Last Tuesday illustrator Ruth Paul visited St Brendan's. She talked about many of the books she has written and illustrated and based her presentations around her book I Am Jellyfish which won the Picture Book section of the 2018 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
Ruth began her first two sessions with the Middle/Upper Middle and Senior syndicates by having students volunteer to act out the three main characters (Jellyfish, Swordfish and Squid) from I Am Jellyfish in front of the rest of the students.
Ruth explained how she came up with her ideas, including the funny jokes, and about her illustration process and the different art techniques she has used. She pointed out that her first drafts of the text and illustrations were often quite different to what the final book looked like as the words were tweaked, and her illustrations became more detailed. She emphasized that she had to keep trying, she didn't get things "right" the first time and had to try again and again until she was pleased with the result.
One group had time to plan their own picture book, with Ruth writing the ideas and making illustrations on the whiteboard, unfortunately the other group ran out of time to do this. Both groups were able to ask Ruth questions which included:
- Who is your favourite author?
- Which of your books is your favourite? and
- Which of your books sold the most copies?
After morning tea Ruth read her book I Am Jellyfish to the Junior syndicate who were also able to plan their own picture book, with Ruth again writing the ideas and drawing illustrations on the whiteboard.
Thank you for visiting our school Ruth, we very much enjoyed your visit and hope you enjoyed your time with us also.
Ruth's visit was organised through the New Zealand Book Council "Writer's in Schools" programme with the support of Creative New Zealand.
#writersinschools
