Activities for It's Bedtime, William!

This craft project is based on my book It's Bedtime, William! published by Penguin.

With this activity, we can make a mobile of William having a pillow fight with his visiting friend, the lion.

Hopefully, it is an idea with which crafty people can springboard into their own creative ideas.

Download this Activity Sheet here.

Once the pages are printed, they can be used for just colouring-in if a mobile is not your thing.

You can make these figures bigger or smaller by adjusting your printer settings.

I've been working on another activity for It's Bedtime William!

This one is fairly simple to make. It is a Lion Face or Mask.

A number of lion faces would be quite impressive decorating a classroom wall.

Click on the image and print the instructions.

Activities for The Tall Man and the Twelve Babies

I do get many queries for activities relating to my books.  I thought I would design some printable activity sheets for children that might be fun!

The first one is making your very own Tall Man!

Tall Man Activity

Click on link above and print out instructions.
I'll add other activities as soon as I can.
Also suggestions are welcome!













Tall Man Activity No 2

Colouring-in page.
Click on the image below and print out.
Print it bigger if you like.
Colour all the babies in different colours.  See how unalike you can make them.
The tall man and the babies like to be bright and happy!

Tall Man Activity No 3

Another picture to colour.

The Tall Man is taking the Babies for a walk.

Remember to print in landscape format.

The Tall Man and the Twelve Babies

This book has received some lovely reviews so far and I get many emails from children and adults. 
They are always a delight to read.  Recently I was most impressed to view the following video on youtube.

Check out this great book trailer created by 11 year old Marcus!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQp9WXrJQFw

I would be happy to see other videos and creations based on my books from children of all ages.
I love to see original ideas from the kids.

 

A treasured painting

About twenty-five years ago I bought a small painting from the local thrift shop in Sydney.

I had seen it in the shop window and loved the quietness of it. I took it home and had it cleaned and reframed.
I've always had this painting hung on a wall in my house.
I never knew who had painted it until a name revealed itself after the cleaning.  Even then I couldn't find out anything about the artist.  I've been curious all these years because I've always admired the fine detailed work in this small painting which measures only 10 x 8 inches.

Since the advent of the internet and the wealth of information to be explored, I've finally found out who my mystery artist is.  The name on the painting is C B Presbrey which I have traced back as belonging to Clara Briggs Presbrey (1864-1946) an artist who lived and worked in Taunton, Massachusetts, US.  She specialised in miniature painting.  

I haven't been able to find any other work by this artist and I wonder if any others exist.  And how did this painting end up in a thrift shop on the other side of the world?

Painting by Clara Briggs Presbrey (1864-1946)

Larger than actual size close-up. Painting by Clara Briggs Presbrey (1864-1946)

The other mystery I've yet to solve is the identity of the subject.  For a while I thought it might be a portrait of Clara's cousin, Frank Presbrey, who had a significant reputation in the advertising industry in New York.  Then I thought it could be a portrait of her own father, Silas Dean Presbrey, well known in Taunton, MA, as a respected physician and educator.  Or it could be someone quite unrelated to Clara.

Meanwhile I continue to enjoy my little painting!