I love being surrounded by people who are just as nerdily excited by children’s books as I am. Being an author and illustrator can be quite an isolating job. You spend a lot of your time in a room on your own colouring in for hours on end. So it’s great to go out and talk to actual humans. Also, being able to hear all my students exciting ideas and sit down and refine those ideas and problem solve really keeps me on my toes. I think being a teacher makes me a better illustrator and being a practicing illustrator makes me a better teacher so the roles connect well. Huge congratulations to Elys for winning the picture book category at The Lollies, all the books were voted for by children. We think it’s a worthy winner, we find more humour in the story every time we read it 🙂

Interview: who will you interview and what newspaper/ magazine will the interview be in. This will influence your choice of vocabulary to support the correct level of formality. Job advert/application: Mr Bunny has advertised a job – write the advert. Write in role to apply for the job. Tässä kuvakirjassa Pupulla, eikun anteeksi Herra Pupulla on suklaatehdas. Suklaatehdas tuottaa suklaamunia, jotka munii lauma kanoja. Herra Pupun salaisella reseptillä loihditut suklaalevyt syötetään kanoille, jotka sitten munivat suklaamunia liukuhihnalle. Munat pakataan ja kiidätetään kauppoihin. Kirja kertoo siitä, mitä tapahtuukaan kun Herra Pupu muuttuu ahneeksi ja pakottaa kanasensa munimaan entistä tiheämmällä tahdilla suklaamunia... Write about real events, recording these simply and clearly write simple, coherent narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real or fictional). This is THE perfect book for Easter, and I will definitely be re-reading this book during that time. It got all the ingredients for Easter, from the chocolate eggs to chocolate bunnies.Share what you both liked about the book – this might be to do with the story or the illustrations. Children could design a chocolate bunny producing machine, drawing their ideas on paper or making a junk model.

Do children have a visual prompt of their audience? For example of they are writing a ‘Get Well’ card to Teddy, is Teddy on the writing table with a bandage on his arm? I know you’re a lecturer on the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art. What do you particularly enjoy about this role? Do you think teaching in this capacity has helped your own writing and creative process? Your child could write a letter to Mr Bunny to complain about the way he is treating his workers or make a list of demands for better treatment. Talk about anything that puzzles children for example unfamiliar words or phrases such as ‘crank chocolate production up to the max’, ‘quota’ or ‘poultry’. Tämä kirja oli oivaa lukemista ennen pääsiäistä. Suklaaövereiden, sokerinsyömisen ja terveellisten elämäntapojen kontrasti oli kirjassa mielestäni tuotu esille loistavalla tavalla. Meillä kuulijatkin miettivät, oliko suklaansyömisessä nyt päätä, häntää, pyrstöä tai edes sitä suklaamunaa, mikäli kanoille tuli niin kovin kehno olo.How difficult is it writing something that aims to make children laugh and think? How do you balance the two? Features of specific genre should be taught first and form the main body of success criteria (grammar objectives should be secondary). Things escalate after the campaign and I was just laughing, those wasps and their bubbles were brilliant, especially those with emojis. I do have to say I will be looking at chocolate eggs in a new light. I know where eggs come from, but you generally don’t eat the shell + the shell has been cleaned, but knowing that chocolate eggs just get layed like that? Um, nah, no thank you.

Teachers could use Chatterbox too – children take photos of the picture in the book and record what the character might say. Non-chronological report: imagine Mr Bunny gets a visit from the ‘Health and Safety Department,’ what will the report say?

At EYFS, writing tasks work best if children can relate to the experience (concrete rather than abstract).