Mrs Armitage on Wheels: Celebrate Quentin Blake’s 90th Birthday

Product Information

Topics: problem-solving; resilience; women in STEM; positive images of older people; transport; quest stories The energy and mischievous humour of Quentin Blake’s art, as well as its compassionate social awareness, are evident in his award-winning children’s picture book Clown (1995).

You could bury it in a hole in your garden – but it must be in a container that will not biodegrade - and you will have to mark the spot somehow! He has illustrated nearly 300 books, and is known for his collaboration with writers such as Russell Hoban, Joan Aiken and Michael Rosen. He is the major illustrator for Roald Dahl books, including The BFG, The Witches, Matilda and Esio Trot, all of which have won major prizes. He was awarded an OBE in 1988, and a CBE in 2005, for services to Children's Literature. In 1990, he was voted "The Illustrator's Illustrator" by Observer Magazine and in 1999, was appointed the first ever Children's Laureate, a post designed to raise the profile of children's literature. He has also won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration. Blake was knighted in the 2013 New Year Honours for his services to illustration. In March 2014 he was awarded the insignia of Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur at a ceremony at the Institut Français in London Enjoy You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus. Relish the illustrations and amusing scenarios. Invite children to select their favourite and to use because to provide a reason for their opinion, e.g. A whale riding a bike because it is funny to see something so big on something so small. He was born in 1932, reading English at Cambridge, then studying teaching at the University of London, and life classes at Chelsea Art School. He has always made his living as an illustrator, as well as teaching for over twenty years at The Royal College of Art, where he was head of the Illustration department from 1978 to 1986. His first drawings were published in Punch at the age of sixteen, and he continued to draw for Punch, The Spectator and other magazines for many years, while entering the world of children's books with his first book as an illustrator, A Drink of Water and Other Stories by John Yeoman, in 1960.

Engage children with digital learning

Blake was educated at Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School. His English teacher, JH Walsh, influenced his ambition to become involved in literature. His first published drawing was for the satirical magazine Punch, at the age of 16. He read English Literature at Downing College, Cambridge (1953-6), received his postgraduate teaching diploma from the University of London, and later studied at the Chelsea School of Art. He gained another teaching diploma at the Institute of Education before working at the Royal College of Art. I would like you to create a time capsule to remember this extraordinary time we are living in now. Without dialogue, it has the purity of a silent film, creating movement and telling its delightful story entirely through pictures. After being thrown out with other toys, a clown doll flips itself out of a trashcan, joins a fancy dress parade, is chased by a dog, and is then thrown accidentally into a poor high-rise apartment. There his antics help to quiet a crying child, and he helps the harassed babysitter to tidy the apartment. Then they all go out into the city, against a vivid red sky and grey city buildings, and retrieve the others. By the time the child’s mother comes home, the clown has become a loved toy again. Characteristically, the book also conveys an underlying moral theme, about rejection and connectedness.

Blake’s dynamic pen strokes typically create odd, unruly characters, almost always seen in concert with children, rendering them in a sprightly manner. As Sue Hubbard, an art critic writing in The Independent, has observed: ‘His drawing is wonderfully free and playful, the colour bleeding with carefree abandon over the ink outlines to give a sense of movement and vitality’. He is now one of Britain’s most popular artists, and so recognizable have Blake’s illustrations become, that his gently anarchic images have spread to greetings cards. In 1999 he was appointed the first Children’s Laureate, and his achievement has recently been marked by a major retrospective exhibition: ‘Quentin Blake: Fifty Years of Illustration’, held at Somerset House in London in 2004. His work was also a major part of the British Council's 'Magic Pencil' Exhibition which began touring the world in 2002, and there are apparently future plans for a Quentin Blake Gallery. Mrs Armitage on Wheels is a pleasure to read aloud with a class. The prose flows smoothly off the tongue, and the refrains get children joining in. They love the onomatopoeia (crash, crunch, thud!) and the listing of bike modifications which are used with comic effect. The language, which seems simple at first, builds increasingly into adventurous words and phrases which mirror the growing complexity of Mrs Armitage’s bike: don’t be surprised if your class start to speak of ‘complete tool kits’, ‘faithful dogs’ or of things needing ‘a bit of extra oomph’ after repeat readings! Read You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus. Identify each form of transport. Children discuss which vehicles they have tried; they share their reason for travelling and describe how it felt. Read The Train Ride. Identify what the characters see on the journey. List ideas as words or phrases. Show sequencing words ( resources) and model converting the ideas into an oral recount.

Explore our most popular collections

Share Mrs. Armitage on Wheels Identify each problem Mrs. Armitage solves. Discuss the improvements the children would make to their bikes/scooters, e.g. add a wireless speaker to play music, a TV, a seat for teddy.