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| TFL red paper - a proper London red. |
We had a most excellent school visit last week to Tidemill Primary in Deptford http://www.tidemill.net
What a marvellous, magical school full of wonderful kids and fantastic teachers - Alex and I left on a total high having been made to feel so welcome and so special.
One of the children had covered a whole page with writing and drawings based on London Calls and several poems from Okido magazine, rating Alex Barrow a 'brilliant' illustrator. You can't see the images very well here but it's such a great piece of work (on TFL red paper) that needed to be posted. Year 1 accompanied my reading/Alex's illustrating of London Calls with 'actions' for all the London landmarks, different forms of transport and everything in the book, basically - it was awesome! We had a very special morning at Tidemill - thank you so much for inviting us.
We learnt that the children had been looking at our books and lots of other work by us for several weeks. Fantastic drawings and research - and brilliant poems. The kids used "If I were…" as a template, describing some of the landmarks, vehicles and characters from London Calls! instead. (What a clever idea)
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| Christina's new double decker bus |
The poems were then typed-out and it was interesting to see that the teachers kept the original spelling, rather than correcting it.
When I wrote things as a kid, my mother never corrected my spelling as she believed it would 'stifle my artistic flow'. I'm sure she was right as when the muse strikes you just need to get it down on paper asap. But my spelling is still absolutely dreadful as I fear I never did learn how to spell certain words...
When I wrote things as a kid, my mother never corrected my spelling as she believed it would 'stifle my artistic flow'. I'm sure she was right as when the muse strikes you just need to get it down on paper asap. But my spelling is still absolutely dreadful as I fear I never did learn how to spell certain words...
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| This makes me sound much more interesting that I really am… (Love the blue shoe) |
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| Books, Art and 'beautiful shoes' |
Because I work with such a brilliant illustrator, I rarely illustrate my own poems, so it's a great pleasure to see the children's response to my own artwork in their above research projects.
The dynamic between words and illustrations is intriguing and Alex and I are quite instinctive about it, but also very aware of it. I always get terribly excited to see Alex's interpretation of my work because he inevitably adds an extra narrative dimension. In this way, the words and drawings enhance one another and dance together - a bit like notes in a piece of music.
You could say a poem is words that make music and an illustrated poem, a whole symphony…but that might be going a bit too far.
Sometimes I write in response to an idea or illustration that Alex has already done. That's how A Possum's Tail evolved - we went backwards and forwards with ideas, words and illustrations, which I think is probably quite an unusual way to work. We're working on something at the moment which comes from an idea Alex had in an earlier issue of Okido. Watch this space…
In the meantime, check out these amazing poems!
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| "I'd be wish-washing loudly as a noisy sea monster" |
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| "If I were a pearly queen I'd be sinning (sic) I'd be signing bountifully" (sic) |
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| "If I were a tiger in London zoo I'd be roaring. I'd be roaring loudly. I'd be roaring as loudly as people shouting." |
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| "If I were a soldier I'd be marching. I'd be marching sensibly" (Quite right) |
"Roaring as loudly as people shouting"
(Possibly the title of the next book…?)
