Old News

If you like the NEW kind of NEWS, you’d be better off checking my instagram. If it’s quiet I honestly do still exist, I’m just thinking or something. Maybe about my two-year-old. This here is really a blog archive of my blog from when blogs were a thing.

I Like Trains at Westminster Libraries

My latest picture book, I Like Trains, is Book of the Week at Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea Libraries this week! I had a lovely time visiting St John’s Wood Library a couple of years ago and had hoped to go back with I Like Trains, so this is a kind of virtual visit – and the upside is anyone anywhere can join in through Facebook.

My storytime video will be available for a month, and there are lots of other train-related activities on Westminster Libraries’ Facebook page too – including a video about how to make the train banner from my Free Stuff page.

I Like Trains cover

I Like Trains is published by Walker Books and is available now.

Oscar’s Book Prize 2020

I’m extremely happy to say that Alphonse, there’s Mud on the Ceiling! has been shortlisted for Oscar’s Book Prize! The prize celebrates the best pre-school book of the year and is awarded in memory of Oscar Ashton; the winner will be announced on Monday 25th of May. There are five other brilliant books on the shortlist and you can read more about them, Oscar’s Book Prize and Oscar at www.oscarsbookprize.co.uk/.

Read for Empathy 2020

I’m very happy that my picture book about a small monster learning to read, I Do Not Like Books Anymore! has been chosen by Empathy Lab for their 2020 Read for Empathy Collection, intended as “a diverse collection of books for primary and secondary children, all carefully selected by an expert panel to improve children’s empathy skills.” Founded in response to research suggesting that reading fiction can build our capacity for empathy, Empathy Lab describes empathic concern as “a powerful motivator for helping others, a force for social justice.” Whoop to that. 

I loved making I Do Not Like Books Anymore! because the subject was so important to me – and because it’s always fun to spend time with Natalie and Alphonse. But I also felt quite a lot of anxiety about getting it right, and about how it would be received. Natalie’s struggles with reading, and the ways she and Alphonse find of reclaiming books and stories, were largely based on my own experiences as a child. Things I learnt as a Teaching Assistant and while working for an early-years education charity fed into the book too but I’m (obviously) no expert.

Spread from I Do Not Like Books Anymore!

I think all that worrying about making A MASSIVE PEDAGOGICAL/DEVELOPMENTAL ERROR has made it extra-lovely that people have responded so positively to the story. The support of wonderful organisations like Empathy Lab and Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) means a lot – as do all the messages I’ve received from individual teachers, librarians and parents. I especially love it when children make their own books in response to the story, as Natalie and Alphonse do: like these ones shared by teacher @today_we_read on instagram or those I’ve been lucky enough to see develop at workshops and events (below is a very excellent book being created at Heffers in Cambridge in 2018).

A book-making workshop

There are foldable books to download and fill with stories on my Free stuff page, based on the titles of Natalie and Alphonse’s books – but I’m just as excited if children’s stories have nothing to do with Tomato And The Chair or The Magic Pigeon (although I would love to find out what happens in Whale Goes Shopping).

A book launch for Hamish

Hamish takes the Train had a joint book launch at Gosh! London with Maisie Paradise Shearring’s very brilliant I’m Actually Really Grown-Up Now and Kate Read’s beautiful debut One Fox (all three are published by Two Hoots). For some reason we did a lot of signing while standing up, and being stripey (this is me and Maisie).
We also did some signing sitting down (this time with Kate in the middle).
And amazingly, some other people turned up too! These are really excellent people, we like them a lot. It was nice that the Two Hoots owl could make it too.

Thanks to EVERYONE for coming and to Gosh! and Two Hoots – and thanks Mauricio @molizane for the photos!