Express & Star

That’s a turn-up for the books! Author entertains schoolchildren at Wolverhampton Grand

A show about drawing and being creative drew school children from all over Wolverhampton to the Grand Theatre.

Published
The Children's Bookshow

The Children's Bookshow is a charity that inspires school children with a love of reading through an annual programme of theatre performances and in-school workshops with the very best authors and illustrators from around the world.

The Bookshow, which features writers and artists giving performances of their work in innovative and fun ways, came to Wolverhampton for the third time on Thursday, October 3, taking place at the Grand Theatre.

The show was a full interactive display in the Grand Theatre

The performer for the show was Alexis Deacon, an acclaimed picture book author and illustrator who has been active for 19 years and whose work includes Beegu, Croc and Bird and I am Henry Finch.

The show was a vivid mix of drawings and read stories by Alexis, keeping the audience of over 750 children and teachers entertained throughout with stories about his youth, his process growing up and how he came up with his story ideas.

Alexis kept the children entertained throughout with his anecdotes and drawings

Alexis, who has a personal link with Wolverhampton due to his mother studying literature at the University, spoke about what inspired him and the show he was planning to put on.

"I've drawn and written stories from when I was very small, as I think most children do, but I just never lost that passion for story-telling.

Alex Summan (8), Peter Zangov (7) and Komalpreet Kaur (7) from Merridale Primary School pose with one of Alexis' books

"Each year, I try and do a special piece for the bookshow, with this being my 10th anniversary with them. In past years, I've done sections on how human faces work or the drawings I made when I was a child and this year, I'm doing how stories began, so I'm doing a section on our ancestors and where they first started telling stories.

"It seems intimidating to try and entertain so many children, but they really help you as all those children have a lot of energy. They feed you on stage and they want you to succeed and they want to have a good time."

The acclaimed author and illustrator has been involved with the Bookshow for 10 years

To find out more about the Children's Bookshow, go to https://thechildrensbookshow.com/