Paul: Paul Collicutt on Outreach 2010

The Edinburgh International Book Festival is over for another year and so too is this year's Outreach Programme. We met hundreds of children and young people throughout the 12 events with 6 authors, all of which were fantastic so a big thank you to everyone who took part! Paul, Scottish Book Trust's web editor, stops by the blog to talk about being on Outreach with Chris and the author/illustrator Paul Collicutt.

The kids’ team have asked me to write a bit about my experience of going on EIBF Outreach in two East Renfrewshire schools with Robot City graphic novel author/illustrator Paul Collicutt. It was a brilliant day, and Paul inspired two big groups of primary 6/7s to come up with some fantastically inventive robot designs of their own. But rather than tell you about it, I’d prefer to show you…

This first video gives a little flavour of Paul’s morning session at St. Mark’s Primary in Barrhead, where he handed out sketches of his work, got involved in some hands-on illustration tutoring and talked about the process of telling a story in graphic novel form:

Paul Collicutt - EIBF 2010 Schools Outreach: Barrhead from Scottish Book Trust on Vimeo.

In the afternoon, we headed to Neilston Primary, where Paul inspired an entire gym-hall of children to create various outlandish robots. Observant viewers may spot me in my vital role of ‘Powerpoint button-pusher’ in this video:

Paul Collicutt - EIBF 2010 Schools Outreach: Neilston from Scottish Book Trust on Vimeo.

After it was all done I grabbed a few moments to get Paul’s thoughts on how the day had been. Watch the clip below to hear from the man himself, and to see just one example of some of the inventive creations the children came up with:

Paul Collicutt Interview - EIBF Schools Outreach 2010 from Scottish Book Trust on Vimeo.

Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Check out our Outreach feedback to view some of the photos from the event and to see what the teachers and pupils thpught about Paul's visit.

Other news:

There is less than a month to go before Darren Shan's mini tour of Scotland begins. Following the massive success of the Demonata series, Darren Shan is back where it all started - telling the life story of the vampire Larten Crepsley in the new title Birth of a Killer.

He'll be doing public book signing sessions as part of the tour:

Waterstones, Aberdeen - 3rd October 12noon

Waterstones, Perth - 4th October, 4pm

Waterstones, Ayr - 5th October

Waterstones, East Kilbride (The Plaza) - 5th October, 4pm

To get more information about the tour, and Darren's new book, please visit his website.

There's still plenty of time left to sign up for the Meet Our Authors event with the incredible Charlie Higson on the 7th of October. Why don't you have a look at some of our previous events and then sign up to watch Charlie. There's still the opportunity to submit your questions so why not get involved!

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