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Age guideline 4-7
About the event
Guinness World Record breaking author-illustrator Rob Biddulph, who brought entertainment to thousands of families during lockdown with his weekly #DrawWithRob virtual art lessons, will share some of his picture book character creations, including Odd Dog Out and Penguin Blue. Rob will be joined by debut author-illustrator Margaret Sturton whose vibrant book A Fox Called Herbert is a true celebration of being ourselves and supporting our loved ones. It was read by Stephen Fry for Save the Children's #SaveWithStories campaign.
Hear from both Rob and Margaret about why they love illustrating picture books. Learn how they started drawing in the first place, and get insider tips on how and what to draw. Have your pencils and papers at the ready because you’ll join in with not one, but two, draw-alongs!
This event will be followed by a live Q&A.
Buy the Book here: Odd Dog Out - Rob Biddulph
How to access the event
From 1 January 2022, this event will move to our collection of Past Event Videos where you can access all past festival events for a small one-off fee of £5. Go to the top of the page to view Past Event Videos. Please click here to sign up or log in if you are already a member.
Teacher Resources
In this event we’ll find out a bit more about the two illustrators and have some fun drawing along with them both, as well as taking on a fun challenge, that exercises our imagination and practices improvising.
Could you come up with some fun creative challenges like Rob and Margaret did? Can you suggest 3 objects or different materials and see if a friend can suggest something you could make with them? What would you make with the objects Rob and Margaret suggest? Challenge your whole class and see how many different things you could come up with. Could you actually make them too?
Could you create a story based around one of the characters in the Draw Along? Where do they live? Who are their friends and family? What might happen if Herbert met Little Red? What adventures do you think they might go on together?
Margaret’s reading of A Fox Called Herbert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BYlcmVm7WU
Colouring/activity sheets available to download for Margaret’s books: https://www.andersenpress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/TwoCanPlay_Colouring-Sheet.pdf
https://www.andersenpress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/TwoCanPlay_Word-Search.pdf
https://www.andersenpress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Herbert_ColouringSheet.pdf
About the Authors and Illustrators
Before life as a published author and illustrator, Rob Biddulph worked on magazines including Just Seventeen, NME and was Art Director at The Observer. His first picture book, Blown Away, was published in 2014 and was only the second illustrated book to win the overall Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.
Since then Rob has written and illustrated eleven of his own picture books, illustrated many books for other authors and was the official World Book Day illustrator for three consecutive years from 2019 to 2021.
In March 2020 as schools across the globe began to close their doors, Rob posted a teaser video for a draw-along of his dinosaur character Gregosaurus from Happy Hatchday, and that was the start of Draw with Rob.
There are now over 80 videos, with new draw-alongs still added every Saturday, which have been watched over 4 million times on YouTube alone. In May 2020, Rob broke the Guinness World Record for the largest art lesson when more than 45,000 families joined him to draw a blue whale.
Margaret Sturton is a Hampshire-based author and illustrator who studied a BA and MA in Fine Art Sculpture, and subsequently gained an MA in Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art. Margaret’s mixed ethnic heritage inspires her exploration of identity and belonging, and A Fox Called Herbert came to her on a train journey as the words ‘I am a fox’ sprung into her mind. A Fox Called Herbert was also nominated for the prestigious Jhalak Childrens & YA Prize.
Twitter: @margaretsturton | @robbiddulph
Instagram: @margaretsturton | @rbiddulph
Facebook: robbiddulphauthor | margaretsturton
Website: https://www.robbiddulph.com
About the festival partner
This event has been programmed by Bath Children’s Literature Festival.
Bath Festivals is a charity that brings you the Bath Children’s Literature Festival, Europe’s largest dedicated children’s literature festival with a vibrant array of talks and activities for children. They are also responsible for The Bath Festival in the summer which bring the city alive with a celebration of music and books in the beautiful venues and spaces of the world heritage city. By creating innovative and diverse programmes, their festivals inspire and provide unique experiences for residents and visitors to Bath and surrounding areas. Their year-round creative learning programme of hands-on music and literature projects gives children and young people opportunities to gain real-world experience, building their inner confidence and improving communication skills through the arts.