Ms Blakely Comes to Life!!

I had the absolute pleasure of visiting Wiley Park Public School in Western Sydney yesterday as part of the launch of Bad Grammar. Plus I got to meet one of my characters face to face.

Last year I visited the school as part of a Books in Homes visit. I admired these fantastic human-sized paper mâché characters they had in the library and following my talk the school asked if they could make one of the characters from the book I was working on. Flash forward a year a here she is, straight from the pages of Bad Grammar, I present Ms Blakely in all her manic detail!!!!

The project was headed by Mrs Robb and constructed with the students in the Support Unit. They used paper mâché to create the body while her clothes are made from french knitting. Her tongue has bubble wrap to give it a bumpy tongue texture. She is amazing.

Ms Blakely, for those who haven’t read the book (shame on you!) is a teacher who loves to dress up in the theme of whatever she is teaching. In this instance the Wiley Park gang have dressed her up for a Science lesson. She has space rocket shoes, planets orbiting around her head, and a science lesson rolling down her tongue.

As I think as many people as possible should see Ms Blakely, I have decreed that Wiley Park Public School library shall be her official custodians, but she will be allowed out on day visits with me to visit other schools now and then …

I had such a wonderful time revisiting the students and meeting some new ones. Thanks everyone for such a wonderful afternoon, especially the incomparable (yes I promise that word is used in a favourable light) Gillian Maugle for organising things.

 

More photos of the event to go up soon …