[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-space-princess-hits-leicester":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"On Sunday night, Alex Richardson (my fab Scholastic publicist) and I took the train to Leicester to met up with fellow maker of book magic \u003Ca href=\"http://www.tallbean.co.uk/aboutlizzie.html\">Lizzie Finlay\u003C/a>. We had an excellent curry dinner with two comics friends, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.factorfictionpress.co.uk/girly/\">Selina Lock and Jay Eales\u003C/a> and Lizzie's cousin, then spent all of Monday at the Leicester Tigers Rugby Club with 800 enthusiastic Leicester schoolchildren, ages 5-7. Lizzie took on half of them and led activities based her latest book, \u003Ca href=\"http://hotcrossmum.blogspot.com/2010/02/little-crocs-purse.html\">\u003Ci>Little Croc's Purse\u003C/i>\u003C/a>, and I took my 400 into space with \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/new/princess.html\">\u003Ci>You Can't Eat a Princess!\u003C/i>\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester2-493dc7639b.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Lots more photos and drawings under the cut!-->\\r\nAfter I read out the story, I showed them some things I drew when I was a kid (such as \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/52017.html\">angel fink\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/163171.html\">paper dolls\u003C/a>). Then they helped me draw some aliens. In a later workshop, we made up new characters and stories based around a spaceship voyage. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester3-2530d98e74.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI love this space and aliens theme, the kids come up with the greatest stuff. A lot of them used a sheet based on my \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/new/princess.html\">Draw your own spaceship\u003C/a> sheet, but some of them just drew on white paper:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_art7-2ca3502ff0.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_art8-34d5ac89b6.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicesterart1-2b0dd37cff.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicesterart2-9a15607e2f.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_art4-04fc9d8dba.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_art5-b4e7b4343e.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester_art6-7801f4f8ab.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicesterart9-37e0bd9bd4.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicester1-4e4e7ea975.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThanks to coordinator \u003Cb>Ellie Lee\u003C/b> (on far right in the group shot), the gang from \u003Ca href=\"http://thereadingshop.co.uk\">The Reading Shop\u003C/a> and everyone who's been working so hard to make this event happen! That's Alex-the-publicist on the bottom left and a librarian named \u003Cb>Jyoti\u003C/b> in the beautiful purply-pink salwar kameez. The little middle picture is me being interviewed live in front of everyone on \u003Cb>BBC Radio Leicester\u003C/b>, which you can hear \u003Ca href=\"http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p006x36p\">online here\u003C/a>. (Move the little arrow about half-way along the bar, to the 1:08:38 mark.) I like the kid who pipes up that his favourite place to read is on the toilet.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ci>Edit:\u003C/i> \u003Ca href=\"http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Authors-help-make-reading-sessions-fun-Leicester-pupils/article-1936740-detail/article.html\">Click here to read an article about the day in a local newspaper.\u003C/a>  \\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Authors-help-make-reading-sessions-fun-Leicester-pupils/article-1936740-detail/article.html\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/leicestsermerc-a1d5a68f12.jpg\">\u003C/a>","2010-03-23T19:01:00.000Z","space-princess-hits-leicester",[],"space princess hits leicester!",1776628717821]