Lauren Child: Charlie and Lola

Watch this exciting Authors Live event with the renowned children's author Lauren Child. You probably know her as the creator of well-loved children’s characters, including Hubert Horatio, Clarice Bean, and of course, Charlie and Lola.

During this event, Lauren explores in detail where she gets all her ideas and how those fantastic ideas become books. You will also enjoy a reading of Charlie and Lola: A Dog with Nice Ears by the wonderful Scottish actress Sarah McCardie. Why not read along as a class?

If you only do one thing...

The artwork of Lauren Child (EXA 0-04a, EXA 1-04a, EXA 0-07a, EXA 1-07a, EXA 2-07a)

Work as a class or in small groups to Iidentify and describe the artwork of the Charlie and Lola books. Encourage the pupils to recognise what makes Charlie and Lola characters recognisable, such as the dark outline, big eyes, the bright colours, the patterned paper and photographs of the real objects.

Then ask pupils to create a drawing of a familiar character (this could be themselves, a friend, sibling, parent or guardian or pet) in the style of Lauren Child. Make your collages as bright and colourful as you can! 

To further explore Lauren Child's artwork see our resource on creating your own stop-motion, which uses Charlie and Lola for inspiration.

For shorter clips from this event visit the BBC Scotland Learning(this link will open in a new window) website.