Join Chiara Ambrosio and Mikey Kirkpatrick for an afternoon of cakes, music, and live readings to celebrate the launch of Child Be Strange, a new independent publisher for children of all ages…
[ID: Image shows an event poster in dark purple and forest green. At the top is the logo of ‘Child Be Strange’, with text forming a circle around an illustration of a turtle]
Doors: 2pm
[Please note that visitors are required to wear a face mask in the gallery and we encourage all visitors to take a Lateral Flow Test before coming to the Horse Hospital.]
Child Be Strange invite you to join them at The Horse Hospital for an afternoon of live readings, music, and cake, to celebrate the launch of their first two titles: "Roger, the Elephant (or The endless journey)", by Oliver R Cheetham, illustrated by Chiara Ambrosio, and "Lil' Puddin' & the Heists of Dirty St", by Ye Lynden Fog, illustrated by John Bently.
‘Roger, the Elephant (or The endless journey)’ tells the tale of an elephant who thought he was a buffalo - or at least that's what his parents told him, and he'd never known them to be wrong... And so begins an endless journey; a coming of age adventure that will take Roger through dry deserts, enchanted valleys and green oases. In a changing world, he must endure terrible storms, survive hungry predators and learn the true value of friendship. Only then will he have a chance of finding himself, and a place to call home.
‘Lil' Puddin' & the Heists of Dirty St’ charts a tale set in Ancient Londen, as betold by the Very Fog Hisself; a most Partickerler Tale, fresh fished-out from the Swirly Net to place as Vivid Pictures in your Mind. Welcome to Dirty Street, a world of jellied eels and midnight knees-ups and one special family called Heist:
Child Be Strange is an independent publisher of fiction and non-fiction for children of all ages, curated and edited by visual artist and filmmaker Chiara Ambrosio and musician and educator Mikey Kirkpatrick, founded on a firm belief that the untempered imagination of childhood is a sacred space that needs to be nurtured, explored and expanded. They commission new work for children by an exciting selection of international contemporary artists, authors, illustrators, activists, musicians, scientists, philosophers, poets and all others who, through their individual vision, challenge conventions and mainstream narratives.
Child Be Strange believes in the importance of introducing children to the incendiary power of independent thought through idiosyncratic stories that celebrate dream, dissonance and otherness, helping them to grow free and unafraid. The publisher is committed to resisting the categories and divisions currently dominating childhood publishing, creating a single, undivided space where the imagination can cross all borders- age, culture, gender, genre- and roam free through the many exuberant landscapes of childhood and beyond.
[ID: image shows a book cover with a watercolour of an elephant’s head, facing us directly.]
[ID: image shows the cover of a children’s book depicting a dark charcoal drawing on a hunchbacked adult figure, wearing a top hat and pinstripe shoes, talking to a little girl who is barefoot.]