A celebrated author and children’s illustrator paid a visit to a city school ahead of World Book Day.
St Barnabas C of E Primary School welcomed Phillip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre earlier this week.
The duo have worked on ten books together, including their first title, Oliver and the Seawigs, which went on to win a UKLA Book Award.
McIntyre said: “It was a fabulous Reeve and McIntyre day at St Barnabas Primary in Worcester - thanks so much for all your creativity and enthusiasm and for hosting us.
“I loved all the book-themed bunting made by all the different classes.
“It was so amazing to see how much they’d used all the drawing resources on my website.”
READ MORE: The best costumes from World Book Day in Worcestershire 2023
Reeve is perhaps best known for his 2001 novel Mortal Engines, which was adapted into a feature film in 2018 by Peter Jackson, the Lord of the Rings director.
The 56-year-old has also written for Doctor Who and Horrible Histories and is responsible for the Buster Bayliss series.
McIntyre meanwhile rose to fame with her illustrations in the book Morris the Mankiest Monster, which picked up the Sheffield Children’s Book Award for best picture book and overall winner.
She has also created comic strips for The Guardian and The Sunday Times.
After visiting St Barnabas, the pair visited Worcester Cathedral and McIntyre even drew one of the owl carvings at the historic building.
McIntyre and Reeve’s newest book, Adventuremice: Otter Chaos, was released in bookshops on Wednesday, March 1.
Our @WorldBookDayUK Vocabulary Parade @worcesternews check us out!! pic.twitter.com/M7gq9vikzx
— stbarnabasprimary (@StBPrimWorcs) March 2, 2023
The book started out as a series of nautical mouse paintings created by McIntyre during the pandemic lockdowns.
“We’re hoping these books will appeal to children who are just starting to read independently and fancy something with a slightly longer text than a picture book, but still want plenty of pictures,” said Reeve.
“But I think they’ll work well for reading aloud too, and hopefully older readers will enjoy the humour and all the details Sarah has crammed into the illustrations.”
On World Book Day itself, taking place today (Thursday), St Barnabas held a vocabulary parade.
Pictures from the parade and other World Book Day events taking place across the city can be found on our live blog here.
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