[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-liverpool-readathon-2018":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"These two weeks, Liverpool readers have been abuzz with the \u003Ca href=\"https://www.liverpoollearningpartnership.com/reading/liverpool-readathon-2018-2/\">Liverpool Readathon\u003C/a>!! I'm a patron of \u003Ca href=\"https://readforgood.org/liverpool/\">Read For Good\u003C/a>, a charity that runs sponsored Readathons in schools to get books and storytellers to kids in hospital. The whole idea of kids helping kids really motivates kids to read, which is great! And it's reading for pleasure, so they can read whatever they like, which is the best way to create readers for life. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/578050_original-2f8c64be1c.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's our team outside gorgeous \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CentralLibrary_\">Liverpool Central Library\u003C/a>: me, \u003Cb>Annie Smith\u003C/b> from Read For Good, and \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/JennyHolderLiv\">Jenny Holder\u003C/a> from \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ReadingatLLP\">Liverpool Learning Partnership\u003C/a>, whose partnership made the whole thing possible! And it's not over! \u003Cb>This FRIDAY at 2pm,\u003C/b> people across Liverpool are going to \u003Cb>Drop Everything And Read\u003C/b>!  \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/577910_original-f2fb10e6a0.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nLiverpool pride themselves on being a City of Readers, and there's nothing more powerful for kids to see than grownups reading, too. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/577593_original-a931bb317f.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for lots more under the cut!-->\\r\nDuring my visit, I went with Jenny and Annie to a 'Teachers as Readers' meeting, an project set up by the UK Literary Association's \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/TeresaCremin\">Teresa Cremin\u003C/a>. The idea is that a lot of teachers would love to share from the huge range of diverse picture books out there, but they're so busy that they often fall back on only using books from their own childhood, or books by the big-name celebs. Meetings are springing up all over the UK, and tables filling with picture books for teachers to look through and discuss. At the end of this meeting, I talked a little bit about my books (\u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.co.uk/dinosaur-firefighters/\">Dinosaur Firefighters\u003C/a>\u003C/i> and \u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.co.uk/the-new-neighbours/\">The New Neighbours\u003C/a>\u003C/i>) and showed them how to draw a Sea Monkey. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/578418_original-5c511dbce0.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nI think drawing's so important to getting certain kids interested in books. It's like cooking: when someone's learned how to cook, they can take a much more educated interest in what they're eating at a restaurant. The same with books, if kids get excited about making them, they learn what goes into making books, and they can much more knowledgeably enjoy and judge the books they're reading. But if you hand children a piece of paper and tell them to 'write a story', a lot of kids (and adults!) will freeze up, or be stuck for ideas. If you lead them through drawing a character, giving it a name, favourite foods, deciding where it lives, stories will come pouring out of them as their character comes alive and looks back from the page at them. (I have a bunch of \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.co.uk/books/\">free how-to-draw guides on my website for each book\u003C/a> if any teachers want to use them.) \\r\n\\r\nI also talked a bit about the \u003Ca href=\"https://picturesmeanbusiness.com\">Pictures Mean Business campaign\u003C/a>, and how kids gain another potential hero when teachers focus on the illustrators of books, and analyse the pictures as well as talking about the books' writers and words. \\r\n\\r\nAnd I got to spend a day in Liverpool! During \u003Ca href=\"https://jabberworks.livejournal.com/789383.html\">my last Readathon visit\u003C/a>, I only ever had free time when the museums were closed, so this time I vowed to come early and have a good run around. Liverpool is incredible, with amazing architecture and so many world-class museums. Here was one of my stops, the \u003Ca href=\"https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-liverpool\">Tate Liverpool\u003C/a>. Check out the colourful floor by Scottish artist \u003Ca href=\"https://www.themoderninstitute.com/artists/jim-lambie\">Jim Lambie\u003C/a>! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/579034_original-c503d72f65.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nIn front of the Tate, the Liverpool Mountain by Swiss artist \u003Ca href=\"https://gladstonegallery.com/artist/ugo-rondinone#&panel1-1\">Ugo Rondinone\u003C/a> made for an excellent, if top-heavy fascinator. And I popped into the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/\">Museum of Liverpool\u003C/a> to check out its rather astonishing architecture: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/579462_original-b92f89afa3.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nMy favourite stop was the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/\">Walker Gallery\u003C/a>, which has an absolutely jaw-dropping collection of art, everything from one of the best medieval tapestries I've ever seen, to major Pre-Raphaelite works, to modern canvases and sculpture. Incredible, and I absolutely need to go back there. I took a bunch of photos to use for the Thursday #PortraitChallenge over at \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/virtual-studio/\">@StudioTeaBreak on Twitter\u003C/a>. (Teachers, if you're looking for \u003Cb>drawing prompts for your class\u003C/b>, we have daily challenges and you and your classes are free to jump in and take part!) \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/579166_original-2d1ef5fe54.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nOne of the absolute best parts of my trip was going to stay with local author \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/frankcottrell_b\">Frank Cottrell-Boyce\u003C/a>, his wife Denise, and their family. I only really knew them from quick conversations at book festivals, so it was great getting to have much longer chats. In the morning, Frank took me for a good long walk along the beach, where we could see the dockyard cranes, the Anthony Gormley statues sticking out of the waves, and huge freighter ships passing by. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/579996_original-733afe6866.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThe beach was cool, too - all the pieces of Liverpool's industrial history, lots of bricks of all sorts. Here's an excellent sea biscuit: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/579752_original-72b2b477ae.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nOkay, enough sightseeing - back to the Liverpool Readathon! My first two events in the morning took place at Liverpool Central Library, which is an incredible combination of old and new architecture: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/578648_original-e6df49fe47.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nI didn't get a chance to take photos, so I'll do a tour of the schools' tweets about the events! Here's one from my event with the younger primary schoolchildren, where I talked about \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.co.uk/the-new-neighbours/\">\u003Ci>The New Neighbours\u003C/i>\u003C/a>, drew bunny characters, and they helped me design an animal tower block. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/580396_original-5d0694ee85.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here are a few from my event with the older primary children, where I read a bit of \u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.co.uk/the-legend-of-kevin/\">The Legend of Kevin\u003C/a>\u003C/i> by \u003Ca href=\"http://philip-reeve.com/\">Philip Reeve\u003C/a> and me, showed them some of my illustrations, and led them in drawing Sea Monkeys (who make a memorable appearance in the book). They also led me in making up a funny story of our own, involving the plunge of a Sea Monkey and pigeon from Big Ben onto the Queen and her cavalcade. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/580794_original-955001ab69.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/580892_original-8c57aef4a6.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/581308_original-827daf2398.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/581455_original-6c52f8a2b3.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/581800_original-949086c5c9.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/582060_original-bd53faeba8.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nOne of the schools had won a visit from me directly to their school, so I rode back on the bus to \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/stclareslpool\">St Clare's Primary\u003C/a>. And they serenaded me the whole way (Baby Shark, Molly Malone), which was a memorable experience! Ha ha, my face in this first photo: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/582304_original-ef78abac91.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nSpeaking of the Baby Shark song, I was pleased to see one of the classes had used one of my activity sheets for \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.co.uk/theres-a-shark-in-the-bath/\">\u003Ci>There's a Shark in the Bath\u003C/i>\u003C/a>: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/582483_original-a3b8f865f8.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd some tweets from the visit: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/582697_original-cc643e60fe.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/583109_original-849caa739c.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nBig thanks to Liverpool Central Library and the staff of St Clare's for hosting me, and to my amazing team of Jenny and Annie, for organising everything, and making it run so smoothly and be so much fun! This week they're bringing author \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/philearle\">Phil Earle\u003C/a> to Liverpool for the Readathon, and I know that will be amazing. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/583928_original-1451af94de.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nIf you'd like to find out more about how you can help Read For Good and getting books and storytellers to children in hospital, here's a great little video. I picked this charity as my own charity to support because I can really see where the money goes, right into those mobile bookshelves and storytellers, for kids who will really appreciate them. Find out more about \u003Ca href=\"https://readforgood.org/\">Read For Good on their website\u003C/a>. And if you want to run a Readathon in your school and get kids motivated to read, get in touch with them!  \\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"4355\"/>\\r\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/221255525\">Books and stories for children in hospital\u003C/a> from \u003Ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/readathon\">Read for Good\u003C/a> on \u003Ca href=\"https://vimeo.com\">Vimeo\u003C/a>.\u003C/p>","2018-11-14T16:01:00.000Z","liverpool-readathon-2018",[],"liverpool readathon 2018!",1776628729865]