Sep. 6th, 2023 at 5:43 PM
Adventuremice at Edinburgh Book Festival 2023
Can there be a back-stage festival room anywhere in the world with such a terrific view through the window? Here's my Adventuremice series co-author Philip Reeve with me, ready to go on stage in the new Edinburgh Book Festival venue. The festival's no longer based on Charlotte Square, but at Edinburgh College of Art, which has its pros and cons: we missed the cosiness of everything being around the square, but the good side was a terrific theatre venue, where the festival packed in SO MANY CHILDREN! It was Epic.
Big thanks to St Peter's RC Primary and all the schools that came along and drew Adventuremice with us!
One homeschooling family brought their handmade Adventuremice along with them!
I love it when people tweet photos of their drawings afterward; we try to look at them all during and after the event, but when there are hundreds, it can be quite a rush to see all the details! These two Pedro pictures are lovely:
It wasn't just the hundreds of children in the theatre, many were watching live online as well! (Hello, Inch View Primary!)
It was great to see our latest Adventuremice book recommended in the festival Waterstones bookshop. If anyone wants to find out more about the Adventuremice or access free activities (or Teacher Packs!), you can visit our website, Adventuremice.com.
Obligatory author photo wall! (Photo by Róise Nic an Bheatha working in the Authors Yurt - thanks, Róise!) And dress, of course, by Esther Blessed.
Since we were already going to be up in Edinburgh, our fabulous DFB publicist Fraser Hutchinson checked in with Scottish Book Trust to see if they wanted to do any events with us, and they did! And the really exciting bit was that they arrived to collect us IN MY CAR!!!
Way back in 2016, after my husband Stuart and I went on a week-long Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour with Scottish Book Trust, they commmissioned me to make the image files that they would turn into car decals. (Here was the blog post about that!) Hundreds of authors have toured Scotland in 'my' car, and often posted photos, but I'd never had the chance to see it in person.
I was VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS.
And we visited schools! Where there were lots of other schools packed in all together to see us! Here at Grangemouth High School in Falkirk, we presented Adventuremice to children from Bowhouse Primary School, Beancross Primary School, Moray Primary School, and Sacred Heart RC Primary School, who were full of enthusiasm and great fun.
Here was out team for that! Most excellent Principal Librarian Falkirk Council Children's Services Yvonne Manning organised logistics and book sales, and here you can see our Scottish Book Trust team: Reading Schools Project Manager Liam McCallum and Reading Schools Co-ordinator Clara Owen.
Then we had a tremendous lunch that Liam had put together, complete with Giant Cupcakes:
And then we did another big Adventuremice assembly at Cuiken Primary School, also with Cornbank Primary, Sacred Heart RC Primary, Mauricewood Primary and Strathesk Primary schools.
Thanks so much to all the schools who came along, to the children for drawing Pedro with us, and to Deputy Head Kimberley Hughes for hosting! We hope you enjoy reading the first two Adventuremice books, Otter Chaos and Mermouse Mystery! And thank you, Liam and Clara for driving us around and keeping everything working so smoothly!
One other thing: for years we've had a terrific relationship with super-teacher Susan MacDonald from Leith Walk Primary School. Susan just retired (and had the most magnificent send-off, with tears!) and we made a point of meeting up with her. She brought along seven of her former students and a teacher to a cafe and we had drinks, chatted, and I did some drawings. It was great to see them all, and catch up with Susan!
Sadly we missed the Mog show, but we did manage to catch an early evening music performance on the Fringe by top California rock chick Holly Penfield.
And I ran into fellow author Katherine Rundell at breakfast! I am very keen to check out her recent book about poet John Donne and her new novel Impossible Creatures.
I even splurged on a new hat at Fabhatrix!
Huge thanks to Festival Director Nick Barley, who's stepping down this year; he's put a lot of hard work and passion into making the festival happen, along with an enormous team. To Jenny Niven, who's taking it forward, to Children & Schools Programme Director Rachel Fox for inviting us, Zsuzsanna Parry for managing logistics, and to everyone who made it happen!
Big thanks to St Peter's RC Primary and all the schools that came along and drew Adventuremice with us!
One homeschooling family brought their handmade Adventuremice along with them!
I love it when people tweet photos of their drawings afterward; we try to look at them all during and after the event, but when there are hundreds, it can be quite a rush to see all the details! These two Pedro pictures are lovely:
It wasn't just the hundreds of children in the theatre, many were watching live online as well! (Hello, Inch View Primary!)
It was great to see our latest Adventuremice book recommended in the festival Waterstones bookshop. If anyone wants to find out more about the Adventuremice or access free activities (or Teacher Packs!), you can visit our website, Adventuremice.com.
Obligatory author photo wall! (Photo by Róise Nic an Bheatha working in the Authors Yurt - thanks, Róise!) And dress, of course, by Esther Blessed.
Since we were already going to be up in Edinburgh, our fabulous DFB publicist Fraser Hutchinson checked in with Scottish Book Trust to see if they wanted to do any events with us, and they did! And the really exciting bit was that they arrived to collect us IN MY CAR!!!
Way back in 2016, after my husband Stuart and I went on a week-long Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour with Scottish Book Trust, they commmissioned me to make the image files that they would turn into car decals. (Here was the blog post about that!) Hundreds of authors have toured Scotland in 'my' car, and often posted photos, but I'd never had the chance to see it in person.
I was VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS.
And we visited schools! Where there were lots of other schools packed in all together to see us! Here at Grangemouth High School in Falkirk, we presented Adventuremice to children from Bowhouse Primary School, Beancross Primary School, Moray Primary School, and Sacred Heart RC Primary School, who were full of enthusiasm and great fun.
Here was out team for that! Most excellent Principal Librarian Falkirk Council Children's Services Yvonne Manning organised logistics and book sales, and here you can see our Scottish Book Trust team: Reading Schools Project Manager Liam McCallum and Reading Schools Co-ordinator Clara Owen.
Then we had a tremendous lunch that Liam had put together, complete with Giant Cupcakes:
And then we did another big Adventuremice assembly at Cuiken Primary School, also with Cornbank Primary, Sacred Heart RC Primary, Mauricewood Primary and Strathesk Primary schools.
Thanks so much to all the schools who came along, to the children for drawing Pedro with us, and to Deputy Head Kimberley Hughes for hosting! We hope you enjoy reading the first two Adventuremice books, Otter Chaos and Mermouse Mystery! And thank you, Liam and Clara for driving us around and keeping everything working so smoothly!
One other thing: for years we've had a terrific relationship with super-teacher Susan MacDonald from Leith Walk Primary School. Susan just retired (and had the most magnificent send-off, with tears!) and we made a point of meeting up with her. She brought along seven of her former students and a teacher to a cafe and we had drinks, chatted, and I did some drawings. It was great to see them all, and catch up with Susan!
Sadly we missed the Mog show, but we did manage to catch an early evening music performance on the Fringe by top California rock chick Holly Penfield.
And I ran into fellow author Katherine Rundell at breakfast! I am very keen to check out her recent book about poet John Donne and her new novel Impossible Creatures.
I even splurged on a new hat at Fabhatrix!
Huge thanks to Festival Director Nick Barley, who's stepping down this year; he's put a lot of hard work and passion into making the festival happen, along with an enormous team. To Jenny Niven, who's taking it forward, to Children & Schools Programme Director Rachel Fox for inviting us, Zsuzsanna Parry for managing logistics, and to everyone who made it happen!