Webchat with Chris Riddell and Michael Rosen on Wednesday 2 Sept 12pm

[TinaMumsnet]

Hello

We're very pleased to announce a webchat with current Children's Laureate Chris Riddell and former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen on Wednesday 2 September at 12pm.

Chris Riddell, is an accomplished artist and the political cartoonist for the Observer. He has twice won the Kate Greenaway Medal – for Pirate Diary and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver. Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse won the Costa Children's Book Award 2013. His other titles include the bestselling Ottoline books, The Emperor of Absurdia and, with Paul Stewart, the Muddle Earth books, the Scavenger series and the Blobheads series. Visit his website to find out more.

Michael Rosen is one of the most popular authors of stories and poems for children. His bestselling titles include: We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Little Rabbit Foo Foo, Michael Rosen's Sad Book, This Is Our House, Tiny Little Fly, Dear Mother Goose and its sequel Dear Fairy Godmother. Michael received the Eleanor Farjeon Award in 1997, and was the Children's Laureate from 2007 to 2009. He is Professor of Children's Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London. You can read more about Michael Rosen on his website.

Chris and Michael have recently collaborated on a new book for young children. A Great Big Cuddle is an illustrated collection of poetry which celebrates all the best things about childhood. Watch the video to see Michael Rosen perform one of his poems.

Do you or your DC have any questions for MR or CR? If so, come and join us on Wed 2 September at 12pm - or if you can't make it, leave a question below.
Thanks
MNHQ

[MichaelRosen]

exbrummie - I've commented on this in a video about three years ago and I've vowed not to comment again. My videos are up on youtube which means anyone can do with them what they want. That's how it is!

[MichaelRosen]

Thanks MagickPants

[ChrisRiddell]

mrsterrypratchett- I wrote Ottoline for my daughter and , even though she is now 22, I still think of her younger self when I write about both Ottoline and Ada Goth.

[exbrummie]

Ok thanks

[MichaelRosen]

sofaloafbanana I think if you spend some time looking at the range of picture books that are coming out, you'll see that there are plenty of rhyming ones. Really!

[MichaelRosen]

Ekorre - thank you very much indeed.

[ChrisRiddell]

I love Rosemary Sutcliff and especially those editions illustrated by the great Charles Keeping.

[MichaelRosen]

W00t, thank you

[MichaelRosen]

ChooChooLaverne
I didn't answer your question about whether I was funny at school. I think so. Sometimes too funny. I should have been working!

[ChrisRiddell]

My favourite poem in a great big cuddle is 'Lost'. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to our designer Liz woods for her brilliant work.

[MichaelRosen]

nico4 My dream jobs - playing in goal for Arsenal, acting at the Royal Shakespeare Company as Sir Toby Belch, being a stand-up comedian, being in a band playing Chicago-style electric blues.

[ChrisRiddell]

Page 45- a young Boris Johnson? I couldn't possibly comment...

[nico4]

Thank you for answering our question.It is the last day of the summer holidays here and we were all crowded round waiting to see if you would answer our question. When you did we all cheered! We just watched "The Watch" and love it! Thank you for all your stories and poems they give us a lot of enjoyment and laughter.

[ChrisRiddell]

nico4- My dream job? illustrating poetry.

[Countrygirl70]

Hi Michael and Chris and congratulations on the book which looks brilliant - and Chris, on being appointed the new Children's Laureate. I was lucky enough to see Malorie Blackman speaking at a festival last year and thought she was amazing.

I wondered what your main objectives are this year during your reign as Children's Laureate and Michael - I wonder whether you think the role is different now to what it was when you were children's laureate a few years ago? Do you think it's become more difficult to get children interested in reading with the increase in digital activities targeted at younger children?

[MichaelRosen]

nico4 - I love it that I've told stories about things that happened to me 60 years ago and these stories can be enjoyed by children today. It makes me feel very lucky.

[nico4]

They sound like great jobs!

[ChrisRiddell]

W00t- Plans are afoot for an Ottoline film but I try not to think about them.

[MichaelRosen]

Countrygirl70
I don't think the role has changed because of time. It changes because of the excellent idea that very different people do the job. And each of these people has a different emphasis in their work and what they're interested in. This draws in different groups of people. That's great.

I personally don't find it any harder to talk to children today than when I started in the 1970s. The only thing that's harder is the context in schools. Many schools find it hard to make space for the free, open reading of books. Everything has to be geared to assessment. I understand totally why schools are doing this - it's to fit in with government requirements. But these requirements weren't worked out by parents, teachers, researchers and politicians working together. They were dictated to teachers.

[TinaMumsnet]

There are still 15 minutes left of the webchat, but I just thought I'd highlight a couple of questions that you might want to answer...

For ChrisRiddell:

Dd(9) would like to know which of Chris' books he likes best. Her favourite is Goth Girl because of the clothes (especially the purple ones) and the jokes - even if she has to have lots of them explained to her when mum starts laughing.


For MichaelRosen

DS (11) would like to ask Michael where he gets his ideas from and whether chocolate cake was about something that really happened to him.

I'd love their recommendations for books for our 'junior book club' - readers are aged 9-12 and both genders so can be tricky to choose for - any ideas/suggestions that we might not have thought of...? I have a certain poetry anthology on the list now ;-)

For both of you

What would your dream job be if you weren't writing/illustrating?

Have you got an advice for an 8 year old boy who loves to read, but hates to write?

Thanks!

[nico4]

Chris it must be wonderful to be doing your dream job. The children hope they end up in their dream jobs too!

[ChrisRiddell]

Countrygirl70-My main plans are to encourage children and parents to draw together as a shared activity and to celebrate the role of school libraries and librarians in creating readers by the work they do. I'm also documenting my day to day progress in visual form and posting up the results in my 'Laureate Log' which you can see on my website and other places.
I've also warmed a breakfast sofa or two and haunted any number of radio studios.
On Sunday I held a toilet door open for Gordon Brown (I was honoured!)

[PlaysWellWithOthers]

Thanks Micheal, He'll be so excited that you took the time to reply!

[PlaysWellWithOthers]

and spelling isn't my strong suit.... especially the name Michael for no apparently good reason

[MichaelRosen]

Tinamumsnet I think somewhere on the thread I've answered all these apart from recommendations for the Junior Book Club...so I would say, start with all the Children's Laureates and choose some books from them. Then make a list of people who you think would be a good children's laureate and choose some books from them. That should cover it!