00:03Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers and also Chairman of the Festival of Chichester.
00:08Now, it's fantastic to welcome to the Festival of Chichester as part of the Chichester Children's Book Fest,
00:13which is an important part of the festival this year, Sophie Henn and Nick Sharratt.
00:18Now, Sophie and Nick, on Saturday, July the 19th, 10.30am at the Probendal School,
00:26you're going to do something called a draw-off.
00:29What is that? How does that work? It's competitive, isn't it, up to a point?
00:33I mean, there's possibly a slither of competition there,
00:38but mainly it is lots and lots and lots of fun and Nick and I will be taking on
00:44the drawing challenges that are thrown at us by our lovely compere and Joseph Elliott,
00:53yes, from CBeebies. So he'll be keeping us in line and also taking suggestions, I believe,
00:59from the audience as to what we should be drawing. And we'll be doing that against the clock as well.
01:05So, yeah, the jeopardy, the stakes are high, the stakes are high.
01:08So they might be suggesting an animal doing something somewhere in a certain environment,
01:12that's the kind of thing.
01:13Absolutely, absolutely. In the past, I have drawn a pig doing karate in a forest.
01:18So, I mean, it could be anything. Yes. And also, I'm not sure. I have done draw-offs with Nick before.
01:27He is the master. And occasionally there have been blindfold rounds where we're drawing with blindfolds on.
01:33Who's going to win? Who's going to win then?
01:35Oh, well, we're all winners, aren't we? We're all winners. The Chichester Children's Book Festival is the winner, hopefully, at the end of it.
01:45Absolutely. And their aims are fantastic, aren't they? For them, it's so much a question of putting a book in a child's hand.
01:52And you were talking just now about putting a book in a child's hand is like flicking a switch, isn't it?
01:57Because it's all the things it can lead to, isn't it?
01:59It's incredible. Well, I mean, you know, we all know the benefits of reading are huge and the ripple out effect is incredible.
02:08And it affects the writing skills at school, learning abilities, confidence, well-being.
02:16Future prospects are obviously greatly enhanced if you nurture a love of reading from a young age.
02:22And yes, the Children's Book Festival is incredible in the sense that it just not only sends authors and illustrators out,
02:29into schools to connect those children with those books and get them all excited about them,
02:35but then it puts that book in the child's hands as well, and they get to take home their own copy, which is incredible.
02:40And it's showing that a book isn't something that you can think, oh, that's not for me, or that's scary.
02:45Absolutely. As authors and illustrators, if we're doing our jobs right, what we're doing is we're exploding those books out into that room.
02:52So the pupils are feeling connected to those books and before they've even sort of seen or even know that we're really talking about books.
03:01They feel connected with it. So any sort of any barriers that might be in the way, anything that might be stopping them from picking up a book,
03:08or maybe they feel a bit intimidated by it or that it's not for them or it's possibly a bit boring.
03:13All of that's torn down and then the book gets put in their hands. And like you say, it is like, it can be like flicking a switch.
03:20Fantastic. Well, from our Festival of Drifts point of view, it's been fantastic to work particularly closely this year with the Children's Book Fest in Chichester.
03:27And the fact that that means that you're coming to Chichester makes it even better.
03:31So, Sophie, really lovely to speak to you. Thank you for your time.
03:35Thank you, Phil.
03:36Make sure you beat Nick on Saturday, July the 19th. Thank you.
