A bright blue \u2018bear\u2019 stepped out of the distant woods and waddled his way into Expo Centre Sharjah,
strumming a guitar, singing lively songs, and cracking witty \u2018bear\u2019 jokes, much to the amazement of young
visitors at the 12 th Sharjah Children\u2019s Reading Festival (SCRF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US author and illustrator Kevin Sherry\u2019s spectacular entry at the \u2018Author Meets Children\u2019 session at SCRF
2021, set the tone for his hourlong journey into the imaginative world of animal characters, real-life
experiences, histrionic storytelling, and the inspiring tale of how his first picture book, I\u2019m The Biggest
Thing In The Ocean, came about.
Describing his love of animals from a very young age, Sherry said he was passionate about comics as a
kid, and was smitten by Quentin Blake\u2019s \u201ccute and crazy drawings\u201d in Roald Dahl\u2019s stories. \u201cI wrote a
letter to him when I was in Grade 3, and the reply I received played a pivotal role in shaping my life as an
author and illustrator,\u201d he said.
When his gift for creating mystical and magical creatures drew the attention of a publisher, Sherry , a
former screen-printer, set about creating his first book. The author showed the young children his rough
sketches and stories for subsequent books that were repeatedly turned down by the publisher until after
several attempts at re-drawing and re-writing, the initial idea took a new form and shape, and went on to
become best-selling works. What helped him on this journey, he added, was the sketch book he always
carried \u201cwhich is an important tool for any aspiring writer or artist to capture an idea when it pops into your
head\u201d.
\u201cNever give up,\u201d Sherry advised his young audience. \u201cYou may have to do it over and over again but
remember that your work just keeps getting better with every repeat effort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The author added: \u201cEverything I have ever written or drawn comes from books I read in a library
somewhere as a child; these ideas and images rattle around in your brain and materialise in inspiring
ways just when you need it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A bright blue \u2018bear\u2019 stepped out of the distant woods and waddled his way into Expo Centre Sharjah,strumming a guitar, singing lively songs, and cracking witty \u2018bear\u2019 jokes, much to the amazement of youngvisitors at the 12 th Sharjah Children\u2019s Reading Festival (SCRF). US author and illustrator Kevin Sherry\u2019s spectacular entry at the \u2018Author Meets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1013,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions\/1013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mirchmasala.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}