Author: chickenandfrog

Hello all. This is just a quick post to remind you what’s going on this Saturday, 29th November, for the Brentwood Light Up. If you haven’t been to the town before for the Light Up, you really should come along this year. There’s such a wonderful buzz around the town, with market stalls, staged events hosted by the wonderful Phoenix FM, grottos…the list goes on.

We are very lucky, as the Brentwood Renaissance Group goes all out at this time of the year, to support the town and in particular, us independent businesses. As a result, the Ongar Road have their very own grotto this year. Now, the big man himself is already busy at the Sugar Hut, but worry not, as Mrs Claus is joining us, with the elves and fairies on hand, to give out free gifts to our little visitors. The grotto will be open between 12:00 and 14:30 right here at Chicken and Frog.

In addition to the grotto, we have the brilliantly talented and very kind Nicholas Allan joining us, from 15:00. Nicholas will be running a creative workshop for the children (all ages welcome) and then joining us for Creative Writing Club in the grotto! We can’t wait.

And last, but certainly not least. We will be launching the annual Santa Hunt. We have 14 local businesses hiding Santas this year – go and find them, fill in your form and post it in our special Santa Hunt posting box. Forms are available here, with the list of shops. There are also some available at Caffe Essex and Mi Neni and I do believe that there will be a team of people out and about on Saturday, handing out forms. This years, the hunt runs for the month, so you have plenty of time to play detective!

We’ve had a superb day today, celebrating the wonderful accolade of becoming Julia Donaldson’s bookshop of the month for November. Not bad for a little local business heh?

Not only did we give out well out over 100 goodie packs, we also gave visiting teachers gorgeous bunting for their classrooms. For those of you that missed it, we have stickers and postcards left, so do pop in.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to the glorious Julia Donaldson and the team at Pan MacMillan, as well as our ever supportive customers. We’ve had a brilliant time, sharing the Gruffalo with you at Chicken and Frog and around the town. A special thanks to Grandad Chicken who took charge whilst the Gruffalo went out and about and also to our brilliant daughters who helped run the show. We could not have managed without you.

Here’s a selection of pics from the day. Do you recognise anyone?

Well hello dear reader, how are you? It’s fair to say that winter has very much arrived. I’m not a fan of it, so have chosen to hibernate, as all chickens should…

…Ok, I haven’t. But if I could, I would. Instead I am keeping myself warm by being very busy indeed. Today we ran an event for #DyslexiaAwarenessWeek. We decided to run an event, after one of very fabulous customers told us all about it. She is so wonderful, that she even made us delicious cakes,

Aren’t we lucky? They were soooo yummy – our creative writers have just polished off the last few. Yum!

So, what did we do? We set up tables full to the brim with ideas to support dyslexic children, from memory games to awesome Barrington Stoke books. I can’t stress enough how much we value the brilliant work of Barrington Stoke. They really understand what readers with dyslexia need and we applaud them for it.

If you didn’t make it, we still have some free activity books and leaflets from Barrington Stoke, so do pop in when you’re next in town.

We were joined by wonderful author J.D.Irwin, who has written the Edwin Spencer trilogy. Although not dyslexic, Julie found reading and spelling challenging at school, and as such is quite inspirational as a super duper writer. Julie is available for school visits – take a peek at her website for details.

Moving swiftly on from our #DyslexiaAwarenessWeek event, we had our monthly book club. This month’s book was Veronica Cossanteli’s ‘The Extincts’ and it went down very well. Here are some reviews from our super book clubbers:

The characters I enjoyed were LO, George, Prudence and Mrs Lind. My favourite part was when Lo had wings. I think Veronica Cossanteli is an imaginative story writer! The part I disliked was whn Dipye locked George and Prudence in the stuffing. (Millie, aged 9)

The character I enjoyed was George Drake. My favourite part was when George went to Wormstall Farm. I think that Veronice Cossanteli is a very good author. I did not enjoy Diamond Pye! (Emily, aged 7)

I really liked the part where George trod on the dodo’s egg and he had to take care of it. I also really liked the names of the animals like Dodo (which is an extinct bird). (Catherine, aged 11)

I really liked the back of the book where it told you all of the animal’s names. I also really liked where the dodo egg is half hatched and it imprinted on George and now George has to spend every second looking after the little creature. (Izzy, aged 11)

I liked the bit where the publisher said that Veronica wrte with a lizard on her head. I like DOGDO bowl. (Sophie, aged 9)

I like the one liners in the story and I think that Veronica has mastered the character George. I felt like I knew George as a friend by the end of the story. I would recommend this book to all who enjoys a hunorous novel. (Alex, aged 10)

Usually the October half term looks something like this for us,

with cooking, fancy dress and Lego (of course). Sadly, we have to close for a much needed new ceiling this half term. It was not an easy decision to make, but probably a sensible one, as dripping water + books = disaster!

Never fear though, we will be back on Monday 3rd November, all ready for the new half term to begin.

And don’t forget to check out our very busy events page – the Gruffalo is coming…

Hello dear reader. This post doesn’t have a specific theme, hence the random title. What have we up to? This and that.

If you read my previous post, you will know that we are closing for October half term. We’re a bit sad about this because we love Halloween at the shop, it’s such a good excuse to wear spooky costumes, but alas, a new ceiling is our priority. Water and books are not a good combination, so a new ceiling trumps messing about as a witch or zombie…oh well, there’s always next year!

We have been lucky enough to work with the super talented Abie Longstaff this week. Abie is the author of a whole host of beautiful picture books, such as these:

Abie spent an afternoon at the Brentwood School, talking to the children about her life as author and sharing her stories with an enthralled audience. We were delighted to hear that there are more books in the ‘Fairytale Hairdresser’ series on the way, as well as a book for older readers entitled ‘The Potion Shop’.

We love arranging author visits, here and in schools. Next week Jim Smith will be visiting St Bede’s in Chadwell Heath, where an eager audience of Key Stage 2 children will be lucky enough to meet the man himself.

Later in the term Ian Whybrow will also be visiting St Bede’s and Larchwood Primary, so it’s busy, busy, busy for us. We like that!

What else? Well, we’ve been planning for Small Business Saturday, which falls on Saturday 6th December this year. Elsa, yes Elsa, will be visiting Ongar Road, handing out balloons and generally being glorious. We’ll keep you posted for timings of the event.

There’s lots more in the pipeline, including the Gruffalo visiting us on 22nd November, more author visits, the Santa Hunt…details for our planned events are all on the calendar.

Exciting news! THE Lloyd Warbey will be running three art workshops at the Brentwood Theatre on Sunday 26th October. What a fantastic way to kick off the half term holidays! The times to choose from are 9:30-11:00, 11:30-13:00 and 13:30-15:00.

Now, we’re not allowed to tell you which very well known t.v. show Lloyd presents, but you can always look him up if you’re not sure…

Tickets are just £12, for an hour and a half session, which will include two makes, a signed postcard and photo opportunity. The session is suitable for ages 4+, but we are encouraging that children are under 6, are accompanied by parents who can stay and join in the fun!

Tickets are available direct from the theatre. Either follow this link or call 01277 200305.

See you there!