Tom Percival: Managing and drawing emotions

Tom Percival is the author and illustrator of several well-loved picture books about wellbeing. These include Perfectly Norman, Ruby's Worry and The Invisible, which is longlisted for the 2022 Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal!

In this Authors Live event, Tom reads his picture book The River, which is a beautiful, thought-provoking story about managing unpredictable feelings. Tom also leads an interactive activity on drawing emotions and shares the innovative illustration process behind The Sea Saw, The Invisible and The River. Make sure to have paper and pencils ready to join in with the draw along!

If you only do one thing...

We know time is tight so here is just one activity you could do with your class before or after watching the event.

Create an emotion character (EXA 1-04a, HWB 1-01a, HWB 1-03a, HWB 1-06a)

Tom’s books explore emotions through his stories and art. Create your own character that personifies an emotion. First, pick an emotion you’d like to explore, for example, happiness, sadness, anger, jealousy, excitement. Now, think about what colour they’d be. What kind of clothes would they wear? How would they stand? Are there any objects or animals that you could use to inspire your drawing? Share your drawings together and talk about what you can do when you feel certain emotions and who can help you.

See below for our mental health awareness resources, including our resource of mental health and wellbeing activities that can be used to develop emotional literacy and wellbeing using any book.