It's almost the end of the summer holidays and the Mythical Maze challenge is coming to a close. I hope you have all read your six books and collected your stickers?

I visited Portchester, Stubbington, and Portswood Library this last week. At Portchester I had lots of suggestions to help me draw a goblin, and when I drew a water demon one of the children thought of giving him eyes on top of his head like a crocodile – brilliant! Then the children crowded around a table and there was lots of enthusiasm to join in and draw their own mythical creature. There were evil ones, good ones, a spiky one, one with wings, and even a smart one with a tie and buttons. I was particularly impressed with one called a ‘Drageagle’.

At Stubbington I faced the Mythical Maze challenge myself when I was put on the spot by a group of youngsters who really knew their mythology. I was quizzed about my knowledge of Loki, which luckily, I had just been reading a book about - thank you to author Joanne Harris for her Gospel of Loki!

Next, one of the boys drew a fantastic mythical creature based on Scylla, a monster that lived on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite its counterpart Charybdis. In Greek mythology, the saying ‘between Scylla and Charybdis’ has come to mean being between two dangers, choosing either of which brings harm - it is the same as our modern saying ‘between a rock and a hard place’.

My final Mythical Maze talk of the summer was at Portswood Library. The children were really enthusiastic about drawing their own mythical creatures and they did some beautifully coloured drawings for my website, featuring rainbows, pink unicorns, goblins of course, and several Icelandic elf houses.

So now the Mythical Maze Summer Challenge is almost over I am looking forward to all the school visits I have planned for next term. Keep a look-out on my Visits Diary because I might be visiting your school next. With the summer holidays almost over, I am sure you are all really looking forward to going back to school, too. (Stop groaning everyone!) See you all soon.

I've had a really busy week of visits and just have time to catch up, now.

My first talk of the week was at Southsea, a lovely new library in the Palmerston Road pedestrian area. Next on my tour was Fareham, a bustling and well stocked library on two floors opposite Fareham Shopping Centre. Fareham Library is signing up record numbers for the Summer Reading Challenge, over a thousand children have signed up already! Last, but certainly not least, was Bitterne Library. Part of my talk is to get the children to think up a way to turn a modern story into something that could become a myth or a legend - it was at Bitterne that we had the best suggestion yet, with an idea for a fireman quenching flames with magical balls of water.

I want to thank everyone who helped arrange the talks - Orlando has told me he was really excited to meet so many budding new writers and mythology fans, too - more from him soon. For now, click on the pictures below to see the fun times we have all been having.

I've had some amazing drawings for the GOBLIN GALLERY competition. All of them are uploaded, just follow the above link to see them. More news soon!

I continued my Mythical Maze tour with a visit to Corfe Mullen Library. I want to thank Ali and Jessica for all their help in making it one of the best ones yet! We had over twenty children sign up for the visit, all of them eager to learn more about mythology and to find out how to make their own myths.

To the left are two keen readers, and fans of The Company of Goblins.

I was, again, really impressed with all the inventive ideas that everyone had. We had ideas for "Tree Goblins", "Flower Goblins", lots of really interesting sea monsters, a very inventive description of a creature that could scale cliffs with its claws, and also a fan of Tolkien's Mirkwood Elves. All of the pictures can be viewed in the GOBLIN GALLERY.

All of the entries for the "Goblin Gallery" COMPETITION are amazing. So far, there have been entries from children aged 3 right up to 17 years old. It is going to be an almost impossible task to pick the winners with all the really brilliant ideas and drawings I have received.

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Thank you to everyone at Gosport Library for making my talk such a success, and a big thank you to Sarah, especially. It was so much fun to give my talk and to get the children involved in mythology. This year's Summer Reading Challenge really seems to be inspiring them.

I was bowled over by all the amazing ideas the children had, and I think there are definitely some budding new writers in the making. When we came to making up our own mythological creature, there were some brilliant drawings. As well as unicorns, and goblins, some of the children invented completely new creatures, and some wrote very inventive descriptions. All of the pictures have been uploaded to the GOBLIN GALLERY, so please take a look.  

Remember, if you missed my talk, don't worry - I am in the area again very soon - just check out the times in my Visits & Schools section to find another talk close to you. See you all soon!

I visited Broadstone Library yesterday for a Mythical Maze event. First, I'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone at Broadstone Library, it was really good to meet everyone and I had such a wonderful time. I hope all the children enjoyed my talk as much as I enjoyed giving it, and I hope there are lots of freshly inspired readers ready to enjoy the exciting genre of fantasy and mythology. (A big thank you to Laura for the photos of the event.)

After we had found out about myths and legends, and more importantly why they develop, we tried making our own mythological creatures. There were some really amazing ideas, you can see them all in the newly opened GOBLIN GALLERY. I particularly like "Gale the Goblin", "Grubber", the "goblin that will pull you down the well" by Ava, aged 5, and the Dragon, but all of them are really fantastic.

Remember, there is a COMPETITION for the very best picture and the lucky winner will win an Orlando glove puppet. It will be judged by the illustrator of The Company of Goblins.

There are lots more fun packed events at Poole Libraries for the Mythical Maze Summer Reading Challenge - Zoolab, Raven & the Eye Juggler, Michele O'Brien, to name a few, click on the link for more.