Do you like moles?

Back home after a trip to Paris and I have spent most of the day trying to learn how to use a shephard's whistle. And Paris was a long way away, beautiful, tiring. The hotel was good and the view and the church lovely though I wish I had woken more to hear the church bells chiming away the time. The square was a selection of shops that sold wonderful food, including a small chocolatier with the most lovely sweets.

The British school was warm, welcoming, bright with a beautiful library and wonderful children. On the Thursday evening we were wisked away to Janne's house where there were small puppies full of tiredness and delight. Great evening of relaxing book talk with Marilyn ( from Norfolk Children's Book Centre) in a lovely bistro where half way through the meal some people just wandered in and settled down to play music.

I took my healing bowl with me all the way to the school and I think this was one of the things the children liked best. It is amazing how it can bring a hush to a whole room of children as they listen to its building singing. 

I painted ( four paintings, 3/4 hour or less for each) and the children were full of questions as to how and where and when and what. Favorite question still is,  "Do you like moles?". Infact I think that so far in my career that is my all time favorite question.

Home now and time to settle to painting again, though I am hoping to go searching for hares at the weekend. And hoping for good weather and a peaceful mind.

And while I was away the shortlist was announced for the Kate Greenaway awards and I was a little sad not to find Tell Me a Dragon on it, but very very pleased that Meg Rosoff's 'Bride's Farewell' was on the Carnegie shortlist. Meg's 'Bride' is a wonderful tale with and I fell head over heals in love with The Dog Man and Jack. Great to hear Meg reading from her book in the clip from The Guardian.

The moon, a dragon, my desk

A while back a friend from afar asked if I would do a drawing for her to be turned into a tattoo. Now she wears a dragon tattoo and it looks beautiful. Such a strange connection to have with another person, having them as a canvas. Eve's dragon holds a moon and a small star.

Part 1 of The Seal Children, a film about the story behind the story

I made a short film about The Seal Children, but have since learned how to get clearer definition on the films when uploading so here is a link to the new version. The Seal Children was one of my first longer stories and is a book about love and loss, selkies and fishermen, Wales and the West.

Friday

Save our Libraries no4: or please engage brain before making a statement.

It's not really that I feel inclined to criticise everything that Michael Gove says, it's more that I feel that he has a need to engage his brain before going for the nearest soundbite. So, here is my rant, or measured argument, to the piece in The Telegraph today ( suggesting that children should read 50 books a year)

50 books a year. At an average of £6.99 that would cost £349.50 per child. As a way of ensuring a minimum spend on this can I suggest that the government spends our money on some kind of central warehousing for books where a child can go and select, say, four books, a months worth of reading, then when he/she has read them they could be returned so that other children could read them. These warehouses could be staffed by expert people who understand cataloguing and ordering books but also keep abreast of what is new in publishing, who get to know the 'borrowers' who can recommend books that might be interesting. We could call the warehouses libraries, and the gatekeepers could be librarians.

But I would also like to take issue with the idea of the reading challenge of 50 books. As a child I would have found this utterly daunting. I would have been lucky to manage 12, but I would have read them because I loved stories. I struggled to read, hated reading in class because I stumbled and fell over the simplest words, but I loved books. And when I read I was there, in the pages, lost, safe. I walked on the green grass of Wyoming, I rode on Aslan's back and I went hunting with the Antelope Singer. I could smell Australia in the pages of The Silver Brumby.

Again it would seem that a memeber of our government knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. It is not how many books you read, but how you are engaged and tangled in books. A person can read 50 books and learn nothing while another can read 5 and learn so much. A poem can say as much as a novel of 1000 pages. It's not how many you read how engaged you can be with a story, not how fast, but maybe I say this because I am slow. And how are these children who are tested almost night and day and have coursework etc to do to find the time?

This statement, this argument by a member of our government is yet again further proof of the fact that he is not fit to govern, neither is he fit to shape policies that will affect our children's education.

Maybe now I manage 20 books a year, at a push 30 ( cheating, reading pictures books, shorter!) I still read painfully slowly.

One of the things I loved most at school, especialy before I had learned to unlock the code I use now as my fingers move over this board, was the half hour when all our class sat quietly while the teacher simply but surely read a whole book to us over a period of days. Sometimes we all had a copy to follow. Sometimes we just sat and listened. And when we did that pictures would dance in my head.

A Short Tour of My Studio Space no2.

Usually I will tidy up my studio in between books. This time I tidied up before filming, but in the interests of honesty here are some photos of my studio before I threw away three bin bags of rubbish and moved the dirt with a feather duster.

 

Have already had confirmation from the MBF that the rough is ok, so will work on that over the next few weeks.

A Short Tour of My Studio Space

Two bowls.

Sound travels differently those air thick with mist. Walked this morning, with Sarah, to the top of the hill, each with a healing bowl where we played them together. Sarah's bowl is larger than mine and makes a wonderful deep sound. Together they filled the air with a siren song.

 

Above is first rough for this year's MBF card which I hope with be in reds and snow.

The mist is burning off now as sunshine comes through. Yesterday the dentist pulled my tooth out and I still feel rather fragile from the whole experience. It has been a hard few weeks since fininshing The Cat and The Fiddle.

21st Century Tiger Auction no 2.

The auction for 21st Century Tiger has gone live on eBay. We want to raise as much money as possible but also as much awareness so please help by blogging and linking via facebook and tweeting as much as possible.

The reserve price is £500, and the painting is the original from Lord of the Forest, written by Caroline Pitcher and illustrated by me, published by Frances Lincoln. The page that reads:

"Tiger played and fought with his brothers. He swam in the cool water.

He told his mother, "I can hear the creep of crabs in the pool and the flip of the fish as they leap  in the cool, the croak and the splash of jumping frogs and the slither of watersnake down from the logs."

His mother said, " When you don't hear them, when silence burns and time stands still, then, my son, be ready. The Lord of the Forest is here!"

Amnesty International, We Are All Born Free

Today a book arrived in the post. A small book with a big heart. In 2008 Frances Lincoln and Amnesty International published 'We Are All Born Free', the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for children. Now they are re releasing the book in a pocket format and it is just perfect.

The book was commissioned to raise money and awareness of the work of Amnesty International in the world and was published in about 42 languages. All the artists donated their work for free ( and I was lucky enough to be able to get in quick and request, not without irony,' the right to rest from work and relax' ). 

Many of the paintings will be auctioned on 4th October  at the Illustration Cupboard in London with money raised going towards Amnesty's wonderful work. Hoping people will be able to bid by phone and I will blog about it as a reminder closer to the time.

Meanwhile the letter said that the artwork has been wandering the world and was exhibited in Tel Aviv at the Gutman Museum in collaboration with Amnesty International Israel. Over 6 thousand people saw the exhibition which was linked to a lecture on UDHR. So pleased that Amnesty have been making the most of the paintings. Hoping to be at the auction, work permitting.

We Are All Born Free is a beautiful book and I think every family should have a copy, certainly every school.