YABBA Virtual Ambassadors Session – Pictures Moving off the Page – Little Dog and the Christmas Wish

Yesterday, illustrator Robin Cowcher and I took part in a virtual author Polycom session organised by the Victorian Education Department and Yabba (Young Australians Best Book Awards) http://yabba.org.au/

The session took place at the DET office in Dandenong where Robin and I were connected with a number of Victorian schools via a big Polycom screen – students and teachers could see and hear us and on smaller screens, we could see, hear and interact with the students. These schools needed to register to be part of the session and DET were advised before-hand of the names of the schools which would be participating.

We were e-introduced by YABBA President, David Linke and in our session called ‘Pictures Moving off the Page’ Robin and I talked about creating  our book Little Dog and the Christmas Wish from initial draft to holding the finished book in our hands. About a year after the book was launched, it was chosen as the theme for the 2015 Myer Christmas Windows. http://www.stage1.com.au/retail-vm/myer-christmas-windows/little-dog-and-the-christmas-wish

I explained that when I write, I see the images clearly in my head. When I began writing this story, sitting in the Hopetoun Tea Rooms in the Block Arcade, I imagined a little lost dog sheltering from the rain in the arcade, I saw a busker playing beautiful music and a choir singing. All of this was totally imagined but so real to me, I could almost reach out and touch my characters.

To see an illustrator bring words to life is one thing, but it was another huge step again to see my characters moving and becoming real in the Myer Christmas Windows.

During our Polycom session we screened a powerpoint showing the research process for both Robin and myself, illustration roughs as well as the process undertaken by Stage One in creating the windows. We also played a short movie of both the book launch and the launch of the Myer Windows as some students living far from the city may never have seen the windows.

                                                           

To see more pictures of the process of creating Little Dog and the Christmas Wish you can go to my website here https://corinnefenton.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/LittleDogMediaKit.pdf or http://www.stage1.com.au/retail-vm/myer-christmas-windows/little-dog-and-the-christmas-wish

I would like to thank Alistaire at DET, the Virtual Learning Team, David Linke and YABBA for inviting us to be part of this wonderful initiative of bringing authors and illustrators into the Victorian classrooms of schools that would not normally have the opportunity to experience author/illustrator visits. And don’t forget to vote for your favourite book in the YABBA awards.