The book is finished

I’ve finished all the illustrations for my latest book. It will be the fourth in the series about Little Mouse.O.k. I’m saying I’ve finished, but there is still the cover and endpapers to do, but this fact doesn’t stop me celebrating a little.Working on the book with the character Little Mouse was like going on a walk with an old friend. This time we walked through the wood.

Walking through the wood was fun

and a great adventure.

I enjoyed working on this book so much, that I did the pictures almost in one go over a couple of months.

Although some of the characters in the book may be familiar to you,  this book is rather different from the previous three in the series. It may even be a bit scary, but Little Mouse in the book is not scared of anything.

The book is now in the post.This is how a finished book looks.

The last week I travelled to Worthing to do a talk in “Power of Reading in the Early Years” conference organised by Centre For Literacy in Primary Education.

The Power of Reading project is entering its 12th year and during the life of the project around 2,500 primary schools and 4,000 teachers have been involved.  This year alone they have had nearly 600 primary school teachers on projects in London and across England and are expecting to recruit the same number on the project next year. More than 1000 schools have subscribed to the Power of Reading website.

BLUE PENGUIN has been chosen as a Power of Reading text for 2016-17, so I’m very pleased about it.

The conference was a good fun. I arrived in the middle of the day and I don’t know exactly what happened in the morning, but there was a great friendly atmosphere and everybody was smiling.

Just before my talk I realised, that I’m the only man in the building. It was a bit a nerve-racking, but with the first laugh I relaxed. Talking to  adults may be a bit different to talking to children, but if the adults like picture books there is no difference, really.

Thank you CLPE for inviting me!