On Wednesday 6 March 2019, students from the new Ellesmere Port C of E College welcomed Author and Artist, Curtis Jobling as part of the Library’s World Book Day celebrations and to promote reading for pleasure across the school.
Curtis Jobling is the designer of worldwide hit children’s television show ‘Bob the Builder’, and the author/illustrator of numerous children’s books. His early work on ‘Wallace & Gromit’ and ‘Mars Attacks!’ led to Curtis picking up his crayons in 1997 to design the BAFTA winning ‘Bob’. His own animated series, ‘Frankenstein’s Cat’ and ‘Raa Raa the Noisy Lion’, can both be seen on the BBC.
Although renowned for his work in film & TV, Curtis’s true love has always been horror and fantasy for older audiences. His acclaimed series of epic fantasy novels, ‘Wereworld’ was published by Penguin worldwide, while his darkly comic young adult thrillers, ‘Haunt: Dead Scared’ and ‘Haunt: Dead Wrong’ were published by Simon & Schuster in the UK. His new middle-grade novel, ‘Max Helsing & The Thirteenth Curse’ is published by Viking in the US and Orchard in the UK and the second in the series ‘Max Helsing: The Beast of Bone Creek’.
Throughout the day, Curtis held captivating theatre talks with all of the students from Years 7-9 and a special lunch took place to celebrate the Accelerated Reader Rewards. In the afternoon, Curtis held a Creative Writing workshop for 30 high achieving pupils from Years 7 and 8.
Curtis visited the college over six years ago where he was inspired by former student, Riley Horan’s original creative writing piece which Curtis uses as an example around the world.
Mrs Jayne Hughes, Librarian at the College said: “It was an enormous pleasure to work with Curtis for the day in the Library. His theatre talks were highly entertaining and informative and involved him reading extracts from his books and drawing characters from his hit TV shows – Bob the Builder, Pilchard the Cat, Ra-Ra the Hungry Lion and Frankenstein’s Cat!”
Jayne added: “He also encouraged students to read, write and
draw creatively themselves and since his visit, his books have been flying off
the library shelves! Curtis’s visit was certainly the highlight of our World
Book Day celebrations.”
Joel S, Year 8 student said: “The theatre talk and creative writing workshop made me think about writing as a career and has encouraged to make up my own stories”
Ella F, Year 8 student said: “I really enjoyed the day because all the activities were really fun. My favourite part was when we made up our own stories – I was proud of the story that I created!”
Jake Johnson, Year 8 student said: “Honestly, he was one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met!”
