Top children’s author and illustrator is a big draw at The Perse Pelican
Renowned children’s writer and illustrator Chloe Inkpen entertained Perse Pelican youngsters with wonderful workshops inspired by her much-loved characters.
Pupils across all year groups had an amazing time as Chloe led fun-filled interactive sessions and encouraged them to let their imaginations run wild.
They loved hearing about her fictional favourites, such as Fred the dog and Mrs Blackhat the witch, and joined in the fun by having a go at drawing their own creations and developing stories about their characters.
“I loved it!”, said one pupil. “We had to draw a dog from our imagination and write what they did that was naughty so they could go to naughty school. My naughty dog took an old lady’s handbag and caused a traffic jam by standing in the road!”
“We had a go at drawing dogs and mine was very furry,” added another child. “It was an alien dog with three eyes and big antennae!”
Chloe was dazzled by the enthusiasm of the pupils during her visit.
She said: “I love sharing the books with children, that’s my favourite part. Thinking of ways to bring the stories to life for them and making them see what they can do in terms of drawing and story-writing is very satisfying.
“I try to get the audience joining in every minute or two. That’s my goal because it keeps the energy in the room and makes it a special event for them with that interaction and they were really impressive.
“With Nursery, I did a witchy story and they came up with some ideas for disgusting ingredients that would go in the cauldron.
“I try to enact all the ideas, so when one child said we needed a million worms, we got a massive shovel for that, then somebody else wanted two million of something else, so we got a digger out and shoved them in the cauldron using that!
“It’s really nice to ad lib with their ideas because they always have brilliant ones.”
Listen to Chloe talk to Claire Ziwa more about the inspirations for her characters and collaborating with her illustrious Dad Mick Inkpen in our latest The Perse School Cambridge podcast, available on all major platforms or by clicking below.
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