While waiting for the big day to arrive all children had prepared for the visit of author and illustrator David Mackintosh. Our pre-primary children had a look into storytelling and had learned what an author does, children in P1 had read and recited stories as well as given ideas of how a story could be changed; furthermore had they worked on identifying beginning, middle and end of stories. The oldest students to meet David Mackintosh – our students of year 2 – had taken it another step further by not only understanding the structure of stories but even writing fiction stories of their own.
All of these activities and their research on David Mackintosh got the children even more enthusiastic and excited to meet the author and illustrator. Invited by the welcoming atmosphere our sympathic guest had spread from the very beginning, the children instantly seemed comfortable with him. Especially the older primary students almost started chatting with David and took the chance to address their questions the moment they met him. For the younger ones, the warm-up activity was ultimately breaking the ice.
The children got to learn what an author and illustrator does, how long it takes David to draw a picture, when he writes his books, why he likes to write, how his illustrations turn into a book, what he uses to draw, some insights about naming Marshall Armstrong and even a sneak peak into David’s brand new book “Waiting for Chicken Smith”. Of course, there also was time to enjoy a story and it was quite surprising for the librarian (and David?) how quick the children recognized Marshall Armstrong’s house the moment its illustration appeared on the big screen in the primary library. The most audible admiration (a joint “aaaaaaaaw”) 
was to be heard when David Mackintosh started illustrating some of his characters on the spot. However, the creative activity David had brought along for the children revealed that he was not the only artist present in the library.
The children really enjoyed their time with our special guest and there were lots of “Hi David”, “Hello David Mackintosh” and happy smiles when the children saw him walking down the corridor later on.
Thank you David for inspiring our children and for creating some memories today!
all illustrations by David Mackintosh
See here for David Mackintosh’s blog about his visit http://www.profuselyillustrated.com/blog/2018/2/2/frankfurt-european-schools-sind-gut
European School RheinMain Library 