NEW ISSUE OUT PLUS MESSY GOES TO...KOREA!

The new Okido is now out! 

And what's it all about...?

#MessygoestoOkido

#Okidomagazine

#Muscles

POP-UP BOOKS TRIP TO CANVEY ISLAND SCHOOLS!

I was a bit nervous about this day out to Canvey Island, although after reading A Possum's Tail to a room full of 400+ excited children and teachers, without a mike, following the most amazing Book Day costumes catwalk display I have EVER seen (and that's after 14 years with 3 kids at Primary school) I don't know why I worried...if Alex and I could get through that, I could get through anything. (But it must be said that Alex's virtuoso accordion playing won the day, despite the speedy exit of one child with special needs who has an acute phobia of accordions. That's a seriously niche phobia but as Alex sagely pointed out, plenty of average people don't much care for accordions, either...)

In short, the visits to Winter Gardens and St Katherine's Primary schools were among the most wonderful and rewarding trips ever. Needless to say the children were the stars, as is usual. These visits are always super-successful when the kids have been well-prepared by their teachers beforehand; if they've read the books and worked on them a bit, discussed the stories and features and have a few questions about ready, it makes our visit really meaningful. Last year, Tidemill Academy had developed a whole routine with actions around London Calls - they made the shape of all the buildings and bridges and London sights - it was magnificent!

And this year, in the first year 2 class at Winter Gardens, the kids read along as I read them the tale of Samuel Drew and we discussed poetry, rhythm and rhyme (thank God I didn't have to spell them...) and we talked about how words and picture sometimes tell a slightly different story, among many other things. In one class, the children had drawn the most amazing pictures inspired by Alex's illustrations. I was quite overcome...

I spent a whole afternoon in St Katherine's in just one class discussing all things London Calls - they had even prepared questions to ask me about the book and some of the characters they drew in the Magic Bus were from Super Broccoli, illustrated by Alex (of course) in the FOOD issue of Okido! (FYI, they drew the chicken drummer, ketchup and Broccoli himself)

Here is a gallery of just a small selection of their work. Alex had better watch out...the next generation of illustrators are a-comin'...

#POPUPEVENTSCIC

#POPUPBOOKS

#BOOKS

#WORKSHOPS

RUNNING AROUND AGAIN...

I'm running the Bungay Black Dog Half Marathon again, to remember Silas and raise funds for The Brain tumour Charity. This year, I have the support of my friend Claire Gay, who has been battling ovarian cancer with extraordinary courage for the past year. Rather than wanting to raise money for any ovarian cancer charities, however, she was so moved by Silas's story that she wanted to help me raise money for his fund, which goes towards crucial research into paediatric brain cancer.

Have a read about it here: JUSTGIVING

Silas was and continues to be, a massive inspiration in so many people's lives - not just his close friends and family, but those, like Claire, who may not have known him but who recognised that spirit of joy, cheekiness and vibrancy in his beautiful face. He was a little boy who, quite simply, blazed with life for his all-too-brief eleven years. 

Claire too, has been nothing but inspirational to her friends. The courage with which she has faced this bleak and horrible illness has been quite simply heroic. Her love, warmth and wicked sense of humour has shone through even in the bleakest moments. Life just isn't bloody fair.

I guess all we can do is keep going - until we get to the next rather more hopeful bit.

We all keep running when there's nothing else to be done.

So I'm running for Silas and I'm running for Claire - amazing and beautiful human beings, both.

Wish me luck - and more importantly, sponsor me whatever you can spare!

xx

JUSTGIVING

POP UP PROJECTS CIC

Off to Canvey Island tomorrow to talk poetry, possums and London Calls! in two schools as part of...

Pop Up Festival 2016

#PopUpFestival
#childrensliterature
#picturebooks
#illustrations
#poetry

BOOK WEEK & POP UP HUB!

Book Week is HERE! (click for costume ideas)

A cracking start with a couple of workshops with year 3 at Corpus Christi School in Brixton, where the kids knew the answers to all my usually foxing London Calls questions...although they couldn't quite figure out how I have tea with the Queen every day...

On Thursday 3rd March we're visiting Tidemill Academy in Deptford and have the huge honour of being the Author/Illustrator VIPeeps spending the WHOLE OF BOOK DAY at the school, on tap for every literary and/or artistic question or dilhemma imaginable and a 'whole' load of drawing, writing and illustrating fun! So flick those imagination switches to 'on' and hold tight for some exciting storytelling adventures...

And next week I'm off to a couple of schools in Canvey Island, Essex for the next chapter, so to speak. Alex and I were very honoured to be invited to take part in this year's POP UP festival. I'll be visiting 2 schools, reading A Possum's Tail and London Calls and running some workshops based around the books, hoping to inspire, engage and delight...

Pop Up’s Vision and Values

"Our vision is of a more literate, creative society where reading and writing is

valued, enjoyed, celebrated. We are passionate about ensuring children from all

walks of life access the magic of children’s books and their authors, and about

giving children and families the tools to tell their own stories. As such, we are

dedicated to nurturing the storytellers of tomorrow by fostering a lifelong love of

literature, stories and story­making ­ especially in disadvantaged, deprived or

isolated communities ­ and much of our work involves author­led participatory

processes which have the power to transform lives. At the heart of everything

we do is the conviction that by facilitating pleasurable encounters with literature

we can ignite imaginations, inspire future readers and writers, and build more


literate communities."

#APossumsTail

#LondonCalls

#WorldBookDay2016

#Reading

#Writing

#Illustration

#workshops

#literacy

#poetry

#childrensbooks

#books

SPOTLIGHT - a few thoughts on the issues the film raises

A movie depicting the Boston Globe newspaper's 2002 explosive revelation of historic and systemic child abuse in the Catholic church might not sound like hugely entertaining subject matter but it's compelling stuff. Spotlight is a story that needed telling and this well-paced and lucid movie handles the emotive material with a notable lack of hysteria without losing any of the impact. The film offers no easy answers to the many questions it poses - but then that's not the point. This is a dramatic recollection of a series of events that ultimately proves an effective conduit for debate, because like a good, investigative journalist, it pursues a story rather than an ideal.

One of the biggest issues that stood out for me was the idea that the widespread, endemic and *statistically consistent nature of the abuse would seem to point towards some kind of specific psychosis or 'condition'. (This was mentioned by an ex-priest-turned-therapist in a telephone conversation with one of the journalists.)

Are men with particular character traits attracted to the priesthood as a career that offers them free access to children? Possibly. Are some genuine in their faith but find themselves unable to control their urges once they are in such a position of power? Maybe. No doubt abuse happens in other organised religions but the fact that such a high percentage of Catholic priests have historically behaved in this way does seem to point to a specific combination of factors proving toxic.

The abolishment of celibacy for priests is frequently debated, but argue for it as a means to remove or even tackle the potential for abuse and the argument becomes flawed. Repressed sexuality per se cannot be responsible because obviously not everyone who is sexually repressed abuses children. The acquisition of power can lead to all sorts of unpleasant behaviours but thankfully it does not generally or necessarily include the direct abuse of children. And while the legacy of childhood abuse is far-reaching and corrosive, it does not follow that the victim will perpetuate the damage done to future generations. However, add these three components together, throw in the 'titillation' ecclesiastical guilt might provide and it seems you have all the ingredients for some kind of perverted 'perfect storm'. The icing on the cake being the absolute protection offered by the Catholic church; after all, why confront a problem when you can just move it to another parish or better still, a developing country? 

Apart from the phlegmatically evasive Cardinal Law (under whose watch this catalogue of abuse took place and who now *spoiler alert* languishes within the very corridors of power in Rome) no single human 'villain' is concentrated on in the movie because as each journalist peels away another onion skin, the problem is revealed to be far greater than the sum of its parts; the rot lies at the very core of the establishment and too many people have been complicit in its spread. If there is one pervasive thought the film carries it's that: 'it takes a whole village to raise a child and it also takes a whole village to abuse one'. In this way, Boston had become a kind of litmus paper that provided exactly the right sort of environment to nurture the perpetrators of such a fundamentally damaging crime. But Boston of course wasn't and isn't an isolated case, as the comprehensive list of cities and countries at the end of the film makes painfully clear.

So why has there never been a strong, decent and high-ranking enough member of the clergy to tackle this issue, this shuffling, elephantine shadow that lurks within the bosom of Catholic power? Because it would require nothing less than an overhaul of the entire foundations of the Church to destroy it. Time to step up, Pope Francis...? He has addressed it of course; he has apologised unequivocally. And an acknowledgement is a start, I guess.

We know that a mixture of breathtaking arrogance, shame and at best misplaced loyalty has perpetuated and facilitated the cycle of abuse. But now that that the game is up, where do we go from here? There is already a shortage of priests so it's safe to say that anything that might further jeopardise enrolment won't be explored. There are no easy solutions but I do know that unless someone does something to tackle the problem, this could be the beginning of the end of institutional Catholicism in the (so-called) developed world. It's hard enough to hold onto faith in a beautiful ideal when those who administer that ideal prove so wretchedly earthbound. 

One thing is for sure, 'sorry' means very little at this stage. People need to know that something robust is being done.

#Spotlight

*A recent, extensive survey indicates 4% of US Catholic priests were/are abusers. Spotlight suggests that figure to be as high as 6%.

The term 'abuse' in this article refers to 'child sexual abuse'.

Happy National Libraries Day!

#NationalLibrariesDay