Thursday August 7th 2025
Dear Diary,
This morning’s event was at Birchfield Library — a small (but mighty!) community-focussed library in Birmingham. I arrived there to see its shelves stacked full, its noticeboards brimming with up-to-date news, and its friendly staff busy helping patrons. So, I shouldn’t really have been surprised when children and their parents started pouring in the minute my event kicked off! I’d been allocated a great space right next to a sizeable meeting room, but it wasn’t long before both were packed and we needed more chairs!!! Fortunately, the staff were prepared for things to get busy, and they had everything in hand.
During the majority of my recent library visits, it’s been my colouring and drawing activities that have been most popular. So, it was wonderful to see so many children eager to get stuck into my writing activities during this visit. And the icing on the cake was getting to meet and spend time with so many aspiring authors… including a nine-year-old PUBLISHED author!
Of all the work produced today, I really loved Ayesha’s book cover and story plan for The Magic Crayon; Lydia’s incredibly detailed book cover and plot idea for her story entitled WARNING: Grans and Dragons Are Friends; Amara’s book cover design and plan for The Rainbow Pool; Parisa’s dragon comic strip and stunning book cover for her story about a scary headteacher; and Keyaan’s hilarious story written under the prompt My Teacher is a Dragon.
And speaking of Keyaan and Parisa, they and their mum presented me with a beautiful bagful of books when they arrived. But these weren’t just ANY books. No! These were the books Keyaan and Parisa have published themselves– two story books written by Keyaan (and illustrated by his older sister, Parisa) and a doodle/colouring book, illustrated by Parisa. (I’ll post more about these brilliant books soon!)
The morning session at Birchfield was over in a flash… although it ran over by such an extent that I was worried I wasn’t going to make it to Tower Hill Library in time for my afternoon session! I just couldn’t tear myself away!!! I had an incredible time there and hope to return with WARNING: Grandma’s Gone Bonkers next year.
If you’re local to Birchfield Library and haven’t yet visited, you really ought to! There’s a super free car park right outside, and everything you could possibly dream of is hidden behind its magical front doors!
