[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-grumpycorn-party-at-waterstones-covent-garden":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"London's been VERY hot and then today the sky poured rain; I was a bit worried no one was going to come to our Grumpycorn party in central London on a Saturday morning! But even if no one else had come (and lots did!), I would have been thrilled just to get the chance to hang out with CHIP THE PUGICORN...\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/767618_original-121dc16bdf.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by Stuart Pyle: Hat by \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/eddiesmith3D\">Eddie Smith\u003C/a>, Dress by \u003Ca href=\"https://www.greenwichmarket.london/guide/detail/esther-blessed\">Esther Blessed\u003C/a>\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nThanks so much to \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/WaterstonesCovG\">Waterstones Covent Garden\u003C/a> for hosting! Here's bookseller \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/BalfourOatts\">Josephine Balfour-Oatts\u003C/a> (aka JJ) with the gorgeous unicorn cupcakes that Scholastic publicist Louisa Danquah ordered from \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Flavourtownbake\">Flavourtown Bakery\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/768297_original-5000d0955d.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's our Scholastic team! From the left: \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/LAADanquah\">Louisa Danquah\u003C/a>, my new editor \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/FizOsborne\">Fiz Osborne\u003C/a>, publicist \u003Cb>Penelope Daukes\u003C/b>, bookseller \u003Cb>Ella Wilson\u003C/b> and me. Big thanks to the book's designer, \u003Cb>Strawberrie Donnelly\u003C/b>, who ordered this giant copy of the book so I could read it aloud to everyone and show them the pictures! And to \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/PauliinaPopcorn\">Pauliina Maliinen\u003C/a>, who edited the text! Thanks, too, to \u003Cb>Dean Haywood\u003C/b> and \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/yomikey101\">Michael Korel\u003C/a> at Waterstones for organising our visit. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/767984_original-cdb28bc44e.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by Stuart Pyle\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for lots more under the cut!-->\\r\nI got to read the story out of the giant book: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/768000_original-63bb57abf1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by Stuart Pyle\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nThen I got to show off some original artwork, which I almost never do because I'm afraid it will get damaged. Big thanks to Penelope for bringing that from Scholastic! They're going to keep it a little bit longer just in case they need to make any colour corrections in some of the reprints. (It's been through several editions already!) \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/770917_original-e6d8455af5.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by Branwyn Darlington\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's a photo of some of the book covers we made! I walked them through drawing a front cover and back cover design, and I hope some of them go away and create stories about their own unicorn characters! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/769282_original-3970a1dafe.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by Stuart Pyle\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nIt was fun seeing pictures people had drawn, and I drew little pictures in everyone's books and dedicated them, which was a great way to get a chance to talk to everyone individually.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/770758_original-b50fd1987a.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by Branwyn Darlington\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nWe had people who'd come from quite long distances; one family was here on holiday from Turkey, another from the Netherlands, and here's long-time Livejournal buddie \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/JHGHendriks\">Jan Hendriks\u003C/a> from the Netherlands. He brought me a spoon, and we both had a solid memory that there was definite reason why he had to bring me a spoon, just that we can't remember exactly what that reason was. (We think it might be somehow related to \u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/cakes-in-space/\">Cakes in Space\u003C/a>\u003C/i>, and its alien Poglite characters who collect spoons.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/771352_original-d4106c42c0.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Second photo tweeted by @ScholasticUK\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nHuge thanks to everyone who came along! Here are Twitter friends Caz (\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/skippity_doo\">@skippety_doo\u003C/a>) and Caroline Fielding (\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CazApr1\">@CazApr1\u003C/a>), and librarian Kate (\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Glebelove2read\">@GlebePrimaryLibrary\u003C/a>) with her daughter who's in '3 McIntyre' class! Kate's been following the Pictures Mean Business campaign and her school named all their classes after illustrators! She says it's made a tremendous difference to the children's reading; they see books in new ways, and have got drawing and making comics. They seek out the names of the illustrators who drew the books they're reading, and have even come to be able to recognise our individual styles. Ofsted actually gave them a special mention for the way their kids really loved reading, so it's worked out very well! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/769562_original-070ab08c4e.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photos by Stuart Pyle\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nHere's one of the children's covers, and everyone got to take a book, which kept them busy on the journey home! Louisa made sure there were lots of Grumpycorn activity sheets for everyone (which you can \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/grumpycorn/\">download free from my website here\u003C/a>). \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/771315_original-5a33dea599.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by Branwyn Darlington\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jemimah_knight/status/1155071997791080449\">\\r\nJemimah Knight\u003C/a> couldn't make it in, but sent this lovely drawing:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jemimah_knight/status/1155071997791080449\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/771715_original-6a53f5bb83.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10319365/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1\">Sam Reeve\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SarahReeve3\">Sarah Reeve\u003C/a> had stayed with Stuart and me the previous night and braved the rain to get into town with us: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/769913_original-1dc93f5d2c.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nIt was hard saying goodbye to Chip! Her lovely pug wrangler \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/dottyscotty01\">Sam Scott-Mance\u003C/a> had brought him all the way from Peterborough, and I'd been dying to meet him. His predecessor, the late great Benny Bean had been a real mascot for us when Philip Reeve and I did \u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/pugs-of-the-frozen-north/\">Pugs of the Frozen North\u003C/a>\u003C/i> events. When Chip arrived as a puppy at Sam's, Philip and I became Chip's godparents, a role I take VERY SERIOUSLY... except that I'd never actually met Chip in real life. So now it has happened! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/768947_original-2671647368.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by Stuart Pyle\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nThis was Chip's first trip to London, and the cab driver had already laid claim to him by the time he arrived. He was a bit nervous on the way in...\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/770552_original-4c0ceb7749.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by Sam Scott-Mance\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\n...but pretty chilled out on the way home because just like me, he was very tired! Sleep well, little Chip! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/770068_original-e660863874.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by Sam Scott-Mance\u003C/i>\u003C/font>","2019-07-27T20:03:00.000Z","grumpycorn-party-at-waterstones-covent-garden",[],"grumpycorn party at waterstones covent garden!",1776628730243]