A Selection of Tom's Books
Tom McLaughlin
I talk about where ideas come from, as well as read my books.
I also do live drawing, demonstrating character designs and interactive drawing.
I talk about my dyslexia and how it can be a source for positivity.
Type of Artist:
Author, IllustratorDetails
Preferred age range:5-11 year olds. Obviously it’s best to split the age groups up.
I tailor sessions depending on whether they’re young or older kids.
No of sessions per day:
3 sessions in a day
Session Length:
30/40 minutes for 5/6 years.
50 minutes for 7-11 years.
Areas prepared to travel to:
I live in Devon and am happy to travel anywhere as long as expenses are paid.
Transport:
Car or train. I charge 40p per mile.
Fees:
Please indicate which author you are interested in
Website:
Titles include:
The Cloudspotter
The Story Machine
The Accidental Prime Minister
The Diabolical Mr Tiddles
Testimonials:
“I think Tom is good to have because he makes the lesson fun by making one person Prime Minister for the rest of the day as a bit of a joke. Tom should visit your school because he gives you a really good explanation on how to write a book and how to get it published.
It is also fun because he draws pictures which some people get to take home. This is very special. First he drew a triangle, a square and circle. He made a bird from the triangle, an elephant out of the square and a lion’s head out of the circle. Next he drew 2 monsters which we chose. Then he wrote a list of our laws for if we were Prime Minister and after read it out.”
Hannah age 10
From the moment I collected him from the station, Tom was interested in the children he was going to be speaking to and keen to finalise the arrangements for the morning. As we have some challenging children in our school, this is so important and all staff were impressed by his manner.
Tom kindly read ‘The Diabolical Mr Tiddles’ to my class before going to the year groups he was actually talking to which delighted them! He managed their questions well and gave them full answers. Although I was not fortunate enough to attend Tom’s talks with Year 5 and Year 4, the feedback I had from both pupils and adults was overwhelmingly positive. ‘Inspiring’, ‘very funny’, ‘full of life’, ‘so entertaining’ were a few of the comments I was given! He spoke to each year group- each of 60-ish children and 8-ish staff- with confidence, managing to keep them engaged and entertained for the whole talk.
Tom’s manner with the children when signing was lovely. He spoke to the children readily and without rushing them. He kindly drew pictures and signed them and these are now hanging proudly in our library.
Published work:
