"The pieces you created are lasting memories and images the children will have. So a huge thank you! Your artwork is simply amazing and will capture all our children's attention, together with parents and all in the community who come through our doors! It's been great working with you!"

"Stephen made our World Book Day a wonderful success. The way in which Stephen worked alongside our pupils was so positive and personalised. He really adapted his approach to get the most out of the children."

“Thank you for an amazing visit to WRPS! Your assembly was exciting and included everyone. We loved looking at your published books! The class workshops were lots of fun and gave the children a chance to show off their creative skills. Please come and visit us again soon!”

"Thank you Stephen for creating such a buzz in school around World Book Day. The children were inspired by your amazing illustrations and were full of questions during the assembly and afterwards. My class loved creating their own characters using a whole new approach and couldn't wait to turn those characters into their own story books. It was a valuable experience for all the children."

"Stephen Waterhouse recently had a very successful visit to our School. He really inspired the children to want to illustrate and write their own stories during his workshops which they did with outstanding results. There was a real buzz about the school and we plan to invite him back in the Autumn Term to once more enthuse our young children"

"I have been fortunate enough to work alongside Stephen Waterhouse on two occasions. The first when I lived and worked in Leeds and more recently at Ernehale Infants in Nottingham. I booked Stephen for an author visit and was so impressed with the day that I booked him again recently at my current school. Stephen brings with him a wealth of experience to share with the children who responded in awe and wonder to his assembly and classroom based activities. Stephen presents his assemblies and class based activities in a lively way that keeps the children focused and enthused to learn more. They especially relished the opportunity to find out the process of creating a story book and were amazed at the time it took. Most importantly the children where enthused by the knowledge they gained and still talk about the visit weeks after it happened. For any school wishing to enhance their curriculum with an author and illustrator visit, I would strongly recommend that they book Stephen Waterhouse."

"Stephen relates very well to the children, he is enthusiastic about illustrating and writing and this motivates the children to put 100% effort into their work with him. He is very good at working with the very young children aged four and five. He can talk to the children at their level of understanding and support them with their art work. I would thoroughly recommend Stephen Waterhouse as an author and illustrator to work in other settings and schools."

"I first invited Stephen to visit us as a speaker for World Book Day in 2011. On my request, he came a few weeks in advance to plan the day with me and set out a schedule. On the day itself, Stephen gave a whole school assembly and throughout the day worked with both KS1 and KS2 pupils providing age appropriate workshops. His assembly was interesting and lively and thoroughly engaged the pupils. He has a lovely manner with everyone and my colleagues expressed that he was a super role model. All of the different workshops went really well – the children enjoyed the activities and maintained their enthusiasm throughout the session. Stephen is naturally a warm and engaging character and doesn’t put on a performance act of being super child-friendly, which is something I have found with more famous authors who have visited us (and they tend to switch off the charm when they are out of the limelight!). I would not hesitate to give a recommendation to other schools and will certainly invite Stephen again in the future. The fact that he is fairly local to us is an added bonus!"

"Stephen visited our school over three days, starting with a whole school assembly during which he introduced himself, described his work and displayed many examples. The children were fascinated and full of questions. He then worked with children in both Key Stage 1 and 2, showing them how to create characters from various starting points and encouraging collaborative work. The workshops had a great impact on the children and the staff were able to build upon the experience for weeks afterwards. Even children who lacked confidence had no problems creatingthe artwork and more able children were given the freedom to experiment. Everyone found the experience very positive."

"I keep looking at their drawings and thinking how well the children did and for some of them it's the most confident free flowing line drawings they have ever done!"

"The children are still talking about your visit and I have seen work ongoing around school while classes work to finish the stories using the art work they created with you. There has been quite a buzz! The staff have also said that they would never have considered using children's own art work in this way as a starting point for creative writing. They feel that it has been such an exciting opportunity for boys to give them much more freedom of choice in how to begin a piece of creative writing. Of course, this is one of our areas that we are hoping to improve on and your visit has certainly given us a way forward."

"Stephen visited our small rural school during our book week and the children are still talking about it, there was a real sense of awe and wonder in and around school during his visit. His brightly coloured, animated illustrations are inspirational and their impact on our children`s work was amazing."

"Stephen Waterhouse visited our school and worked with all our KS1 children. His assembly was very well received and the children were captivated by his beautifully detailed books and bright, colourful artwork. All of KS1 then got the opportunity to work with Stephen to produce a whole school piece of art, an experience that was thoroughly enjoyed by both the children and the staff alike. Stephen has a lovely manner with the children and his passion and enthusiasm for illustration and art inspired not only the children but the staff who have begun to amend the art curriculum within school."

"His pictures are really amazing.”

“His books had lots of colours and I like them.”

“I liked doing art with a real artist it was fun.”

"Stephen is not just an amazing illustrator, but a natural teacher as well. He inspired all the children at our school to produce the very best work they could during his visit. Stephen taught the pupils that, with hard-work, determination and a love of what you do, anyone can become a great artist, illustrator or story-teller."

"Stephen Waterhouse visited KS1 at Beechwood Primary School, Seacroft, Leeds on 3rd March 2017 as part of World Book Week. He gave a talk to the 120 pupils in the hall and they spontaneously clapped when Stephen showed his colourful and highly detailed illustrations. He then read the 'Runaway Chapati' which was very age appropriate and demonstrated how to draw the food characters. The children were given pens and paper to have a go themselves and were completely involved. The session lasted for one and a half hours and Beechwood staff would certainly recommend the visit. Following this the children made up their own stories as a result of the great talk from Stephen and a prize was given to the best in each class"