Sarah McIntyre

My friend from Alaska Valisa Higman is staying with me for awhile, and the other day we went to the Museum of London.



Here are some of my highlights, things that were fun or quirky or sweet:

Thrilled that The Reading Agency has chosen Kevin's Great Escape as one of the books for the 2020 Summer Reading Challenge! (Only a couple more days to finish the Pugs-of-the-Frozen-North-themed Winter Mini Challenge!)

You might remember I was the featured illustrator for the year of 'Mythical Maze'; congratulations to this year's illustrator, Laura Ellen Anderson! Find out more about the challenge here.

Happy New Year! I thought I'd post some snapshots from our week-long visit to the Reeve family on Dartmoor over the holidays. Once again, they kindly adopted Stuart and me for Christmas and we had a brilliant time.



These are all out of order but I'll post some highlights. Last time we went to Chagford, we had lunch with artist Alan Lee and visited his studio. This time we got to see where David Wyatt creates his artwork. I love this photo Sarah Reeve took, with Philip Reeve, Alan, Stuart and me gathered around David's big drawing desk.



Here are some recent books David's illustrated: Nine Worlds in Nine Nights, Uki and the Outcasts (the first in a new book series set in the Five Realms of Podkin One-Ear), and one of the Terry Pratchett jigsaw puzzles David does the artwork for.



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What better place to celebrate the Winter Mini Challenge than my local library?



We're rather proud of our library in Deptford, our BIG GOLD library. It's called Deptford Lounge, because it's a huge part of our community in all sorts of ways, and this weekend, together with the Albany Theatre, it was hosting Deptford Live, full of all sorts of performance events and crafts.



Here's the fab team in the children's book section of Deptford Lounge: Victor, Claire and Josephine.



First we drew pugs! If you missed out, you can download a free step-by-step tutorial (and a bunch of other activities) from the Pugs of the Frozen North page om my website. Photos tweeted by Claire the librarian on @LewishamLibs:



And then the audience helped me with lots more drawings and suggestions! Here's a festive Deptford Lounge, and my favourite of their ideas, a screaming Christmas tree:



Oo, and I see staff making some little appearances here:



Thanks so much to Lewisham Libraries and Deptford Lounge for hosting me! If you know anyone who would like to take part in the Winter Mini Challenge and read three books over the Christmas holidays, find out more about it here. And, of course, thanks to my fabulous co-author, Philip Reeve.

What a wonderful surprise this morning! Year-4 teacher Emma Logan has been busy painting terrific murals of our characters all through the corridors of Clifton-upon-Dunsmore CoE Primary School in Rugby and someome at the school has tweeted these photos!!!



Look, it's Zola the Gorgon, Cedric the Centaur, Belling the Dragon and Cardigan Faun from Kevin's Great Escape!



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The Winter Mini Challenge starts today! Hosted by the Reading Agency (who run the official Summer Reading Challenge - nearly a million children take part!), this year it features Pugs of the Frozen North! All kids need to do is read three books, log them into the website, each with a short review, and they'll get a brand new Pugs certificate AND a limited edition virtual badge. It's a great excuse to explore your local library over the holidays!



Find out more here...

Today's drawing for StudioTeaBreak's #MythicalMashup challenge: JACK FROST + EPAULETTES

Big thanks to writer Sarah Broadley for interviewing me about Pictures Mean Business for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators:



...Keep reading here!

Find out more about the Pictures Mean Business campaign at PicturesMeanBusiness.com.

On Monday, Reeve & McIntyre showed up in Flanders to join our Dutch-language publishers at Boekenbeurs, Antwerp's Book Fair. We were thrilled how excited the team at Ballon Media were about our Roly-Poly Flying Pony! Check out that big wooden Kevin!



In that photo you can spot me, Philip, translator of the Kevin books Saskia Martens, publisher Philippe Nuyts, publicity's Jente Lambrechts and our editor Gaëlle Cooreman. And below, you can see the lovely shiny books - Het Verhaal van Kevin and Kevin op de Vlucht - and one of the team modelling the Kevin shirt!



They even had these cool little biscuit boxes for display, Philip and I were well chuffed. Interestingly, several people came up and mentioned how glad they were to come across the book's message of body positivity - Kevin's a very roly-poly pony, but he's happy and great at flying - so that was good to hear.



Here's the books' translator Saskia Martens, who came along to the fair with her family. It was great to meet her; so much of the success of the book depends on her writing skills!

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Big relief, I've just finished the artwork for my next as-yet-unannounced picture book for Scholastic UK, the publishers who last spring published Grumpycorn:



One of my favourite things about going into the office is seeing where everyone works, and meeting some of the people who make the books happen! Scholastic is shaped like a big round loop, so it's possible to run the full circle and see everyone (which I do whenever I get a chance). Here, come along with me for a peek inside. Here's my new editor Fiz Osbourne, who's been working with me on the latest book. She regularly does #AskAChildrensBookEditor question-and-answer sessions on Twitter. I first met her at the Bath Children's Lit Fest way back in 2010, which was her first-ever time accompanying an author on an event trip. It was reassuring because we were both newbies!



Here's fab publicist Louisa Danquah, who set up the Waterstones Covent Garden book party and has been helping me stay organised with events.



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