It was fantastic to launch the latest Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam Book – ‘The Diamond Chase!’ at the Hay Festival on Saturday May 28th. Seeing children bounding into the venue, full of excitement made me feel very proud to be introducing them to my latest robber on the block; a cheeky, opportunistic penguin-thief by the name of Sidney Scarper who just can’t resist a bit of sparkle!
It’s only when you perform the book to children do you see whether it’s really ‘working’ or not, and so I was nervous, but full of excitement too. Luckily the audience really took to Sidney who was VERY sorry for pinching Lady Kate’s tiara at her party in Woofington Hall. So much so, he did ALLthe washing up!
There was also live drawing for everyone to do. Shifty’s illustrator, Steven Lenton, guided the children through how to draw Sidney, and then I led a craft session so that all the children could make their very own pop up Sidney. It was such a wonderful afternoon and now I can’t wait until the book is in the shops. Roll on July 7th!