Half term activity sheets

With half term just around the corner and the sun still not quite shining, we've put together a bumper selection of downloadable activity sheets, perfect for keeping little hands busy. Join the dots, match the pairs, colour, cut, create and get crafty! Check out all the different activities here.

Stick!

Stick!, the debut picture book by Andy Pritchett, has only one word in it - stick! Hilarious, energetic and beautifully simple, Stick! is all about an adorable little puppy, one stick, and his quest for a friend. Today we go behind the scenes with author-illustrator Andy Pritchett, who tells us how the book came about...

Where did you get the idea?
I guess the idea for Stick! came out of the fact that I’m much better at eating cake than talking to people. There’s a saying ‘Write about what you know’ so when I was thinking of creating a picture book, an image popped into my head of animals having trouble connecting with other types of animals. For example, cows could talk to each other about grass until they came home, but what would they have to say to a dog or vice versa? The first image here shows that initial idea scribbled on a bit of scrap paper (I always forget to carry a sketchbook with me)


There aren’t many words are there?
No, in fact originally there weren’t any words at all. The ancient Egyptians didn’t need letters to make words and tell stories, they used pictograms (called hieroglyphics) and who am I to argue with thousands of years of ancient civilisation?

The sales department of Walker Books had different ideas though, so after a lot of too-ing and fro-ing it was agreed that the book would have some words, but one pictogram stayed in, can you spot it?

Were there any other changes to the story?
Looking back through all the scribbles I made when creating Stick! there aren’t many changes from the first version I showed to Walker. The ones that have been made were crucial though. You can thank Lucy and Maria, my editors, and Ben, the art director, for that, I’d never have thought of them! The most important was the main little dog character. You can see the differences in the second image here, when you compare the first spread of the story I showed to Walker and the same spread when I did the rough for the final book.

How do you create the images?
I worked out the book plan by hand in pencil. I then scanned this in, had a think about it and then moved bits around on the computer in a program called Photoshop. This is also when I thought about the colours throughout the book. I printed various bits out, put them on the wall and then had more of a think about the story or if the images were right. Stick-on-notes on these print outs come in handy when trying out different words or poses.


All the line work is drawn by hand. I traced the final images onto layout paper with a black pencil to get a nice crumbly line and then scanned them into the computer. Everything else is created in Photoshop and then Ben added the words and made a lovely cover.

When it comes to picture books I’m a big fan of Ed Vere, Mo Willems and Dick Bruna amongst others. I think that’s quite obvious when you look at Stick!


Do you have a dog?
I’ve never owned a dog, (or cow, pig or chicken!) but I have a cat. She likes chasing sticks, leaves, string and me when I have a glass of milk. 

Andy Pritchett

Walker Dogs and their sticks!

Here at Walker Books we LOVE dogs (and cats and cows and pigs and chickens for that matter, but especially dogs), so much so that we often bring our dogs into work with us. So to celebrate Andy's new book, we couldn't resist sharing some photos of our furry friends with their favourite sticks! 

Stick! Competition

If you have a dog (or any pet for that matter) that just can't resist a stick, then send us a photo and our favourite one will win a copy of Stick! by Andy Pritchett. Either email us at marketing@walker.co.uk or Tweet us the picture @WalkerBooksUK by Friday 3 May.

Be one of the first to get a copy of Stick! and find it at your local bookshop.

The story behind the shadow

Shadows are magical things; they follow you around everywhere, they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and when you're just a small rabbit they can be pretty scary! Philippa Leathers tells us about the inspiration for her gorgeous new picture book The Black Rabbit...

The main character in my picture book The Black Rabbit originated from an animation I made years ago at college. A small white rabbit only had a small supporting role, but I liked him so much I wanted to use him in a story of his own. The way he was drawn with short, stumpy little legs meant he moved in a certain way. I loved the way he ran, his short legs meaning he comically wiggled from side to side and had to put in a lot of effort. 
 

 
It can be such a long process to get the story right and sometimes I will go back again and again revisiting ideas. Ideas are all around us, but it can be hard to recognise them and after a long time spent looking for the plot idea for The Black Rabbit, one day it just popped into my head. I have my own two little house rabbits who are always together, following each other around. They are easily spooked and can jump at the smallest noises or movements. I had been drawing Rabbit running in different situations when the saying -scared of your own shadow popped up. I then wondered what would happen if there was real danger?


I find it easier to write and illustrate the book together and try to balance the words and pictures. If the pictures show something, this does not need to be repeated in the text, which I like to keep very minimal. There needs to be a good interaction between the two. If the story can be told in a better way with a picture then the text can be as minimal as possible.

Illustrating The Black Rabbit was a bit of a challenge at times as my baby daughter was only a few months old and I had to pick up my paintbrush whenever she napped. The illustrations are drawn with pencil and then painted mainly with watercolour but I use ink and coloured pencils too- anything I think will work best and then I tweak the final illustration a little digitally.

The story The Black Rabbit is about a rabbit who is afraid of his own shadow, seeing it as a large frightening creature who follows his every move.  Rabbit tries to escape this large black rabbit and eventually in the deep, dark wood, manages to do so, only to encounter something more dangerous…. I hope you like it.

Join in the fun and download your Black Rabbit activity sheet here.
Find The Black Rabbit at your local bookshop here.

Bye-Bye Baby Brother! by Sheena Dempsey

This month, we're very excited about Bye-Bye Baby Brother!, a gorgeous new picture book all about new babies, busy mums and a little girl with a very BIG imagination! In the exclusive guest blog post for Picture Book Party, author-illustrator Sheena Dempsey tells us all about how she came up with the ideas for her debut picture book...

Bye-ByeBaby Brother! began as a quick MA project that took only a few weeks to put together, but it was a long journey before it became the final version that it is now. It all started with the idea of a bored little girl at home trying to get her busy mother’s attention and going to all sorts of lengths to do so.

The baby character was introduced early on, without intentionally choosing a universal theme, I thought, how absolutely annoying must it be to have a usurper baby come along when you are three years old? Although I’m the youngest in our family, it’s easy to imagine the frustration. 

My initial draft had some slightly sinister humour and I think that was what attracted me to this idea at first, the scope for mischief. How many ways could Ruby rid the family of her baby brother and have her mother all to herself?

There were several pictures trying out different ideas in this first draft, feeding him to Rory (Ruby’s dog), throwing him away with the rubbish, hiding him in the coal bunker, flushing him down the loo and putting him into the washing machine.

The trouble with this line of thinking is that it’s too risky to depict these things happening in a picture book as some disturbed children may try to imitate the evil deeds in real life and then there would be all kinds of horrible lawsuits and the world as we know it would end. So I had to come up with less dangerous ways for Ruby to get rid of Oliver that couldn’t actually be re-enacted in real life. I drew and re-drew several different scenarios, some were vetoed for still being too dark (e.g. hiding Oliver up the chimney) until we settled on the four that are in the book. The style of drawing changed and became softer to suit the content and the overall result is a much younger book and a gentler story with more emotional depth, hopefully at not too much of a cost to the humour.

On my Masters course, it was drilled into us by one of our course tutors that doing proper roughs is paramount. His refrain for the year was: “Work everything out in the rough first, the angle, the composition, all the details before you do the finished drawing”. However, this vital piece of information just fell out of my head and for some reason that remains a mystery to me, I didn’t really do proper roughs for Bye-Bye Baby Brother! I did very loose, rough ones which didn’t really cut the mustard when it became time to make the final artwork. I was jumping from thumbnail type drawings to final artwork and I made things very difficult for myself, especially as I was so new to illustration. So that was one nugget that I learned about myself and can pass on – if you hand-draw everything, very detailed and finished-looking roughs to work from for final artwork are extremely useful. It’s all a learning curve.

To make my final artwork, I use a lightbox (well, it’s a glass desk and an Ikea lamp which works even better) to trace over my (now-very-detailed) rough drawings. I draw very lightly in pencil on hot-pressed paper and then go over it with pigment liner pens and then rub out the pencil. Then I paint everything in with Schmincke and Lukas watercolours.

I work from home in my flat in southeast London. 

Join in the fun and download your Bye-Bye Baby Brother! activity sheet here. 
Find Bye-Bye Baby Brother! at your local bookshop here.

Win the latest picture books from Walker!

We're welcoming in the new season with a new name for our picture book blog - Picture Book Party! Join in the fun and discover the best new Walker picture books, go behind the scenes with the authors and illustrators, get activity sheets and win prizes. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guest blog posts from author-illustrators Sheena Dempsey, Philippa Leathers and Chris Haughton, plus new fun-filled activity sheets and much, much more!

To subscribe to the Picture Book Party quarterly newsletter simply click here and we'll keep you up to date with all the latest picture books. Everyone who subscribes before 30 April will be entered into a competition to win a set of Walker's latest picture books, including Sam Who Went to Sea by Phyllis Root and Axel Scheffler, Bye-Bye Baby Brother! by Sheena Dempsey, The Black Rabbit by Philippa Leathers, Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton, plus a gorgeous Oh No, George! limited edition print.  Good luck!

To be eligible to win, please join our newsletter here.

By subscribing to our newsletter, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions. Your details will not be shared with third parties. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Breadcrumbs, bakers' hats and working with Allan Ahlberg...

This week we are giving three cheers for a food that we all know and love - the deliciously simple loaf of bread!  Hooray For Bread is the brand new playful picture book from Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman, telling the story of a loaf of bread, slice by yummy slice! In this exclusive guest blog post, illustrator Bruce Ingman reveals what it's like working with Allan Ahlberg and tells us just how he managed to create the perfect loaf of bread...

 "It doesn't matter how many words Allan crafts to make a story, two or two thousand, you can always rely on him to provide rich inspiration for illustrations. He is the master of picture books and I still get excited at the pure joy of collaborating with him. Hooray for Bread was no different. As soon as I received it, I was off. Even the change of style to appeal to a younger audience seemed to come naturally.

The challenge came with choosing the loaf of bread worthy of the star billing. So of course I felt compelled to do my research thoroughly and audition many, many loaves, a baker's dozen or so at the very least.

People often ask if my characters are based on anyone in real life and this time I can honestly say yes. I knew that loaf of bread. It glowed out at me from a freshly baked selection in a village shop in west Cork. I knew at once it was the one! A photo of it in all its glowing glory and delicious gorgeousness was soon pinned up in my studio for reference.  So the story was soon on its familiar journey from words to picture book. To begin with I'm given the freedom to tear off in any direction. Allan comments wisely and David (editor supreme) reins me in -'probably no camels strolling past windows in this one thanks, Bruce!' Ben, the ever patient designer, guides me, prods me and finally saves me from myself and wrenches the artwork out of my grasp.

Although I feel Hooray for Bread may be a little more restrained than usual, I hope it benefits from conveying a cosier family environment. I still enjoyed putting in lots of little details: see if you can spot the dog in bed. And my favourite part is the little mouse at the end eating the last crumb. Much like the best picture books, nothing goes to waste, there's something for everyone." Bruce Ingman

To celebrate in true style, we launched the book at the Illustration Cupboard, a treasure trove of a gallery in St James exhibiting Bruce's original illustrations from the book. Gail's Artisan Bakery sponsored the event with scrumptious loaves of specialty breads and homemade hummus, served by our very own bakers! See if you can spot Bruce Ingman, Allan Ahlberg and surprise guest Axel Scheffler in the crowd...

Join in the fun and download our Hooray For Bread activity sheet for your little ones here. 

The books are selling like hot cakes (or loaves!) so pick up a copy from your local bookshop, or get a signed copy here. If you're in London, don't miss the Hooray For Bread exhibition which is running until 27th February.

Tasty new books for the new year...

To kick off the year, we’ve got some exciting new picture books to refresh your bookshelf, ready to be read, loved, shared and then re-read again and again. Over the next few months we’ll be bringing you cats that do ballet, woodpeckers that just can’t stop pecking, and a dog who just LOVES his stick, as well as the latest from Allan Ahlberg, Helen Oxenbury and Mo Willems – and much, much more!



To begin, we thought we’d introduce you to Nurse Clementine, the brand new picture book by much loved author and illustrator Simon James...


When Clementine Brown gets a first aid kit and a nurse’s costume and for her birthday, she announces that from now she is to be known as ‘Nurse Clementine’! She takes her role very seriously and when dad bangs his foot, mum gets a headache and the dog has a questionable paw, she is right there to patch them up. The only person who doesn’t want her help is her little brother Tommy. But when Tommy finds himself stuck in a tree, can Nurse Clementine help him?


We were delighted when Simon sent us a parcel of his early sketches that
inspired the book, which we couldn't wait to share with you. We asked him where he got the idea for this lovely little story from, and he told us:  “One day I drew a picture in my ideas book.  It was of a little nurse looking after her brother, who had crashed his go-cart”.

This little doodle then went on to inspire the character of Clementine, and the story that followed.  “To create something fresh, surprising and absorbing is a huge challenge and always takes more time than I think it will.”



Rome wasn’t built in a day, and we’re definitely glad Simon took his time creating Clementine. Not to mention the double page spread in the back with all the medical instruments any budding young nurse like Clementine needs to know!


Join in the fun with Nurse Clementine and download your free colouring-in activity sheet here.



Find Nurse Clementine at your local bookshop: