First up is Quentin Blake. He doesn’t really need any introduction does he? I can’t imagine a UK childhood without at least some Quentin Blake. We have particularly soft spots for his Let’s Join In and Angelica Sprocket’s Pockets.

Perfect for writing thank-you letters on, Blake offers up some lovely writing paper with one of his drawings on. Did you receive any books for Christmas (I hope so!) – then why not use these lovely bookplates to personalise them? And then when you start reading your books you can mark your place with a magic pencil bookmark.

A screenshot from Quentin Blake's website (click to be take to it!)

Andersen Press has heaps and heaps of activity sheets to print off and have fun with. There are doorhangers to colour in and cut out, wordsearches, puzzles, characters to decorate, instructions for making binoulars and pom poms, and also masks! There are projects from many of the illustrators represented by Andersen Press, including David Lucas, David McKee and Chris Judge.

Screeshot from Andersen Press' Kids' Den (click to be taken there!)

Thanks to Library Mice for alerting me to Andersen Press activity pages

There’s a simple answer: David Lucas.

David Lucas is one of my very favourite illustrators (an appreciation which went only deeper after meeting him in the summer), and when I learned he had a new book out about Christmas I couldn’t resist it.

Christmas at the Toy Museum by David Lucas takes the cast and setting of his previous book Lost in the Toy Museum (my review is here) and explores what the toys in the Museum of Childhood get up to at Christmas.

Disappointed to discover the toys themselves have no presents waiting under the museum Christmas tree they come up with a novel but brilliant idea: “Let us not be downhearted! Why don’t we all give each other ourselves?”

The toys have great fun wrapping each other up in beautiful paper and sparkly boxes with ribbons and bows. Then they face the very difficult task (as any child will recognise) of waiting till morning to open their presents.

But there is a flaw in this plan; the very last toy to be unwrapped will have no present himself to open.

Fortunately, overnight the angel on the top of the Christmas tree foresees this situation and on Christmas morning flies down to offer Bunting, the toy with no gift to unwrap, something very special, very magical and full of hope. In fact it’s the sort of thing we might all wish for, although what it is, you’ll have to find out for yourself by getting hold of this beautiful book.

David’s story is simple and elegant, with a sprinkling of fairytale magic over the tale’s profound heart. Of course, for many children Christmas is all about getting new toys, but actually the value of giving each other, giving of themselves, ourselves, of giving time is inestimable, and is an important part of “true” Christmas spirit (both for people who have faith, and those who don’t).

Some readers may feel uncomfortable with this idea of giving yourself selflessly, but it’s an important theme for Lucas. It’s at the core of the first book I read by him – The Robot and the Bluebird – and David discusses different readers’ reactions to this book in one of his recent blog posts.

Whilst I suspect my rational, non-religious approach to Christmas may not be something David shares with me, I definitely share with him an appreciation of generosity, magic, and hope, all of which you’ll find in this book.

David’s stories are very often packed with a lot more punch than they appear to have on the surface, having almost mythic qualities about them, with big powerful themes gently explored. I would be remiss, however, if I only focussed on his storytelling skills. The illustrations in Christmas at the Toy Museum are simply delightful; David mixes a naivety of image with rich patterning, lots of colour (but also plenty of black) with elements of Russian icons, folk art and cubism.

One of David’s leitmotifs in many of his books is the visual scattering of stars, and with this in mind we set about making a star paper chain that could work well as a Christmas decoration.

We folded card (because it’s stronger than paper) and cut out a star in typical David Lucas form to create a chain (just like you would do to create a paper doll chain). Glitter and glue were then used with gay abandon to drench our stars in sparkliness.

Once dry I used paper fasteners to attach each short length of stars together, and then we hung them over our front door.

Whilst we covered the kitchen (and ourselves) in glitter we listened to:

For a family who doesn’t do much at Christmas it’s been rather fun, in a weird way, listening to Christmas music in the middle of November! But here’s something even more fun:

Other activities which could work well with reading Christmas at the Toy Museum include:

So which camp are you in – Glitter fan or Glitter foe? And what do you think about the idea of giving yourself? Is it too much? Too sentimental? Or does it go to the nub of things?

Disclosure: I received my copy of this book from the publisher. This review, however, reflect my own and honest opinion.

Regular blog followers will know that in the run up to the festival I enjoyed being the Just So Kidlit Correspondent, interviewing and reviewing the books of several children’s book authors and illustrators who appeared at the festival. I featured interviews with David Lucas, Mini Grey, Ellie Sandall and Frances Hardinge with my Kidlit Correspondent hat on, but this was just an appetizer for the real thing – meeting them and several more authors at the festival.

First up was Adele Geras, who read from The Ballet Class, one of a series of books she has written about young Tutu Tilly who loves ballet. The books are beautifully illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas.

Adele’s reading was preceded by a dance class packed with little ones dreaming of becoming dancers.

Whilst Polly Dunbar herself wasn’t present at the festival, a puppet show of her gorgeous book Flyaway Katie (which we reviewed here) was one of the highlights of the festival for me.

Produced by Long Nose Puppets, Flyaway Katie was a beautiful, enchanting production – if it comes anywhere near you, treat yourself and book tickets as it’s a very clever production that will have you oohing and aahing and being transported!

Later in the weekend, M and J loved their session with Ellie Sandall. Ellie read from her book Daisy Plays Hide and Seek (which I reviewed here).

Ellie then drew a large version of Daisy which all the children enjoyed colouring in together cooperatively.

Next up was a hunt for Daisys hiding around the site. I particularly liked these bird houses made out of books.

Finally everyone got their own Daisy to decorate, either with collage or crayons. It was a great session!

A revalation for us was Steve Cole, perhaps best known for his Astrosaurs books.

Steve did a sort of stand up comedy routine about all sorts of things from fruit to Latin – he was brilliant! Very funny, very engaging and totally off the wall. He reminded me a little of Ricky Gervais at times, and at others of Eddie Izzard.

Little did I realise what impact seeing Steve would have on our home. I wrote about it yesterday. It’s made me realise what an enormous impact it can have on children (and their parents) when they get to see, meet and interact with authors and illustrators.

Mini Grey was who M and J were most keen to see at the festival and they were not disappointed. Her session was brimming with energy as she enthusiastically read from Traction Man and the Beach Odyssey (which I reviewed here).

I think every heart in the audience beat a little more tenderly when one young boy got up and showed Mini Grey his own Traction man, complete with green knitted suit (just as in the Traction man stories) which his Grandma had made for him.

Mini brought along her own Traction Man and Scrubbing Brush much to everyone’s delight.

Quite a lot of Mini’s session was packed with ideas for making your own books with your kids. She showed us lots of dummy copies she’d made, including a sneak preview of a book of her’s she’s currently working on about toys in space.

Mini generously gave every child who attended her session a gorgeous blank book of their own to write a story – can you imagine how inspiring that was for all the kids there? The girls were so proud to get a cuddle from Mini at the end of her session!

Personally, I had been really looking forward to meeting David Lucas at the festival.

David read both Halibut Jackson (which I reviewed here) and The Robot and the Bluebird, as well as drawing several of his characters and encouraging us all to have a go at drawing our own characters.

To inspire us, he handed out adjective+noun combinations – M got “hairy mermaid” whilst my husband got “spooky rabbit”, and these were the basis for us all to come up with our own picture book characters.

On the last night of the festival I enjoyed sitting round a camp fire with Frances Hardinge.

She read from Twilight Robbery (Fly Trap in the US) and answered questions from an enthusiastic audience! It was very atmospheric.

There were even more children’s authors at the festival but there was so much to do we unfortunately didn’t manage to see them all. Those we missed included The Etherington Brothers (click here for their thoughts on the festival), Chris Bradford, Mark Brake, Steve Hartley, and the team behind Stripy Horse, Jim Helmore & Karen Wall.

You might be forgiven for thinking that the Just So Festival was a children’s literature festival, and whilst there were riches aplenty when it came to great authors and illustrators there was so much more going on too. Secret paths to visit the fairy queen, donkey rides, circus skills sessions, Punch and Judy, an outdoor beach, lots and lots of creative sessions making everything from lanterns to learning how to crochet as well as plenty of live music. It was a jam packed weekend, a weekend to remember for a long time to come.

Disclosure: I received a free weekend pass to the festival in return for my interview and reviews. I’m most grateful for the pass, but it hasn’t influenced my reviews. The festival was tremendous fun, full of creativity and inspiration. Well done to the team behind the Just So Festival!