May 15, 2017

Festival Friday with the Kids

On Friday morning at the library there were two special visitors - Wavey n Snotts. They were introducing their bonkers kids' book, Cloud Cuckoo Land, complete with props, guitar, songs and bags of energy. The book's images are made up of recycled materials and terribly clever things done with Photoshop - the grown-ups were treated to a bit of an explanation. Cloud Cuckoo Land is a completely barmy place, naturally, which went down well with all the little ones (who participated noisily).

It was a great evening on Friday at Castle Cornet, where we were truly spoilt for choice for events to attend. Limited by time (and energy), we booked to see Harry Baker, World Poetry Slam Champion, and storyteller John Kirk and we had a ball.

The castle was the perfect setting for little imaginations, and the marquee on the battery a friendly (and warm!) space for poetry and storytelling. I didn't know how Harry Baker would go down with my 8 and 11 year old children; I'd shown them a clip on YouTube of The Sunshine Kid and my daughter told me, 'That's for grown-ups... He's doing kids' stuff tonight, right?'. I told them to listen carefully and tune in and they would get it (but I had my misgivings). To my son, 'He's a bit like a rapper.' I needn't have worried. He was incredible; I laughed until I cried at Falafelloeffel (it is particularly meaningful for me as a German graduate), I cried at The Sunshine Kid and the brilliant, tongue-twisting Paper People left me with a lump in my throat. My kids loved him. My daughter had The Sunshine Kid as her bedtime story that night and read out Paper People to her grandma at dinnertime tonight. So clever, so funny.

John Kirk's spooky, macabre stories had the kids riveted too; such an engaging storyteller, and the stories weren't too bad to give the children nightmares! He must have been great reading The Twits at the Roald Dahl tea party on Sunday - we were disappointed not to have got tickets.

Katie Whitford