Has Anyone Seen My Chihuahua?

This month saw the publication of the fabulous Picture Book Picnic title Has Anyone Seen my Chihuahua? by Clare Wigfall & Ollie Lett. Playful, vibrant and highly entertaining, this is an original picture book about a child's missing Chihuahua.



Oh, where has he gone? A little girl has lost her Chihuahua! And he's her bestest best friend! He's soft, cuddly, bouncy and has the most ENORMOUS ears. But none of the animals she meets resemble her lost Chihuahua, Fernando. Each of them is too big, too small, too green or too

feathery. Will she ever find him?

Illustrator Ollie Lett is a fine artist and his style and colour palette create something very unique on the page whilst author Clare Wigfall, an established writer of adult fiction, presents us with her first picture book text. Clare's voice is contemporary, accessible and very funny. Together Ollie and Clare have produced a great read-aloud for young children and whilst this is the first time Clare and Ollie have worked together they are also life-long friends which you can see coming across in the warmth and humour of Has Anyone Seen my Chihuahua?



Excitingly Clare is also the current Booktrust writer in residence giving you lots of behind the scenes glimpses to the way she writes, what influences her work, music she listens to and a very fascinating blog post about the creative process behind Has Anyone Seen my Chihuahua – do go and take a look, it’s a great read.



Clare has very kindly agreed to do a special Picture Book Picnic blog post, for your eyes only, so look out for that coming very soon.

South Ken Kids Festival 24th - 27th November

 

Four of our wonderful Picture Book Picnic authors and illustrators will be attending South Ken Kids Festival, 24th -27th November. Polly Dunbar, Viviane Schwarz, Chris Haughton and Sara Fanelli will all be doing events, from drawing duels to create your own story workshops – there’s guaranteed to be something to entertain your little ones!

Things kick off with Sara Fanelli, illustrator of Pinocchio, on Saturday 26th November at the French Institute. Sara will be in discussion with Lauren Child talking about their French passions in the world of illustration.Whilst author and illustrator Viviane Schwarz will be leading a workshop showing you how to create some of her playful cats from her hilarious picture book There Are No Cats in This Book!

Super Sunday follows with Polly Dunbar’s create a story workshop kicking things off at 10am; you will discover a world of wonder and characters with Polly and meet Penguin, Tilly and Friends. Polly will create a shared story with the participants using everybody’s input!



The drawing duels then kick off at 11am on Sunday with Chris Haughton taking on Joëlle Jolivet. Joëlle’s 365 penguins will duel against Chris’s lost owl from A Bit Lost; a winged duel for an intense and unusual session of bird-watching.

12 o’clock see’s Viviane Schwarz take on Stephanie Blake in another drawing duel. Viv’s many crafty cats will take on Simon the rabbit – who will lose more fur? Hopefully the cats will win out as Viv will then take on Marc Boutavant and his cuddly bear in a second drawing duel at 1.15pm on Sunday.







The final duelling duo will be Polly Dunbar and Olivier Tallec at 2pm. Tallec’s dynamic duo Rita and Whatsit will duel against Polly’s Tilly and friends. Prepare to rock and roll!



All the authors and illustrators will also be taking part in public book signings throughout the day giving everyone a chance to get their favourite books signed.



For more information and to book tickets for these events visit the South Ken Chidren's Festival website here.