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Sheena and I have been busy with events this month and we thought it was about time we shared some of what we have learnt about each other during our many hours on the train. We weeded out all the useless stuff, (yup, my shoe size is size 5), and the good folk at the Carousel magazine let us have a double page spread in the latest issue of their magazine to share our interview with you.

This issue is packed full of fantastic articles, interviews and reviews. If you love everything children’s books, it’s well worth subscribing to this brilliant publication.

I’m so proud to see that Dave Pigeon has been selected as one of the books The Alligator’s Mouth Bookshop and The Siobhan Dowd Trust will be supplying to the Prison Reading Groups family reading days. This scheme is very special as the Prison Reading Groups Family Days provide books for children visiting a parent in prison and nurture the joy of reading.

It was an early start today as we headed to Tadworth Primary School in Surrey. Sheena and I were greeted with a Dave Pigeon treasure hunt and a huge pile of books to sign before we ran our four workshops with pupils from Year One to Year Six.

We created alternative endings for Dave Pigeon and Skipper. First up, Years One, Two and Three; they took the pigeons on an adventure to an underground hideout where a pigeon-hungry mole was waiting for them. Thankfully, the pigeons escaped after they craftily created mud pigeons to fool the poorly-sighted mole.

Next up were Years Four, Five and Six. They took the pigeon duo on a trip to the rubbish dump where the feathery pair hatch a plan to drench Mean Cat in water. However, Skipper mistakenly dumps a bucket of water on top of a mongoose who hunts the pigeons down. As Skipper flies to safety, Dave manages to escape the angered mongoose, with the help of a bucket and a hill to roll down.

After our story-building workshops, Year Four created fifty new villains for us. I came away, as ever, inspired by the creativity of these budding young writers and illustrators.

Thank you so much to The Alligator’s Mouth bookshop and all the staff and pupils, especially headteacher Justin Kelly, who helped to make our visit so pigeontastic.

(Pictures from Tadworth Times, Tadworth Primary School)

Today, Sheena and I continued our month of events with a trip to Chelmsford with Just Imagine.

We started our morning at Danbury Park Community Primary School where we met year 3 and 4. I was so impressed by their incredible Dave Pigeon inspired display of maths, science and creative writing work.

We worked together to create some brand new villains and a new story featuring pigeons falling through holes in playgrounds and finding potions in underground lairs.

We then headed off to The Bishops’ C of E & R C Primary School where we were treated to a scrumptious school dinner and met the gorgeous school dog, Luna, before we met with two hundred pupils who helped us create a host of new characters and a tale of pigeons escaping from the inside of a dragon-deer so they could head to a woodland animal rave.

Thank you so much to the brilliant staff and pupils of both Danbury Park Community Primary School and The Bishops’ C of E & R C Primary School and of course, the lovely Niki Sutton from Just Imagine.

The reader reviewers at Lovereading4kids.com have been let loose on Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) and their reviews are in:

‘Without a doubt a really good laugh out loud book!’

Robert, age 7

‘I liked this book because it was funny. The pictures are funny too.’

Rebecca Urquhart, age 7

‘We love it!  The illustrations are excellent. It is a witty and intriguing novel, and we both genuinely care about the characters.’

Emma and Sam, age 6 Radford

‘Very original book about a pigeon’s world…hilarious. Loved it.’

Diya Budhdeo, age 7

‘A very funny book that had me laughing all the way through!’

Robyn Chorley, age 8

‘I liked the speech bubbles when Dave and Skipper talked to each other.  They are the funniest bit of the book.’

Daniel Smith, age 5

‘The comic-like illustrations just take this already hilarious book to another level. A brilliant book which you must get for your children to read.’

Amatullah Khatun, age 6

Have a read of all the fantastic reviews in full over on the Lovereading4kids site.

Hugest thanks to Emily Beale for this wonderful review of Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) for Reading Zone.

It’s so wonderful to see Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) featured in the City Kids Magazine springtime book review. Have a read of the review here and see the full list of featured books.

Yesterday, Sheena and I were in beautiful Oundle for the Oundle Festival of Literature Kid Lit Programme.

We signed a monster-sized pile of books and ran an illustration and story-building workshop with pupils from Easton Garford Primary School, Laxton Junior School, Copthill Primary School, Oundle Primary School, Warmington Primary School and Hezel Leys Academy.

The Great Hall in Oundle was filled to the brim with two hundred and eighty-five pupils and they created some brilliant new pigeon characters. We then got to work creating a story that involved Dave Pigeon and Skipper being attacked by a wasp and landing in Pigeon Land where a superhero pigeon saves them from the menacing wasp.

Sheena and I then headed north to Newark Hill Academy where we met with Year 4 and introduced them to the villains in the Dave Pigeon series. As a group they created a brand new villain, the evil Doctor K, and then worked on their own baddies before we created a new Dave Pigeon story together, full of graveyard high jinx and volcanic villain lairs.

Thank you so much to all the pupils and teachers who came along and especially to the brilliant Helen Shair who organised the Oundle Festival of Literature and was the most pigeontastic host.

It’s World Book Day and my first event of the month. Today, I was invited to run a Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) craft workshop at Ashmole Primary School as part of their World Book Day celebrations. This was the first time I was reading from Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) at a school since its release last month.

The pupils then created their own International Police Legion of Pigeons (I.P.L.O.P.) badges. It was a lovely morning of pigeon stories, self-portraits and biscuit flavour debate.

Thank you so much to the wonderful pupils and staff at Ashmole Primary School for making me feel so welcome at your new school.

And a HUGE thank you to everyone who got in touch with all the wonderful Dave Pigeon inspired events and costumes for World Book Day, especially to Manya Benenson and Jayne Williams who ran an incredible Dave Pigeon writing workshop at Belgrave Library, with The Spark Arts. Here are some photos, sent into Dave Pigeon HQ, celebrating the most pigeontastic World Book Day yet: