[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-discover-centres-storycloud-goes-live":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Remember that \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/402367.html\">MONSTERVILLE\u003C/a> I mentioned in earlier blog posts, the monster village I designed with Ed Vere, Neal Layton and the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.discover.org.uk/\">Discover Children's Story Centre\u003C/a> in Stratford, east London? Well, this time the Discover gang paired me up with very tall writer \u003Ca href=\"http://www.philipardagh.co.uk/\">Philip Ardagh\u003C/a>, and we came up with a little interactive web story. And so did lots of other fab writers and illustrators whose work you'll probably recognise! So today was the official launch day of the StoryCloud website; the Discover centre threw a party, and the 'pull me' lever got pulled.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_ardagh_pullme2-80fb936116.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI wasn't quite sure who was coming to the party, other than Mr Ardagh, so I was chuffed to bits when I arrived to see him, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.stewartandriddell.co.uk/\">Chris Riddell\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.worldofadam.com/main.htm\">Adam Stower\u003C/a> already there, and I met StoryCloud illustrator \u003Ca href=\"http://carlpearce.daportfolio.com/\">Carl Pearce\u003C/a>. We were all curious to see how our stories had turned out, and poked and prodded the iPad like excited 3-year-olds.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_ipad-be33106296.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's the new \u003Ca href=\"http://www.storycloud.co.uk/\">StoryCloud website\u003C/a>! You'll only get to read the first story on this visit, but Discover will unlock a new story every Monday for eleven more weeks, as part of the \u003Ca href=\"http://festival.london2012.com/events/9000961749\">London 2012 Festival\u003C/a>. The first story's by former children's laureate and writer \u003Ca href=\"http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/\">Michael Rosen\u003C/a> and illustrator \u003Ca href=\"http://www.kristynalitten.com/\">Kristyna Litten\u003C/a>. You can read a bit more about it in today's Telegraph article by Martin Chilton \u003Ca href=\"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9338369/Olympic-StoryCloud-project-is-flying-high.html\">here\u003C/a>. It's fun to look at, but also a great resource to set off kids creating new stories of their own. (Do you know any kids? Why not get them to submit a story! 400 words or less, that's a manageable size.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.storycloud.co.uk/\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_pic2-93bf921e80.jpg\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.storycloud.co.uk/\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_pic1-6e832a98a6.jpg\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for lots more under the cut!-->\\r\nCurrent children's laureate \u003Ca href=\"http://www.juliadonaldson.co.uk/\">Julia Donaldson\u003C/a> (you know, \u003Ci>The Gruffalo\u003C/i> and all that) gave an opening speech to start us off. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_julia_donaldson-90ee4bbaf8.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nMr Ardagh read his short story, \u003Ci>Down the Plug Hole\u003C/i> and I made a little picture of what was supposed to be our character, a small boy named Morris, in the bath, but which turned out to be someone else. Then the audience helped me fill up the bath with an eagle, an snake, an elephant...\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_sarahpic_ardagh-2d33a30bb8.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's \u003Ca href=\"http://www.malorieblackman.co.uk/\">Malorie Blackman\u003C/a> reading her story, \u003Ci>Strange Things Happen\u003C/i> while Chris Riddell draws a pegasus.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_malorie_chris-1f6546a97d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd Adam Stower did a great presentation, giving us important lessons about things one should and shouldn't stick up one's nose. You can catch a glimpse at the page Adam drew, in the background, put together by \u003Cb>Neal Hoskins\u003C/b> and his small-but-good team at \u003Ca href=\"http://www.wingedchariot.com/\">Winged Chariot\u003C/a> press. We had a good laugh about those pink things in the bottles which are, in fact, lungs. It's a lung shop.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_adam_stower1-b3a824538f.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nOne cool thing was that they mixed a few young storytellers in with the pros; here are two of the writers.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_sarah_kidwriters-18a72702ab.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIt's a great line-up! Here are fab writers \u003Ca href=\"http://www.candygourlay.com/\">Candy Gourlay\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jamilagavin.co.uk/\">Jamila Gavin\u003C/a>, who also took part. Their stories were illustrated by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.deborahallwright.com/\">Deborah Allwright\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.leewildish.com/WIldish_Illustration.html\">Lee Wildish\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_candy_jamila-a03e47a95b.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThe Discover centre had polished up their fancy tea cups specially for us! You can just catch a glimpse behind me of one of the characters in our story.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_sarahardagh_tea-aa5427ee26.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nNom nom, it wasn't just tea.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_ardagh_treats-63435c4a53.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere are story pair Candy and Deborah and, oh look, Candy just noticed that her scone is a holy relic.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_candy_deb_scone-e7155a33da.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's Discover's fab director, \u003Cb>Sally Goldworthy\u003C/b>:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_sal_goldsworthy-89cabf71bf.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nLeft to right, here are \u003Ca href=\"http://www.elissaelwick.co.uk/\">Elissa Elwick\u003C/a>, Candy, Adam, Kristyna and Chris. ...This sort of thing seemed to happen a lot while we were taking photos.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_group1-baafc9ac1d.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_group3-a02f83b907.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThanks, Discover, for a lovely day out! If you have kids in London, keep your eye on what Discover gets up to, they always have loads of amazing things going on for them. They're just around the corner from London's main Olympics site.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_sal_julia_alison-fbbd6c02db.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd, of course, don't miss the stories on the StoryCloud website. Lots of good things lie in wait!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_ipad2-84621a9e04.jpg\">","2012-06-18T22:56:00.000Z","discover-centres-storycloud-goes-live",[],"discover centre's storycloud goes live!",1776628721985]