Happy World Book Day to you all! However you are spending the day, whether it is in costume, reading books, writing stories or listening to a tale – I hope you have the most brilliant day.
Thank you to everyone who has shared their brilliant costumes with me. It’s incredibly special to seeing your books being enjoyed so please do keep sharing your amazing pictures.
Thank you so much to everyone who came along to join the children’s writers afternoon tea at the library. Unlike previous potluck gatherings, it was masks and table service but thanks to Jackie and Trish the afternoon was just as much fun as always.
It was wonderful to talk to everyone about my fellowship at the university and again I was reminded how lucky I am to spend the next six months working on a passion project. Next week I’ll be posting my latest vlog about what I’ve been up to so watch this space as I will be talking about planning and research when writing a novel.
It’s publication day for My Mum is a Lioness! Our first review is in and it’s a roarsome one Pam Norfolk at the Lancashire Post.
If you spot My Mum is a Lioness in the wild, do send me a picture – I would love to know where she is roaming in the world.
It’s 2022 and I’m starting the year as University of Otago College of Education Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence.
As I took a stroll across the beautiful campus towards my office, it was hard not to feel overwhelmed. The roll call of previous Fellows reads like a list of Aotearoa New Zealand literary royalty.
But when I met with Dr Jane Tilson, all my worries faded instantly. She put me at ease with the warmest welcome and took me on a tour of the offices.
Here’s me a bit teary-eyed seeing my name on a university door for the first time. What an incredible honour!
Jane insisted I make my office home so I’m taking my first few days to decorate the office with my son, my very own in-house interior designer. Take a tour of my office here.
I’ll be hitting the ground running on my new project from Tuesday next week and I can’t wait.
My Children’s Book of the Month is: Julia and the Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston.
What a bearilliant start to 2022! Not only were Bad Panda AND My Dad is a Grizzly Bear shortlisted for the Books for Topics Books of the Year 2021 but My Dad is a Grizzly Bear WON it’s category for EYFS Best Classroom Read-Aloud.
Thank you to Books for Topics for all your support. I’m chuffed to bits for both books especially because they were voted for by primary school teachers, teaching assistants, librarians, authors and children’s book lovers – I’m sending a huge virtual THANK YOU hug to everyone who voted.
It’s been a bumper crop this year!
I’m so thankful to be supported by the best publishing teams but also by the BEST readers. That’s you! A huge THANK YOU to all the brilliant booksellers, bloggers, librarians, school staff, fellow authors and illustrators and AWESOME readers, like you, who continue to support my books – big Christmas hugs to you all.
I can’t wait to bring you more books in 2022 so have a safe and happy holiday break, full of books and adventures and I’ll see you in 2022 for more booky fun.
It’s my final event of 2021! Thank you to everyone who has adapted to virtual visits during the pandemic – you’ve made this technophobe’s year! I know these events are not the same as in-person events but I’ve been thrilled to see how engaged and interactive pupils have been so THANK YOU very much to all who have come along to events this year!
Today, I got to read a bit of Bad Panda with the students of Neobael. We had a Q&A and I thought I would share some of their fantastic questions, inspired by Bad Panda, with you in this post:
Neobael Q: What is your favourite animal?
Me: I love dogs. They are so happy and loyal and anyone who knows me knows the love of my life is my dog, Archie.
Neobael Q: Have you ever met a bad panda?
Me: I haven’t! I was very lucky to spend time volunteering at a panda sanctuary in China and all the pandas I met were adorable and well behaved. (Lin, the star of Bad Panda, would hate me saying that!)
Neobael Q: Do pandas really do whooper carpark-sized poos?
Me: Here’s a fun fact: pandas do up to 40 poos a day! It’s true. Thankfully they don’t do them all in one go so you never see a carpark-sized poo but they do poo a lot.
It’s Diwali! Thank you so much to everyone who joined Scholastic School Live and took part in the ‘All About Diwali’ event.
I had such a great time sharing Diwali stories and activities with you and I know my dog, Archie, did too!
Please do get in touch and share your Diwali makes and bakes with me. I’d love to see how you celebrated.
Today, Maisie Chan, Tọlá Okogwu and I were invited to talk about our experience writing Series Fiction.
Jasmine Richards hosted the panel and it was so great to share our mutual love for writing for younger readers and find out what got us writing for the age group.
Tọlá shared her feelings of the pressure to be ‘perfect’ as a person of colour in an industry where people of colour are a minority. I talked about ‘casual inclusivity’ and how it is important that characters of colour are seen doing everyday things and not just in issue-based books. And Maisie shared her experiences of making sure her books had diverse characters because it’s so important that all children see themselves in stories.
We all agreed that this age group needed quality fiction – readers are just starting to build their reading muscles so series fiction deserves as much love and attention as picturebooks and middle grade books if we want to build readers for life.
Bad Panda has been longlisted for the Blue Peter Book Awards 2022!
I’m pleased as punch that Bad Panda is on such a fantastic longlist alongside some of my absolute favourite books of the year – a total honour!
