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It’s Dave Pigeon week for Tom Fletcher’s Book Club and this week’s challenge is the pigeon selfie. Get involved and upload your selfies with the hashtag #TomsBookClub to Twitter, (there are bonus points for ones outside a WHSmith store).

Here are the Family Haddow pigeon selfies:

I was flying solo today as Sheena was away but I felt right at home at Heathmere Primary School, where deputy headteacher, Ben Cooper, had organised the first ever Roehampton Reads Festival.

In honour of firsts, we started the session with a floss off, I decided to read from the first Dave Pigeon book and today, we let Mean Cat have her moment in the spotlight for the first time. After all, it must be hard for a cat who despises pigeons to star in a book, nay a series, about a pigeon.

The young illustrators and writers who joined me today helped write Mean Cat’s story using the fold-over technique.

One young writer would write the first part, fold the paper over so no one else could see it and then the next writer would write the next part and fold over and so on and so forth. Trust me, it made sense and it worked!

Thank you so much to everyone who came along and created amazing artwork and stories. And huge thanks to Ben, Heathmere Primary School and the Alligator’s Mouth for such a wonderful day.

It’s three in a row! I’m so happy to say that Dave Pigeon (Racer!) has made it into today’s ‘Best New Children’s Books’ supplement in The Guardian, following in the (pigeon) steps of book siblings Dave Pigeon and Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!).

The supplement, as ever, is packed full of brilliant new children’s books to celebrate Independent Bookshop Week so do grab a copy if you get a chance and definitely head down to your nearest independent bookshop and show them some love.

Happy Pigeon Appreciation Day everyone! Dave Pigeon and Skipper are back to explain what it’s all about.

Have a feathertastic day celebrating all the international pigeons!

Sheena and I visited William Patten Primary School with Stoke Newington Literary Festival, as part their fantastic Schools Day outreach. The programme aims to make sure every pupil at a primary school in Stoke Newington is invited to a free author event.

We met with over two hundred year 3 and year 4 pupils from William Patten Primary School, Grasmere Primary School and Betty Layward Primary School.

In addition to creating more than two hundred super villains, the pupils helped Sheena and I to create a brand new criminal mastermind, the wretched Stinky Pants, and a brand new story for Dave and Skipper. Our pigeon heroes had to escape the evil Stinky Pants from a swimming pool burger bar, whilst creating a humungous water wave to distract the pigeon-hungry villain.

Thank you so much to all the staff and pupils who joined us today and to Kate, Molly and Team Stoke Newington Bookshop for looking after us during our wonderful visit.

Flumpin’ featherations! Dave Pigeon has had an incredible week. Not only has he joined the Tom Fletcher Book Club, he’s also been selected as one of the winners of the Lancashire Fantastic Book Awards 2018.  I’m thrilled to bits and so thankful to the FBA team, educators and librarians who got Dave Pigeon into the hands of the pupils who voted for this award. A HUGE feathery thank you to all you brilliant readers from Team Dave Pigeon!

Tom Fletcher is back with his second book club, in association with WHSmith, and he has selected ten brilliant books, aimed at 7 to 11 year olds, including our very own Dave Pigeon.

Today, saw the launch of the book club at Wilmington Academy. Many of the authors and illustrators, including me, came along to meet four hundred pupils and celebrate the launch of a fantastic collection of books. Here are some snaps from the day:

Thank you so much to Tom Fletcher and the WHSmith team for selecting Dave Pigeon and to all the staff at Wilmington Academy who made me feel so at home. And a HUGE thank you to all the pupils who came along to celebrate the joy of reading with us all.

There’s lots of exclusive book club content available on the WHSmith blog so pop along and enjoy the titles in this pigeontastic selection.

Hurrah and featherations! Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) has been shortlisted for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Crystal Kite Award 2018. It’s an honour to share the list with all the brilliant, shortlisted books, voted for by our peers.

It’s the Chipping Norton Literary Festival this weekend and Sheena and I were invited along to run our Dave Pigeon Character Design and Story-Building workshop. Despite the rain and grey skies, the Cotswolds were as beautiful as ever and Chipping Norton was in high spirits, donned in full festival bunting and flags.

The budding young authors and illustrators who joined us today helped us create a brand new pigeon-eating villain, the infamous Mr McGuffin the Everything Swallower, who with the help of his sidekick shark were intent on destroying Dave and Skipper’s holiday in Australia. Thankfully, a handy rocket saved the pigeons who made it safely to the end of the story.

Photo courtesy of @Roboepicguy

Thank you to Milly, Jenny, Chris and all the staff who made us feel so at home in Chipping Norton. And a huge thank you to everyone who came along to our workshop. You are all pigeontastic!