Well, tomorrow is the start of March, which means that World Book Day 2014 is swinging into view and we can’t wait!

We are going all out this year, celebrating the joy of books. Obviously we don’t really need an excuse, being a bookshop and all, but it’s pretty cool that the month is dedicated to our favourite pastime.

So, what are we doing? Well, it all kicks off tomorrow (1st March) when Mrs Chicken will be reading stories at Sainsbury’s in Brentwood. There’ll be two sessions: 11:00 and 13:30.

Mr Frog will be more than happy to read stories throughout the day, back at Chicken and Frog.

Creative Writing Club will be with Grandad Chicken this week, because Mrs Chicken has been invited to speak at the Brentwood Writers’ Circle, from 14:30. The topic…children’s books of course!

Next week, Brentwood County High School are taking a selection of the WBD books into school, to ‘sell’ on to the students. For those of you who don’t know, each year a fabulous range of books are published just for World Book Day. School children are given a £1 voucher which they can exchange for one of the books or put towards the cost of another book.

From the 6th to 8th March, we will be holding a 10% sale on all full price books (not the WBD books!). And, very excitingly, David O’Connell will be popping in on the 8th, from 16:00-17:30, for yet another one of our free author events.

Not enough? Ok, well we also have Sara Grant with us on the 19th. Schools are booked in for during the day, but Sara is chilling on the sofa after school!

And then…Laura Dockrill will be with us for the day on Wednesday 26th, again for school visits.

Ooh, last thing for now. Mrs Chicken has been booked to lead a Creative Writing Workshop for Year 5 and 6 pupils at St Stephen’s School.

Phew, we’re exhausted just thinking about it. Happy, but exhausted.

There I was last Saturday evening, minding my own business, when suddenly Frankie appeared on the loving room floor,

For those of you who don’t know, Frankie is a zombie goldfish with terrifying powers. His creator, Mo O’Hara, just so happened to visit us yesterday afternoon, so I decided to take Frankie with me to try to get some answers about his bizarre zombifying eyes,

As you can see, Frankie is a law unto himself and sadly, Mo struggled to keep him under control! Don’t worry, no child was zombified at Chicken and Frog. (At least, we hope not).

Mo’s visit was magical, as she read from her brilliant book ‘My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish’, before encouraging the children to come up with their own unusual pets. Pets including Super Penguin and Tracey Beaker Cat – both with the ability to fly at a moment’s notice.

If you missed out yesterday, you did miss a treat, but we do have signed copies of Mo’s books in store.

p.s. Don’t look into the eyes!

Hello all! Just a quick newsflash for you. As of THIS Saturday (1st February), Russell’s art club will become a monthly affair. Russell will be with us for the first Saturday of the month, from 13:45-14:45. There’s still no need to book a place, just turn up and create! (Russell will also be around in some of the holidays for additional sessions – check out the diary for details).

Don’t forget, the awesome J.D.Irwin will be with us this Saturday too, from 14:00. Julie will be awarding the winning entrants of our writing competition with booky prizes and certificates. She will also be very happy to sign copies of her books, so do pop in.

Last thing…Mo O’Hara will be in-store on Saturday 7th February, from 14:00. Bring your drawing pencils because Mo may teach you how to draw a zombie goldfish…

I know we’ve only just got over the New Year festivities, but before you know it it will be February half term and you’ll be wondering what to do with your lovely children.

Well, we have planned some super sessions to keep them out of mischief, as well as our usual Rhythm and Rhyme (Wednesday 10:00-10:30) and stories whenever you feel in the mood! All of the details can be found on our calendar page, but here are some pictorial clues to get you excited:

27th December 2013 – 6th January 2014

Hello lovely readers. I have various pieces of news that I want to share with you. The first is that we now have a loyalty card at Chicken and Frog. For every £10 you spend, you receive a stamp. 5 stamps equals a 20% discount on books.

There’s a bit of healthy competition going on between myself and Mr Frog, as we have a chicken stamp and a frog stamp…team Chicken will prevail!

In the New Year, on Monday 20th January in fact, we will be visited by author, John Dougherty. John will be spending the day with pre-booked schools, but has kindly agreed to hang out on the sofa for a while after school too. I’ll remind you closer to the time…

We have been very busy over the past few weeks, securing a whole host of exciting author events for 2014. Expect to meet Mo O’Hara, Laura Dockrill, Sara Grant…we also have an event booked for the Spring, mixing science, gardening and books! Not to mention our huge plans for Fairtrade Fortnight, an expansion of our tuition centre (in terms of classes, not actual space).

Last thing. Our website has changed slightly. Our What’s On page gives details of our regular activities, the Calendar gives you a quick overview of the week (and you can skip forward far into the future too) and the Events page is a short and sweet preview of up and coming author events. All of our events can also be found on our Facebook page.