Find out what Anthony Browne has been doing in his role as Children's Laureate
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Celebrating the Children's Laureate in Edinburgh
Posted Monday September 6th 2010
by Katherine WoodfineAnthony Browne visited the Edinburgh International Book Festival for his second time as Children's Laureate for two events at the end of August.
An audience of teachers were kept on the edge of their seats by an exciting sneak preview of Anthony's forthcoming memoir, which will be published by Random House Children's Books in March 2011 in an inspirational event chaired by Nicolette Jones on Thursday 26 August.
Anthony also appeared in a second event the following day alongside fellow illustrator David Roberts. The illustrators offered an intriguing insight into their techniques and influences in this entertaining picture book themed event, chaired by Catherine Rayner.
As part of the visit to Edinburgh, colleagues, supporters and partners from Scotland joined Booktrust staff, members of the Children's Laureate committee, and representatives from some of the publishers who support the Children's Laureate to celebrate Anthony's activities in Scotland, and in particular the Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour organised by Scottish Book Trust, which took place in May this year. Speaking to the assembled guests about his experience, Anthony described the tour as the highlightof his first year as Children's Laureate, and mentioned the family event at the National Galleries…
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Evie Wyld on Gorilla
Posted Friday September 3rd 2010
by Katherine WoodfineBooktrust’s online writer in residence, award-winning author Evie Wyld has written about the power of picture books – and Anthony Browne’s classic Gorilla - for the Booktrust writer in residence blog.
In a piece entitled Children's Fabulous Nightmares, Evie, whose debut novel After the Fire, A Still Small Voice was the winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2009, writes about why the darker aspects of children's literature are so important, referencing books by picture book creators including Maurice Sendak to Alexis Deacon as well as Children's Laureate Anthony Browne.
Of Gorilla she writes “the story is dark - a young girl is continually let down by her father, and then (in my child¹s head version of the story which differs slightly from the truth) a gorilla steals her, and may have consumed the father as well, seeing as he is wearing the father’s coat and hat. But Browne’s drawings are so spectacular, as a kid they introduce a new and unnamed emotion - melancholy.”
Read the post in full here.
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Win a visit from Anthony for your school!
Posted Thursday September 2nd 2010
by Katherine WoodfineSeptember is here, the new school year is underway and here at Booktrust we’re already starting to gear up for this year’s Children’s Book Week celebrations.
Children’s Book Week is an annual celebration of reading for pleasure for children of primary school age which takes place in the first full week of October. This year’s Children’s Book Week takes place from 4-10 October and the theme is ‘books around the world’.
Free teachers’ resources, including posters and stickers have already been to all state primary schools and public libraries in England, packed with ideas, activities, book recommendations, useful contacts and information to help in planning a celebration of reading for pleasure. Anthony wrote the introduction to this year’s teachers’ pack, which can also be downloaded in electronic format from the Children’s Book Week website here.We are especially excited about this year's Children's Book Week competition for key stage one and key stage two pupils. For Children's Book Week 2010, we're offering a very special prize to the overall competition winner - a visit from Anthony for their school! To win this fantastic and unique prize, we're asking children to imagine they are going on…
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Bear’s Magic Pencil – and a magical tea party celebration
Posted Tuesday August 24th 2010
by Katherine WoodfineEarlier this year, Anthony teamed up with The Sun newspaper and HarperCollins Children’s Books on a national competition to inspire children to be creative and use their imaginations. Children were invited to complete Anthony’s story of a bear who is constantly finding himself in peculiar situations, and uses his magic pencil to draw himself out of trouble.
Now the artwork of ten winners will be published alongside Anthony in a new book Bear’s Magic Pencil, due to hit bookshelves in September – and all royalties from sales of the book will be donated to Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity.
Last week, all 10 winners joined Anthony for a special tea party to celebrate the publication of this exciting new book at the HarperCollins offices in London.As well as meeting Anthony, the winning children had the chance to find out all about how the book was made, and received their own copies hot off the press, plus goody bags and £100 each of Waterstone’s vouchers.
Anthony said: "Thank you to all the children who entered this competition and proved that all youngsters…
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Building Blocks: The Generate Exhibition 2010
Posted Friday August 20th 2010
by Katherine WoodfineLast week, Anthony Browne was the special guest at the opening of Building Blocks: The Generate Exhibition 2010, in Margate.
Generate is a dynamic artist-led project which explores and promotes creative exchange between generations. Working closely with Turner Contemporary, Generate are investigating how their artistic practice as adults can be influenced through the creativity of their children, with the results on display in this exhibition.
“This is one of the most exciting projects I’ve seen,” said Anthony, who was intrigued by the differences and similarities between the artworks by both children and adults. “With each family you can see a connection, but they are all still different as well – it’s fascinating to see... It’s a great idea for adults and children to work together.”
Listen to an audio interview with Anthony about the exhibition or visit the Turner Contemporary website to find out more.
