Visiting author Bob Kerr

Bob Kerr is an author and illustrator. He has written or illustrated many popular books. Here are some of his books.

With our topic of WW1 we have read and talked about his book Best Mates.

Twelve students from our class got to listen to him talk about illustrating this book. He told us about how he got the words of the story from Philippa Werry and didn't want to illustrate it. But then his daughter told him he had to illustrate is because it is such a good story. So he did.

Luckily he had been to Gallipoli and had taken photos. These helped him to make his illustrations as real and accurate as possible.

He showed us the first drawings he did then how he painted them.

His paintings always look slightly different when they are printed in the books.

He showed us how when he first drew this picture he forgot to leave room for the words. So when he painted it, he made a big sky so the words could be typed in the sky.

This is what the students who saw him learnt and enjoyed:

-Amber leant how to make a poem with a whole bunch of random sentences. She liked Bob Kerr's drawings.

-Ryan learnt how he made the pages. He liked writing the poem.

-Lauryn learnt about illustrating books.

-Riley learnt that in a book the characters should get into trouble and then out. She really liked everything.

-Amelia learnt some famous poems are made by playing with words. She liked him talking about the pictures he had drawn.

-Kaleb learnt how he draws. He liked his drawings.

-Emma learnt how to take random sentences to make an interesting poem or story. She liked seeing what he had drawn.

-Xavier learnt that he illustrated Mechanical Harry. He like that he is good at drawing.

-Ryder learnt that soldiers didn't know they were going to Egypt. He liked the colours in Bobs paintings.

-Declan learnt to draft more than once. He liked the poem writing.

-Lavayssa learnt that you have to draw the pictures a lot of times to get it perfect. She loved how he showed us how the pictures look when they are printed in yellow, blue, red and black.