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Our first review of Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) is in and I’m overjoyed because it’s a good one. Have a read of Margaret’s review here. Huge thank you to The Alligator’s Mouth bookshop for such a lovely review.

Both Sheena and I will be running a crafts session and celebrating Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) flying on to the shelves on Saturday 28th January. Full details can be found on The Alligator’s Mouth website.

Happy New Year!

Just twenty more sleeps until Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) hits the shelves and advanced copies of Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) are flying around to bloggers this month. Whilst we wait for the reviews to come and I chew my nails down to bloodied stumps, I thought I’d let the husband and the son have an exclusive read of the book. Here they are, finally finishing the book:

Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!): read by James and Phoenix

(Spoiler Alert Warning: This video contains material from the book. If you don’t want to know the ending, it’s time to log off and go and eat a jammy biscuit.)

The advanced copies of Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) are in and they are looking FANTASTIC! Only forty-two more sleeps until Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) hits the shelves in 2017!

Until then, have a Merry Davemas and a pigeontastic New Year and I’ll be back in 2017 with more exciting Dave Pigeon news.

Swapna x

Hold on to your feathers! It’s the Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) book trailer. Illustrated by Sheena Dempsey and published by Faber & Faber, the second book in the Dave Pigeon series will be out February 2017; that’s only fifty-six sleeps away!

In the meantime enjoy the trailer by Ross Hendrick.

Last week we were invited to meet the pupils of St. Augustine’s CE Primary School by the wonderful staff and the very lovely folk of the Alligator’s Mouth bookshop. Without Sheena, it was the job of the pupils to help me create new characters and brand new stories and of course, with Christmas around the corner, we had to have a character or two with a pair of antlers.

I was so impressed with the imagination and brilliance of the pupils that I came away excited to get cracking on some TOP SECRET writing projects of my own. And of course decorate my Christmas tree in a way that Dave Pigeon would approve.

Here are a few photos from a fantastic afternoon at St. Augustine’s. Thank you to all the staff and children who made me feel so at home:

Here is a great review of Dave Pigeon in the Inis Reading Guide for 2016.

It’s wonderful to see Dave Pigeon in the Autumn/Winter 2016 issue of Carousel and what a lovely review too.

DAVE PIGEON WON THE NORTH SOMERSET TEACHERS’ BOOK AWARD: READ ALOUD CATEGORY. WE WON! And yes, I am so happy I am shouting about it!

Yesterday afternoon, we were treated to a wonderful awards ceremony, packed full of children’s books and delicious cakes. Shortlisted authors and illustrators were invited to Bournville Primary School in Weston-super-Mare to celebrate an amazing shortlist of books and we got to take our families along too.

After a quick stop at the beach for a lunch of fish and chips and mushy peas, we headed to the ceremony which was packed full of authors, illustrators, teachers, librarians and lots of people passionate about children’s books.

The full shortlist

The Read Aloud category shortlist

WE WON!

This award is a rather special one because it was voted for by teachers, librarians and educators. It was my brilliant teachers and librarians that got me hooked on reading as a child and I can’t thank them enough for opening up my world to adventures and characters that have inspired and challenged me. Reading improves empathy. That’s a fact. In the world we live in now, it’s more important than ever that we encourage children to read and to learn to empathise.