school visits

I visit schools, libraries and bookshops, and sometimes speak at festivals. There's usually lots of drawing and ARRRing and GRRRing. If you'd like me to come and visit your school, please get in touch with the nice people at AUTHORS ALOUD, or contact me directly.

I've made a handy school visit sheet which I can send you if you'd like to email me here. It explains what you can expect on a visit, what I'll need and my fees.

I live in Somerset, and can usually manage to travel to most parts of the country, although I'll need overnight accommodation if your school is more than an hour and half's drive away.

I have some activity and colouring sheets which you can download for free here:

Ten Little Pirates

Ten Little Dinosaurs

Ten Little Princesses

I'm extremely proud to be part of the Patron of Reading programme. This is a

an excellent scheme designed to help nurture a love of reading and literature

amongst children. I'm Patron or Reading at Twin Sails Infant School and

Nursery in Poole, Dorset. It's always a pleasure to be asked back and work

with their wonderful kids.

Here are some reviews of previous visits:

Thank you for a fantastic visit - the children are buzzing!! It was a brilliant day!

Paula Squibbs, Westonzoyland Junior School

Dear Mike,

I would like to thank you very much for your visit during our reading week. This was our first visit from an author and illustrator, and the children were enthused and excited by your vibrant books, presentation, and activities. I know that all the teachers and TAs were very impressed too. You certainly left a lasting impression as all the children keep talking about you and you were definitely mentioned as one of their highlights of the special week! For the older pupils the drawing workshop and the presentation about your own inspirations certainly helped to inspire them and put it in to a real life context for them – great!

We are currently aiming to promote the love of reading, and you contributed to this hugely – thank you!

Samantha Johnson – Year 4 Class Teacher from The Prince of Wales First School Dorchester.

HI Mike,

Just a little email to say a big thank you for coming in today. It was so lovely to have you with us and the children throughly enjoyed your workshops. They were so inspired and engaged particularly with the exercises you planned. We have also had some lovely comments from parents about how excited their children have gone home.

Thank you also for giving up extra time to sign and sell books! What a lovely personal touch that you drew each child a picture also!

Thank you once again for all your help, dedication and hard work in making today a success. It's my first year as year leader and it was so lovely for me arrange today and enjoy watching your workshop also.

Many Thanks

Laura Hebdige (Flood), Foxhills Infants School, Ashurst, Southampton

Hi Mike,

I just wanted to say a massive thank you for your time and effort last week at Twin Sails. I have had really nice feedback from the adults and children alike - it sounds like the new book went down a storm! I am just in the process of updating our website with all the images. I will be back in touch to sort more dates with you if that is ok?

Best wishes!

Kate x

Kate Gunstone, Twin Sails

Hi Mike,

Thanks again for a fantastic workshop this week at our school Walwayne Court. The children loved it and have been drawing their own robots today - during their 'golden time' this afternoon, which shows it had a great impact!

I have attached the photo of you and my class, Butterflies. Lots of 'little dinosaurs'!

Best wishes,

Becky Mould, Year 2 teacher, Walwayne Primary

To make World BookDay a really special memory for the children of Chilmark and Fonthill Bishop Primary School, we decided to invite a well-known author to our school. From the start we found Mike Brownlow to be friendly, flexible and keen to create the right day for the children.

He was able to fit in five workshops into the day, one for each class, working with Reception to Year 6. The children really enjoyed taking part in telling his stories, finding out about writing and they also received a masterclass in cartoon illustrations.

A week on and the children are still talking, drawing and writing about the brilliant day thanks to Mike Brownlow.

Mrs A Dimarco, Literacy Leader at Chilmark and Fonthill Bishop Primary School