Children’s Books Belfast Presents

Children's Books Belfast presents an afternoon of storytelling and craft making with homegrown picture book talent Colleen Larmour, Clive McFarland, Erin McClean and Ellan Rankin. 

They will be reading their new picture books, followed with a fun art and craft activity for the children to enjoy and take home.

Colleen and Clive will lead the 2pm storytelling and activity.  Erin and Ellan will lead the 3pm storytelling and activity.

Come and meet the artists behind the books beloved by little readers. 

Colleen Larmour is a picture book maker living in Lisburn.  She studied at Liverpool School of Art and Design and on the master's course in Children's Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art.  Colleen has illustrated several books including Making Friends and Our Green City, which won a 2022 Blueberry Changemaker Award for inspiring a love of nature and action for the planet.  Colleen's own authored picture book will publish in spring 2024.  

Erin McClean is a freelance illustrator living in Bangor.  She graduated with a BA in Illustration from Falmouth University in 2017 and has been illustrating ever since. Erin loves drawing cute, energetic characters and incorporating bright colour palettes and traditional textures into her work. 

Erin's first picture book, Be Good, Peanut Butter, was published in 2022 and tells the story of a mischievous pandemic puppy being left home alone for the first time.

Clive McFarland is a picture book author and illustrator.  He was raised in Omagh, County Tyrone before studying art in Derry and Liverpool.  His books have been twice shortlisted for the AOI World Illustration Awards, and One Leaf, Two Leaves, Count With Me! was chosen for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Clive's new picture book Standing On One Leg is Hard, written by Erika McGann, tells the story of a little heron chick who is trying HARD to look like the grown ups.

Ellan Rankin is a Northern Irish author-illustrator. She completed an MA in Children's Book Illustration from Cambridge School of Art, and she also has a First Class Honors degree in Illustration from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee. She is inspired by history and cinema, and as a huge animal lover, her stories often centre around animals and silly stories she reads in the news. She has won a few titles including, Carmelite Prize 2020 and The Sebastian Walker Prize 2020. Ellan's authored/illustrated debut, The Secret Elephant, published in February this year.  Ellan also illustrated Our Wee Place, written by Sophie Kirtley, which was offered to all P1 pupils, Sure Start centres and NI libraries to mark the centenary of Northern Ireland.