There's always one in the crowd...

There's always one in the crowd. One child who puts up their hand and says something that, no matter how many school visits you've done and how many comments and questions you've heard, manages to surprise and delight and wow you beyond expectation. Today it was the little 7 or 8 year old who, after I'd read my picture book The Were-Nana to the assembled year 3 and 4 classes (around 250 plus children) raised her hand and said the colours of the pictures changed depending on whether the story was at a scary part or a happy part; dark for scary and lighter for happy. I hadn't picked up on this till the book's illustrator pointed this out at a joint presentation we did together last month. I wanted to take this young lady aside and have a chat with her about stories and illustrating and what she liked and didn't like and then I wanted to go forward twenty years and see what she was up to. Talking to 800 children today (divided into 3 groups) was full on, especially after an hours drive to the school, but this one comment has got my brain a-buzzing. Kids rock. I was fascinated too that they all laughed when I said the new picture book I'd just finished had a chihuahua in it.