Phlegm - beautiful illustrator

Been looking for an illustrator to work on some children's stories I have written and asked the fabulous UK graffiti artist Phlegm if he could help me out.

Sadly the Sheffield based creator is waaaay too busy creating his incredible and unique work.

But I thought I should share his wonderful images with you anyway.

http://www.phlegmcomicnews.blogspot.com/

Dead Moles called Barbar

"We called him Barbar", they said as they ran in.

Barbar was a very tiny still mole, long snouty nose and very much dead. Fortunately no gaping holes, maggots or innards - just whole mole.

Boo put him in a toy car and pushed him around, "he's sleeping mummy". We transferred Barbar back to his natural habitat and washed our hands.

I admire the innocence and curiousity of small children, their natural loving and nurturing sense and their sense of sweet justice, for Boo: 'he's just sleeping'. For Fealte: 'has he gone to heaven mummy?'

World Book Night - Success@!

'Do you read?', was my opening clanger, of course you do, but do you actually read?

For me reading is as important as breathing, having a stash of books by my bed is a must, so to be given a book, recommended a book is always a great pleasure, it is one of the enduring features of many of my friendships. World Book Night was created to celebrate just this, the love of reading and the importance of sharing great books.

As one of the army of 20,000 volunteers who on Saturday night was enlisted to help hand out 1,000000 books across the UK, I took to the streets of Bournemouth and also this week Bath.

A lot of people answered no to my question of do you read, as I stood clutching my book. In fact I was shocked at the sheer number of people who just do not read books. However, the folks who did after realising that I was not pushing a pseudo religious text they were genuinely very grateful and even excited.

I adored the experience and will definitely apply to be a volunteer again next year.

World Book Day and Night

Dressed as characters from favourite stories to celebrate World Book Day; our 5-year old twins skipped into class this morning; just two of a handful clutching home-made cardboard and glue costumes and accoutrements the others could have walked out of the Disney store just five minutes beforehand.

My boy is hot with the scissors, glue, stapler and cardboard.

Today is World Book Day and to celebrate Pirate Flinn attended school; chosen from the brilliant Captain Flinn and Pirate Dinosuar stories written by Giles Andreae, how I wish I had had that simple yet genius idea. Also in attendance was Hans Christian Anderson classic; the Princess and the Pea. My daughter dressed as the forlorn princess who became black and blue all over, having spent the night on top of a pea covered by 20 feather beds and 20 mattresses, proving she is indeed a 'real' princess, she went in clutching her home made box which had perched atop a small, tissue-paper, green pea.

The class was peopled with an amazing amount of princesses this morning, another Pirate Flinn, a tiny Angelina Ballerina, Aslan, a cheerleader, a witch, Buzz Lightyear and a varying assortment of unidentifiable book characters.

On World Book Night, this saturday, I have been selected as one of the first members to give away 48 copies of Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, this was the title I chose from a host of amazing books.

The event is aimed to allow enthusiastic readers to give away copies of a favourite book to fellow-book lovers and also to people who may not have come across it. I am really excited about collecting and handing out my books. I shall keep you posted on my distribution. For more info check out: www.worldbooknight.org.