Picture Book Club #24 Leigh Hodgkinson

It was wonderful to return to Reading Waterstones for our final regular Picture Book Club. And even more wonderful to welcome multi-talented Leigh Hodgkinson; author, illustrator and animator. Leigh had come to talk to us about her book Pencil Dog (Simon & Schuster) which is out in paperback today (13th June 2019) after a successful hardback edition! Congratulations Leigh!

I’d received a copy of this lovely book in advance of the meeting so I was already a fan. All the more thrilling, then, to meet the actual pencil which drew the book; now enjoying a well-earned retirement in his matchbox bed! Leigh also brought along some of her original, preparatory art work including drawings, collages and sample layouts. It was brilliant to see how the book evolved from these elements. For me it all adds to the richness of the reading experience.

Leigh also shared a bit of gossip about what she is up to next and then, of course, there was cake. And cake Pencil Dog also got shorter as the evening wore on and made lots of people happy, just like his name sake (-:

You can watch Leigh chatting to the PBC members here.

For those of you wondering what will become of Picture Book Club, don’t worry! We’re not closing our doors! The love of picture books is too strong! Instead we will continue to hold occasional ad hoc meetings IRL. In between, we will be joining the excellent #ukpbchat on twitter every month and we recommend you do the same. And we have big plans for the evolution of Picture Book Club going forward so watch this space!