Susie and the Pencils: Primary School Children's Alien Artwork

Cullompton Library is proud to present the work of young artists of the community.

Back in March this year Cullompton Library was priveleged to welcome the very brilliant Alexis Deacon. (If you wonder "how come?" see this previous post)

Alexis writes and illustrates picture books and is a very talented and super chap.

We invited local primary schools to come and meet him and were thrilled to accomodate over 220 children on the day, in our lovely library, over two sessions.

Alexis was excellent; throroughly inspiring and entertaining, (for the teachers and librarians as well as the kids) and he engaged with them so beautifully, from acting out his stories with wild gestures and silly voices to the quiet one-to-one book signings at the end of the day. They were delighted by his stories, and one in particular, "Beegu," the story of an endearing little alien who crash-lands on earth.

Alexis made some large drawings on the spot, taking suggestions from the kids as to what part of what animal to use for heads, body, legs, wings, to create "mash-up" monsters, or aliens. Much giggling was had and everyone was especially impressed by his super-speedy and very accurate head of a Komodo Dragon.

The library become an even more special place that day and something sparked in all of us, to want to keep the magic alive. The kids had such a wonderful time and loved all the storytelling, picture-making, and idea searching. Their excitement and joy was a very precious thing that both us as library staff, and their teachers, want to encourage and nurture. We want to get to know each other better, and work together to keep the kids engaging with books, to keep them wanting to read and write and imagine and create.

So, long introduction ... at the end of the day Alexis kindly left his big alien drawings that he'd created with the kids.

I thought it would be nice to give them as prizes so devised a drawing competition. We invited all the kids who had attended, (from 4 different local schools) to draw their own mash-up alien for us.

Today I had the immense pleasure to put up a special exhibition in the Hayridge foyer to display the kids artwork to share with the community and let everyone see the magic that happened in the library, and within the classroom. There were so many drawings, we are having to rotate the pictures over several weeks, but have started with the drawings from Willowbank Primary School.

I am so impressed with their ideas and drawings. Each beast has been named and we are informed about where they live, what they eat and all sorts of vital facts, such as the population of their planet and life expectancy. One likes to eat beef, drink strawberry juice, and lives on a cloud. Another eats diggers and lives on a dump.

I love how each one is so unique and clearly everyone has put a lot of thought and individuality into their drawing.

We've used the exhibition to promote a collection of brand new books by Alexis Deacon which are available to borrow.

So come on down and try one, and enjoy seeing what they kids have come up with.