Wrong Pong

Part of the 26 Letters strand of Brighton Festival, Wrong Pong is a kids’ book about trolls by Steven Butler. Kicking off this fun session with the question “Who loves books?”, my heart sank as my five year old son’s nose wrinkled and loads of children resounded an enthusiastic “yes”. My relief followed with the next question, “Who hates books?”; “yes!” cried other kids. “So did I… when I was young…” continued Steven. What followed was a series of funny, charming and lavatorial stories about how Butler became a writer and devised these fantastic troll stories. Meanwhile Chris Fisher drew images of the book’s character that were projected onto the stage. Somehow this morphed into all the kids sprawling on the floor drawing trolls and then having an X-Factor style troll face-pulling competition. Interactive, inspirational, friendly and encouraging, and great fun!

Sallis Benney, 13 May 2012

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