I celebrated World Book Day a bit later than the official day (last Thursday) but last Saturday was a lot of fun, nonetheless!
I was the guest of the brilliant Natasha and Jim, who run Chicken & Frog, the only independent children’s book shop in Brentwood, and who provide the warmest welcome in Essex!
It’s a great little shop – a real treasure trove of wonderful books.
Not only that, they run a creative writing club, as well as other tuition services. The back of the shop is set up for writing, drawing and other activities – a fantastic local resource. Do go and say hello (and buy some books) if you’re in the neighbourhood!
It was straight down to business, drawing and creating monsters (with help from some very keen artists and story-makers). Jim & Natasha have kindly let me borrow some of their photos for this report: look how colourful and cosy the shop is!
We made an epic battle between the sometimes evil/sometimes good Dr Frankenspring (and his radioactive shrinking sandwich) and the jelly-like Turkey Bocotpus, whose appetite seemed to get him into trouble. Then it was into the workshop room for some individual monster-making activities. There were some monstrously inventive work going on.
You can download the monster-making sheets from my activities page, if you want to have a go yourself. I’ll be adding more printable things to it soon, so keep an eye on it.
Huge thanks to Chicken & Frog for looking after me – I had a lovely time!