to Steve, Suzanne, Sophy, Lucy, Rachel and Victoria. Let’s hope we all win :)
Here are the shortlisted books…
Am excited this morning because the paperback edition of Blown Away is out in the UK today. There’s a special new cover design and everything. Hope you like it. You should be able to find it on a shelf near you, but if not it’s available to buy online here...
