Workshop and Q&A with Chanté Timothy

Suitable for: Years 3 and 4

Chanté Timothy is an illustrator who loves experimenting with movement, vibrant colour, character design and storytelling. Drawing for as long as she can remember, she’s always been the kid who asked for paper and pen to entertain herself instead of playing with toys. Chanté is the illustrator of a number of non-fiction books and has previously published picture books with Tola Okogwu for Simon & Schuster Children’s Books. Chanté featured in Dapo Adeola’s Hey You! which won Children’s Illustrated Book of the Year at the 2021 British Book Awards.

Young scientist Nova loves nothing more than conducting experiments in her secret laboratory, accessed through a hidden entrance behind her wardrobe. After watching a documentary about islands of plastic waste which are floating in the oceans, Nova is sure she can come up with a solution. She starts experimenting and is delighted when she creates a plastic-eating organism named Chomp, which grows in size as it consumes waste. As Chomp gets bigger, so does its appetite and it escapes into town looking for more things to eat. Unfortunately, Nova hadn’t appreciated just how many objects contain plastic, and Chomp causes havoc by munching through toys, traffic cones and even roads. With the help of her big sister Cassi and some highly inventive gadgets – including her parents’ teleportation machine and a giant robot – Nova attempts to stop Chomp before it’s too late.