The Chinese New Year

This is a slide show of one of my picture books, The Chinese New Year. The book is published by Cambridge University Press.

Barnfield School

A few years ago I was a part time teaching assistant at a primary school in Burnt Oak, London http://www.barnfieldschool.co.uk/ I was appointed as an EAL classroom assistant to support children who were new to English. I hope I was especially useful as I could draw, so could explain a lesson through pictures before English language skills were acquired. Most of the children learned English very quickly indeed, despite the fact that they were often traumatised refugees living in a very different country and culture to their own. Barnfield School is a very good school and the staff were quick to make use my skills. It would be interesting to know whether other schools have ever employed illustrators before. 

Since starting my blog this year I have uploaded some of my work on to Teacher Tube which teachers can access and download onto their interactive whiteboards. I have had over 4000 hits so far and will upload more and more content as time goes by. Click on my Teachertube channel to see my work already there:
http://www.teachertube.com/members/myProfile.php 

Here are some of the many drawings I did while at Barnfield. The children I supported ranged from Reception to Year six.

The Jabberwocky

The Highwayman

Urban myths

Revolting Rhymes

Little Red Riding Hood

Days To Remember

Days To Remember was written by Geoffrey Trease.
 http://www.puffin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000032781,00.html#BIO 
This book is an anthology of historical anniversaries. There are different stories for each month, starting with Julius Caesar in 55 B.C and ranging through history until D Day in 1944. It was a very interesting book to illustrate as  it covered so many different historical periods.
Here are some of my illustrations.

A Merry Christmas in Wales

London's Burning

The Frost Fair

Carey's Ride

The Wulf Trilogy

The Sea Stranger, The Fire Brother and The Earth Father were written by Kevin Crossley- Holland. http://www.kevincrossley-holland.com/  The trilogy describes the life of a Saxon boy, Wulf, and how he is converted to Christianity around 653AD when the monk Cedd comes to East Anglia and builds St Peter's Chapel in Bradwell-on-Sea. When I did the illustrations for these three books I didn't know East Anglia, but later when I married, my husband and I bought a derelict farmhouse in Suffolk which we restored, so I came to know and love that part of England very well. 

In the last book, The Earth Father, Wulf journeys to Northumbria to visit Cedd who is dying of the plague. The following illustrations show the change of landscape from the flat Essex coast to the stony moors of the North.

                                                                                   

The Wizard Punchkin

This is a slide show that my husband Brian Melling onehandonepage.blogspot.com made of one of my picture books, The Wizard Punchkin. The story of the giant or wizard who hides his soul outside his body, is found in fairy stories all over the world. I based my illustrations on the beautiful Indian miniatures I saw in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Pilgrim's Progress retold

These two slide shows are my illustrations for Quest and Conquest retold by James Reeves. This book is a retelling for children of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The first set of slides are my pencil roughs, the second my finished illustrations. I based my pictures on the woodcuts in The Kelmscott Chaucer by William Morris

A Thousand Yards of Sea

A Thousand Yards of Sea was written by Adele Geras. This was one of her first books.  She went on to write over ninety more for children and young adults. Check out her web site: http://adelegeras.com/index.html  I set the illustrations of the story Tom Taffet the fisherman and the mermaid, near St Ives, Cornwall, where I spent all my childhood holidays.