Make your own monster: in Japanese and English

I’m just back from a terrific conference with the Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators. It was great!! I am all inspired and fired up to start work on ideas for a Takeshita Demons book 5 (and I think book 4 is nearly ready to start writing!) Monster self-introductions If you’re looking for inspiration [...]

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A monster activity for celebrating International Childrens Book Day

Celebrating international childrens books Looking for ways to celebrate International Childrens Book Day (April 2, the birthday of Hans Christian Anderson)? Want to entertain a bunch of kids for a couple of hours? Like to imagine weird and wonderful creatures? Give this activity a shot: Remember…the creatures you talk about can be as scary (or [...]

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What colour were yōkai demons? Download colouring-in sheets

The Takeshita Demons books feature Japanese monsters and demons, called yōkai (or youkai). Many yōkai were first drawn by Toriyama Sekien, a Japanese artist who lived in the 1700s. These colouring-in sheets feature his original drawings. Head to the resources section of my website to download PDFs for these activities. A kappa is a water-loving [...]

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Hiragana word search: Find the yokai demons and practise your Japanese

Want a fun way to practise your hiragana? Try this spooky hiragana wordsearch! If you’re studying Japanese, then you alredy know that the Japanese language is written using three different alphabets: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Words can also be written in romaji, using the English alphabet. This word search uses hiragana and features demons from [...]

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Creative writing activity: Spooky story starters from Kwaidan

The demons in Takeshita Demons originated in Japanese mythology and ghost stories from many years ago. Many spooky Japanese stories appear in Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, a book published in 1903 by a Greek-born journalist named Lafcadio Hearn. A resident of Japan for nearly 15 years, Hearn translated the stories from old [...]

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Could Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak really make someone invisible?

I’ve been thinking lots of good science thoughts this week because I’m dreaming up a new and exciting project. Science is pretty cool, and science for kids is even cooler. Many of you know I used to perform kids science shows as part of the Shell Questacon Science Circus and for Science on the Move. [...]

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