Articles

Working Class Heroes in Teach Primary Magazine

 in Articles  tagged Education / Teach Primary / Working Class by

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Delighted to have written an article for Teach Primary Magazine about how children can improve their enjoyment and understanding of books written by authors from diverse cultures – in this case, a working class background.

I’m especially happy to be included in the same issue as one of my favourite authors and cover star, Cressida Cowell, who has written a fabulous feature about creating a sense of suspense in writing.

My article was previously published online, and can be found here.

Huge thanks to Teach Primary and HarperCollins for giving me the platform to talk about something so close to my heart.

Illustration Insights

 in Articles  tagged Illustrations by

It has been a joy working with Amit and the artwork team on the ‘Shinoy and the Chaos Crew’ books, who have all done an amazing job. Book cover artwork is always such an important and often over-looked part of producing a book. With the Shinoy series we wanted something dynamic and outstanding for every page – and with such a talented team, we certainly got that!

Here are some fascinating insights into the illustration process from Beehive Illustration’s first ‘Under the Cover‘ feature.

Open University – Reading for Pleasure Spotlight

 in Articles  tagged books / open university / reading by

It is an honour to have been chosen to be one of the Open University’s Author Spotlights.

Every month the OU’s Reading for Pleasure website has an author answering a few questions about reading and books. It was a thrill to be asked in amongst some incredible company who had previously been asked. There is also a downloadable version available for classroom displays – which is very handy!

Please check out my Author Spotlight page here.

My Experiences as a Reluctant Reader

 in Articles  tagged reading / reading for pleasure / reluctant readers by

My new series of books, ‘Shinoy and the Chaos Crew’, are largely aimed at young people who would not normally choose to pick up and read a book. In an article I wrote for my publisher, I talk about my own experiences of being a ‘reluctant reader’ when I was young. Sometimes people who don’t read much (or at all) are not those who are uninterested in stories, as some people think, but are those that LOVE stories. Reading can be a slow way to access a story, which does put readers like me off. I wrote my new series with this in mind and wanted to bring the story bursting into the readers mind as soon as possible.

You can read the whole article here (don’t worry, it’s very short!).