Storytime at Harry Hartog Green Hills

Yesterday, Graham Davidson (author/illustrator animator extraordinaire) and I had the pleasure of performing a storytelling and illustration session at Harry Hartog Green Hills. Josh, the store's very friendly and helpful manager was an absolute delight, making us feel right at home straight away.

With a little bit of setting up, we were ready to go. With any event, I go through the usual anxiety of wondering if people will turn up, how they will respond, and whether or not the story and performance will connect with people in a meaningful way. Yesterday was no different.

I have to admit, when there was nobody there in the 10 minutes beforehand, I did have a slight panic attack which I believe I hid very well from Graham and Josh (ever the cool, calm and collected professional over here... anyone believing that?). Luckily, members of the public began to file through. Mums and Dads with their young children, and grans with their grandkids.

The age range of the beautiful children who came along was a bit younger than the target demographic of the stories I write (all the children there were under 2), but hey, we were going to give them a performance they'd love.

And so, Graham and I shifted the routine we'd created and rehearsed to make it more age-group friendly, which meant more songs and and slightly altered versions of our books, but the young children and their families responded really well.

All in all, it was a very fun event and I feel very grateful to Josh and the team at Harry Hartog for allowing us the time and space to showcase our stories in this way.

Peace Out,

Emily