RUBY THE DUCKLING Easter competition artwork

The Ruby the Duckling books by me and Rebecca Harry are particularly popular around Easter time. I guess this has something to do with Ruby's resemblance to a yellow Easter chick.

Rebecca and I decided to mark this Easter by offering Ruby's readers the chance to win a portrait of Ruby by Rebecca in a prize competition. To enter they had to paint or draw their own Ruby portrait and send a photo of it to Rebecca or myself via Twitter or Facebook. Rebecca had provided some guidance on how to do this on a How to Draw Ruby activity sheet on the Hatchling Books web site.

Click here to download a copy of Rebecca's
How to Draw Ruby sheet.

Here are the lovely drawings and paintings we received in response:

The first Ruby to arrive was this one, by a real life Ruby, age 3.

By Elodie, age 5.

The clutch of Rubies shown below arrived together from the same class!

This first clutch of lovely pictures is from Leyla May age 3, Madison age 4, Ava age 4, Lewi age 3, Deakon age 4,
Grace age 4, Emelia age 3, Annette age 5 & Rhiannon age 5 …

… and this second cracking selection is from Brodie age 5, Bobby-Jai age 5, Isla age 5, Harry age 5, Charles age 5, Amelia age 5, Daniel age 4, Jenson age 3, Khloe age 3, Jenson age 3, Ethan age 3 and Jack age 5.

By Rhiannon, age 4.

By Mair

Our last entry was from another real life Ruby!.

When the competition was finished, Rebecca wrote all the names on strips of paper, put them into a bag and got her son, Iolo, to pick a winner at random, which was …

The winning picture by Ethan, age 3.

… this painting by Ethan Ethrington!

Congratulations to Ethan! This lovely portrait of Ruby, signed by Rebecca and myself, will be winging its way to you shortly.

Rebecca painted this picture of Ruby especially for the competition.

Find out more about the Ruby the Duckling books

at the Hatchling Books web site

“MONSTERS - An Owner’s Guide” PRIZE COMPETITION

I’m always sad to see one of my books go out of print, but I was particularly sorry when MONSTERS - An Owner’s Guide, the picture book created by myself and illustrator Mark Oliver, went out of print a couple of years ago as the book had proved very popular on school visits and had quickly become one of my most borrowed books from UK libraries.

So I was delighted when publisher Macmillan told me that they were giving the book a second chance by publishing it as part of their Let’s Read mini-picture book series. Although written in rhyme, the book is set out like a user’s manual, so it’s well suited to Let’s Read’s smaller handbook-like format.

Some important Dos and Don’ts to remember when using your monster.

To celebrate the book coming back into print, I’m running a PRIZE COMPETITION! Shambles, the mechanical monster featured in the book is just one of a range produced by the Monstermatic Company. Here they all are.

The full range of Monstermatic Monsters (click image to enlarge).

To have a chance of winning a signed copy of the new edition, send me your own sketch of a new Monstermatic Monster – and don't forget to give it a name! The competition is open to all ages, so get your little monsters drawing too!

I’ll post all the entries on this blog and pick two winners, who’ll each receive a copy of the book. One copy will go to the creator of my favourite monster sketch and the other will be chosen at random. You can send me your monsters in the following ways:

• Twitter: Tweet your monster picture to @ScribbleStreet including the hashtag #Monstermatic

• Email: Send your monster picture to monstermatic@scribblestreet.co.uk

• Monstermatic Transfer: Draw your picture on a sheet of paper and then feed it into the mouth of any Monstermatic Monster while shouting my name repeatedly into the monster's ear / auditory orifice.*

The competition will close on Sunday 26th January 2014 and the winners will be announced shortly after.

Find out more about the book at my web site

*Please note that I accept no liability should an entrant come to any harm as a result of attempting this.