So LO (Little One, for those of you not used to the lingo on kids websites) and I went to see the Contemporary Illustrators in Germany exhibition at the Central Lending Library, a building that I've been to only really to see shows at the Drama Centre on the 2nd floor. After a lot of looking at the NLB website and not finding nearly enough info, found details at the Goethe-Institut website. And off we went.
They have a 24 hour bookdrop - and you can see the book dropping on video. Cool!. Also, I'd never really thought of the plaza downstairs as a place for children but it's great. They have a Han's for nibbles and drinks, and a platform that is perfect for kids to run up and down and around on.
I expected to see just one or two samples from each of the thirteen illustrators but there were four or five panel excerpts from books. Of course the most famous among them - which was the draw for us - was Axel Scheffler (of The Gruffalo fame). They had a few images from his Spiffiest Giant in Town book. Unfortunately that's LO's least fave Julia Donaldson/Scheffler book so she wasn't impressed. Many of the others were a bit dark and dreary, but we loved the images from Nina Budde.
The only problem was that the NLB wasn't expecting kids. The illustrations were placed at adult height so I had to carry LO to see the pics - and she's not light - minders shushed noisy kids, and it all stood in the middle of the reading area in B1, so we got a fair number of dirty looks from people trying to read.