Outside the museum.
I spent World Book Day with the wonderful Suzanne Barton (and our respective publishers) at The Story Museum, a fantastical and incredibly inspiring space in Oxford where everyone is welcome to enjoy books and all that they have to offer.
I held two events centred around 'The Queen's Hat' and 'Please Mr Panda', while Suzanne held two events based on her beautiful book, The Dawn Chorus. And, together, we held a story-building event.
The story-building event was especially fun. The limitless imagination of children never seizes to amaze me. Suzanne and I illustrated a story, page by page, driven by the creative input of our brilliant audience.
The story they created was 'Gumball Saves the Day' and here's how it goes.
Gumball is an alien with five eyes, eight fingers, four tentacles and one extra long tongue. And his head looks like a brain.
Gumball's best friend is a walking talking moon, Tim the Moon. Tim the Moon has a very tall top hat.
They both live on a triangle planet named Planet Triangle. This is not to be confused with The Wrong Triangle Planet.
Planet Triangle is covered in crystals. Lots of crystals. It's powered by a Giant Crystal.
One day, the Giant Crystal mysteriously fell from Planet Triangle. It landed in the back seat of Zimbot the Spacedog's giant spaceship.
Zimbot recognised the Giant Crystal and, like a good space dog, returned it to Planet Triangle.
But Zimbot mistakingly headed towards The Wrong Triangle Planet!
Just when Zimbot was about to leave the Giant Crystal on the wrong planet, an asteroid knocked if out of his paws and sent it spiralling through space.
Luckilly, it spiralled passed Planet Triangle. Gumball saw it and grabbed it with his very long and sticky tongue.
The Giant Crystal was finally back where it belonged and everyone lived happily ever after.
How amazing is that!?!
Once the events were over, Suzanne and I signed some books and posed for a few photos.
I had a good look around The Story Museum and took a few photos myself. It really has to be seen to be believed. Check out more on The Story Museum here: http://www.storymuseum.org.uk
