Jeremy Strong
Tag Archives: wembley
My adventure with Dennis continues! #dennis2018
In March 1951 Dennis the Menace and his dog Gnasher made their first appearance in The Beano. Dennis, the trouble making school boy who terrorised his arch enemy Walter, proved popular with readers and soon became the Beano’s most famous character and their longest running comic strip. As the world has changed so too has Dennis and as he approaches 70 years old Dennis, with his trademark black spiky hair and red and black striped jumper, is now more than a comic book hero, he’s a British institution.
In the summer of 2018 Dennis and his Beanotown friends supported The Summer Reading Challenge; a national reading scheme encouraging children to read in the school holidays and I presented Nigel Auchterlounie’s “Dennis and the Chamber of Mischief”. To date (this blog was written in August 2018) my retelling of the story has been heard by almost 3000 children in public libraries across England. The response from audiences and librarians has been overwhelming:
Children have really enjoyed hearing about Dennis, joining his adventures and tackling the challenges of the Chamber of Mischief. They have left our sessions buzzing about reading and the potential of books. The response in cyberspace has been equally positive with lots of parents, grandparents and libraries taking to social media to share photographs and feedback using the #dennis2018. It may have been a long, hot summer but Dennis has made it very enjoyable.
Now, with the kind support of Bonnier Publishing, I am pleased to announce that this storytelling session is to be made available for school assemblies and events. For the next ten months teachers will be able to introduce the zaniness of Beanotown to their classes as Dennis helps us encourage and inspire a love of reading.
Nigel Auchterlounie’s “Dennis and the Chamber of Mischief” is published by Studio Press and is available through all good bookshops and public libraries. If you are interested in my retelling of the story I will be visiting Bolton Libraries and participating in the Loogabarooga Festival in Loughborough during October. If you’d like Dennis and the Chamber of Mischief to visit your school or event contact me.
#100mphdog
Things are coming together nicely for the summer tour of Jeremy Strong’s “The Hundred Mile an Hour Dog” and today I thought I’d share the poster image.
We are doing 99 presentations of the story (I say we because these days its a team effort; Joseph Attenborough has agreed to create the soundtrack, the poster image for the project was created by Dan White and Dan McGarry is doing some presentations for me this summer so that I can have some time with my new family). The dates are now up on the website so have a nose through and see if we’ll be passing your neck of the woods.
To keep in touch with what we get up to I’ll be using the hashtag #100mphdog on social media between June and October 2017. I look forward to seeing you this summer!