Kids' Wriggles Turn To Giggles
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday August 19, 2008
The wriggling stopped and the giggling started as the unmistakable outline of a very round panda bear took shape under the skilful hand of illustrator David Legge.
The giggles, from a group of Thirroul Public School infants students, quickly grew to gales of laughter as Legge drew the hapless panda attempting to take a bite of his bamboo sandwich in mid-swing.The celebrated children's illustrator received two nominations in this year's Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards - one for his work in Colin Thompson's powerful picture book for older readers, Dust, and another for Parsley Rabbit's Book about Books, written by Frances Watts, which picked up the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books.However, the students cared more for Legge's airborne panda than his awards and accolades.The Yorkshire native was at the school to share his tips on illustrating and his knowledge of the publishing industry with the students as part of the Book Week celebrations.Legge enjoyed his visits to schools, he said, because "all illustrators and children's authors are children at heart.""Kids come up with the best ideas," he said."The panda swinging from a vine eating a bamboo sandwich - that was their idea," he said with a chuckle.Legge began doodling in notebooks and school books at an early age and like many creative types who later went on to make a living from their talents, Legge recalls a generous amount of freedom and tolerance from his teachers."My teachers just let me go," he said.He admits he was not much of a reader when he was young, his literary intake largely limited to comics."I think the only books we owned were a series of encyclopaedias flogged to us by a travelling salesman," he said.But Legge made a big effort to ensure his two boys enjoyed reading and said it was important that parents instilled a love of books in their kids from an early age."Read to them," he said. "I love reading with my boys, but even more I love it when my boys read to me." Thirroul PS teacher librarian Sharon McGuinness is a driving force behind Book Week in the region and organised Legge's visit to help students embrace this year's theme "Fuel Your Mind"."Reading is a great way to fuel your mind, so we have been focusing on reading for pleasure," she said.Ms McGuinness has been busy creating a wall covered in pictures of students reading for enjoyment."Books power the imagination and open up new worlds for students," she said.Students at Thirroul have also been busy reading all the books short-listed for the 2008 Children's Book Council of Australia Book Week Awards.They will be eagerly waiting to see if the books they chose as the best were the same ones chosen for awards by the national judging panel.
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury