Monster moods...

Oh no! This monster doesn’t know how it feels!

Perhaps you can help? Can you give them some eyebrows and a mouth? You can copy one of the faces from around the page, or make something up yourself.

Choose one of these six faces to copy onto your monster, or design one of your own.

Now the monster needs colouring in. Choose whatever colour you like. You can use one colour or lots of colours, or you could even cover them in spots or stripes - it’s up to you!

How does your monster feel today? Choose a colour that matches their emotion.

Today, my monster feels:

Use paint, pencils or pens or whatever you like. Be messy - the messier the better! Written and illustrated by Sarah Christou.

by Georgina Wall & Anam Zafar

Make a rhyming poem - and guess the mystery language!

The poem on the opposite page was originally written in a foreign language. We have nearly finished translating it into English but we need your help!

1. Find the foreign language words in the glossary and write them in the blue boxes.

2. Choose a word in any language (or make up a new word!) and write it in the red boxes to make a rhyme.

3. Read your poem aloud and shout out the rhymes!

Bicki - bucki - bun

The stone weighs a ton. Bicki - bucki - boke, Bicki-bucki-biggle, Bicki - bucki - bow,

And that’s no .

Bicki-bucki , My brother’s a bit . But don’t you ! For he will .

Bicki-bucki ,

And then he’ll win.

Can you guess what the mystery language is? Find the answer at the bottom of the page!*

What title would you give this poem? Put your ideas here!

*This language is Latvian. Can you find Latvia on a map? What is the capital of Latvia?

From Bicki Bucki by Jānis Baltvilks & published by Liels und maz in Riga, Latvia. Translated by Žanete Vēvere Pasqualini and Kate Wakeling & published by The Emma Press in Birmingham, UK.

We’ve given you a comic page made of empty frames - all you have to do is fill in the story! But where to start?

Your first picture should show the reader the 3 W’s - Who, Where and What. In other words, a character, in a place, doing something. Some examples of that could be:

- A kid, in a park, skateboarding - A chef, in a kitchen, baking - A dog, in a garden, digging.

What sort of character would YOU like to draw?

Stories are more interesting when exciting things happen! So give your character a problem to deal with. This could be connected to the thing they’re doing, e.g. the chef’s pie comes to life, or not connected at all, e.g. some zombies burst into the room.

Draw your character’s reaction to the problem! Are they scared? Annoyed? Confused?

Now in the next couple of frames, show us what they’re going to do about it. Does the problem get better or worse because of what they did? How does your character feel about that?

You can draw lots of different feelings just by changing the mouth and eyebrows.

Try it for yourself by making faces in a mirror!

You can use words as well as pictures in your story! If you want the reader to know what a character is saying or thinking, you can show it in a speech balloon or thought bubble.

Speech balloons float near the character’s head. The long bit on the bottom points at the character’s mouth (but shouldn’t touch it!)

Thought bubbles look like clouds, and they also float near a character’s head. They can contain words or pictures.

The last frame or two should be your ending. This could be happy, sad, funny or surprising.

And most importantlyhave fun!

There’s no right or wrong way to draw! You can use stick figures if you want.

It’s a good idea to sketch your comic in pencil first, so you can plan where everything will go.