Scary monsters…and Jennifer Killick
Yesterday, I joined an excited audience at Sidcot School to hear Jennifer Killick speak about her books. Although pathetic by nature and very easily scared, I love her ‘Crater Lake’ and ‘Dread Wood’ stories and know that children do too, finding them just scary enough and relating well to the characters in them.
For someone with such a deliciously twisted and wicked imagination, Jennifer is a warm, lovely person, full of enthusiasm and energy. Her talk was the perfect mixture of interaction, inspiration and fun which keeps the audience engaged. She introduced everyone to ‘Geek, Robot, Overlord’, a game from ‘Crater Lake’ based on ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’, and I could see children playing this in the signing queue at the end of the event.
Jennifer treated us to a reading from ‘Dread Wood’ and even though I knew what was coming (having read the book!), I still jumped at the end! As she read, there was not a sound from the audience who were completely engrossed by the story. All too soon, the event was over and Jennifer was faced with a huge signing queue! Although book three of the ‘Dread Wood’ series is not yet released, Alistair from Books on the Hill in Clevedon had worked his magic once more and ‘Flock Horror’ was available (it’s so good!).
Thanks to Andrea and Bev at Sidcot for letting me join the event. ‘Flock Horror’ (Farshore ISBN: 978-0008538545) is out on the 2nd March- don’t miss it!
