[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-turning-tales-on-moon-lane-into-a-giant-picture-book":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"\u003Ci>\u003Cfont size=\"4\">WHAT\u003C/font> \u003Cfont size=\"3\">is going on here?\u003C/font>\u003C/i>, you may ask!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_george_sausage-f29bbec5b7.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nYou'd never think that Tales on Moon Lane in London's Herne Hill, such a lovely, orderly little bookshop could turn into a den of TOTAL CARNAGE.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_bookshop_exterior-3f0ef60941.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWell, unless you unleash this crew on it. Under the destructive influence of \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/davidmaybury\">David Maybury\u003C/a> from \u003Ca href=\"http://www.childrensbooksireland.ie/\">Children's Books Ireland\u003C/a> at \u003Ca href=\"http://www.talesonmoonlane.co.uk/festival/\">The Sun Comes Out on Moon Lane festival\u003C/a>, illustrators \u003Ca href=\"http://www.garynorthfield.co.uk\">Gary Northfield\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.vegetablefriedrice.com/\">Chris Haughton\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.alexmilway.com/\">Alex Milway\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"http://chrisjudge.4ormat.com/\">Chris Judge\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.bruceingman.com/\">Bruce Ingman\u003C/a> and I wreaked havoc on this place. ...I mean, we turned the whole shop into a picture book with the aid of 50 children. Well, that was the brief anyway.\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for more under the cut!-->\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_bookshop1-9c6a5d3f01.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's the lull before the storm, when we were broken into groups. I brought along my neighbour friend, who did a great job reading a couple of my books to the 7- and 8-year-olds while we illustrators put out heads together and figured out exactly how we'd attack the project.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_storytime-086976f658.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nEach illustrator picked a character from his or her book. I chose Morris, 'cos I figured that if everything turned into a sea of muddy brown paint, we could still add flies and it wouldn't be entirely inaccurate. Here's my group, giving their best manky monster growls.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_monster_growl-9c8a019d43.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThe first page (or possibly the cover) of our picture book was the front window, and Chris Haughton started with George the dog, from his book, \u003Ci>Oh No, George!\u003C/i> He broke the job up into segments, and each kid painted a bit of the dog.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_chriskidwindow-722f3e76e6.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThen Bruce Ingman joined in with his pencil character and a sausage. I can't quite remember how they interacted with George the dog, but somehow they did.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_bruce_kidswall-f1b0a5b8e3.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nOh, the sausage's name is Melvin.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_bruce_wall-5f51fea1a3.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_bruce_wall2-0e1be9a0b0.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWhen they moved over to Alex Milway's section of the wall, the kids were plunged into yeti territory. I can't recall if the yeti were coming to save the sausage or eat it. There were also a king and queen spider that entered the story and played a fairly major role on that page. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_alex_kidswall-9fba0cf404.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWhen Morris jumped into the story, the kids and I decided to show Morris dunking the sausage head-first into the toilet, with George clamping firmly onto its backside.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_boy_sarahwall-85a7c627fb.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThere's a reason the lower half of the wall has much more complexity than the upper half.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_girl_morris-72fe93e119.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_kids_paintmix-e8ffa25185.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAh, and the yeti has arrived, and is pretty put out by the proceedings. The queen spider finds it fairly foul, too. And we have an army of spiders, worms, rats and flies diving into the action. For some reason, I thought Chris Judge had the panel on the other side of the room, next to Bruce, but somehow, during all the chaos, his dark monster showed up right next to Morris. I didn't even see that happen. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_sarahwall-51f5244a07.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nYou're seeing these panels with the kids standing back from them, but in reality, much of the time they had kids two deep clustered up against them, all wielding gloopy paintbrushes.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_kidswall-2ad679c0ba.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nGary Northfield's wall was next. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_garywallpaint-fdde2b01c2.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAll the characters got flushed down the toilet and came bursting up through a hole in the sewer with a massive \u003Cfont size=\"4\">KERSPLODGE\u003C/font>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_garykidswall-19dc555f7e.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nGeorge is still seeking sausages.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_garywall-8de5b4c143.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nA delicate close-up:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_kersplodge-507caa41bd.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nBut painting the walls in the shop wasn't enough. We had to paint ourselves into the book, too.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_davidgarychar-6a20eb032b.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAïeee!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_garyface-9dc4220f1d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nDavid Maybury took it upon himself to decorate Chris Haughton, while bookshop owner and writer Tamara MacFarlane looked on bemusedly.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_facepainting-82e27051d6.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nCan you believe it? Even with 50 kids who all had hands like these, somehow the shop wasn't ruined! I do not know how that happened, there was gloppy paint everywhere, and the whole centre book display and white sofa weren't even covered up. Kind of a miracle, really.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_dirtyhands_girl-9fc2330aab.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThis chappie's moustache was quite dignified and restrained, and no, he did not drop that plate of gloopy gunge. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_moustache_boy-9133ecb20d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nA few more pics to give you a feel for the day:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_threeboys-1a6d9ef326.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe weren't allowed to give David Maybury any caffeine, but still...\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_davidface-a7b82e9b7e.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIsn't this a magnificent front window?\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_frontwindow-3121985108.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's Chris, inspecting one of his George manifestations.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_chris_george-49ac690a0f.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_gary_walldetail-e9d8f4f860.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWhen we were finished painting, all the kids sat down on the floor and we went around 'reading' the whole picture book. Somehow, it kind of made sense. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_alex_wall-a29ec8cff6.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd when the kids had left, David cracked open the bubbly.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_bubblytime-c0741a0523.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's Tales on Moon Lane's back room signing wall, to which we added some doodles. See if you can spot mine next time you visit.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_signingwall-47b3f11d04.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nA little pub stop:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_pub-65b0600f0d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThen back to the shop to kick off the launch of The Sun Comes Out on Moon Lane festival! Here's David Maybury giving a little speech, followed by shop manager \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/shopgirl1981\">George Hanratty\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_speeches-ecd648953a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSeveral student illustators brought along some mockup books they'd made on their courses. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_dummybooks-5e8d758559.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's my lovely picture book designer, \u003Cb>Rebecca Essilifie\u003C/b>! She designed my first Princess Spaghetti book and is putting finishing touches on my upcoming book with Scholatic, \u003Ci>Superkid\u003C/i>. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_rebecca_bruce-6c5cd6510f.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/toml_fest_bookshopwindow-87b8471e42.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSo a fabulous day was had by all. Do visit \u003Ca href=\"http://www.talesonmoonlane.co.uk/festival/\">the website for The Sun Comes Out on Moon Lane\u003C/a> to find out about their star-studded lineup! It runs from now \u003Cb>until Saturday, 7 July\u003C/b>.\\r\n\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ci>Edit:\u003C/i> Ah! Here's a new video, with each of the illustrators talking through their pages of the book!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"1832\"/>\\r\n\\r\nAnd you can read a brand-new \u003Ca href=\"http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_books/2012/07/interview-with-sarah-mcintrye/\">festival-related interview of me by Damyanti Patel over on her Overdue Books blog\u003C/a>!","2012-07-03T18:28:00.000Z","turning-tales-on-moon-lane-into-a-giant-picture-book",[],"turning tales on moon lane into a giant picture book",1776628722042]