NCBF Children's Storytellings: Travelling with my SketchBook

I've been off the radar a bit lately, as things are a bit mad here. First, just to make a busy period even more fun, towards the end of last week, my computer decided to take its ball home and refused to start. Dennis, our wonderful Mr Fixit, got it sorted early this week, but by then I was away to Leeds, to do a day of KS1 storytellings with a couple of local schools, as part of a project with the School Library Service.

I didn't come home after that, but took a train straight to Durham, where John had booked me into a hotel, as I had a couple of days doing the Northern Children's Book Festival in the North East. Actually, neither of my events were in Durham, which may sound a bit mad, but I had a plan... 

The NCBF is not based in one place, but in libraries and schools all over the region, so my first day was in Middlesbrough, but day two was in North Tyneside. They are a fair way apart, but I didn't want to trail my suitcase around different hotels: all that packing and unpacking and repacking, when you're already pretty zonked from the sessions, is just too grim. 

So, since Durham is about half way between, I made that my base. Which meant that the following morning I was up early again and back on the train to Middlesborough, so lots of train sketching, as you can see.

The festival events all went really well: 3 sessions a day, each with up to 60 children, all between 4 and 7. One group of 60 all arrived in pyjamas, including their teachers - I felt very overdressed! 

Between the storytellings there were frantic book-signing sessions, trying to not only sign them but also draw a little picture in each, and all this in time for the first batch of children to get back to school and the next lot to arrive! 

Pretty full-on, but excellent fun. The children were all lovely, as ever, and I was full of beans right up to the moment I got back to my hotel each evening. It's like pulling a plug: I collapsed in a heap. I was really pleased to be home come Friday night and John took me out for a cocktail and a curry as a reward. 

Mind you, I was up early again the very next morning, to take a train to Hull for our November SketchCrawl, but that's another story...