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How to help a reluctant reader

How to help a reluctant reader

As a mum of a reluctant reader, this is not a new challenge for me. I’ve been all around the houses and back again trying to encourage a love of reading in my daughter, but nothing really seems to work. In fact, I’ve even written in defence of the reluctant reader...

Flawed, by Cecilia Ahern – book review

Flawed, by Cecilia Ahern – book review

What would happen if you lived in a society with pre-determined rules about how you should behave, speak and think? If you break any of those rules, you’re branded as a flawed for everyone to see and the type of branding shows the extent to which you are flawed. What...

The ghosts within these walls

The ghosts within these walls

“Imagine if these four walls could talk and what they would say about the things they’ve seen and heard over the years.” This is a line from the first Time School book, Time School: We Will Remember Them. It also sums up the premise for these stories and it was this...

Back to school, back to ‘normal’

Back to school, back to ‘normal’

It’s the moment we’ve been waiting for isn’t it? With both anticipation and dread, parents up and down the country have been keeping everything crossed that come September, children would be able to go back to school. Now we’re into the first week, how do you feel...

Children’s Writing Habits During Lockdown

Children’s Writing Habits During Lockdown

Every year the National Literacy Trust surveys children and young people about their writing habits, and 2019 saw daily writing rates drop to their lowest since the survey began in 2010. The good news is, that figure was on the rise slightly, just before lockdown,...

Storymakers is Three!

Storymakers is Three!

Three years ago, in April 2017, my dreams of being a published author were realised when my first book, The Mystery of the Disappearing Underpants, came into the world. At the time, I was a mixture of emotions; I’d been so focused on getting to this point, when I did,...

The Time School Series

The Time School Series

The Time School series follows four friends as they journey back to different periods of time over the course of their first year at secondary school. Not only do the children embark on the adventure that is their first year at secondary school, but they also get the...

Heartbreak and Hope – Voices of a Pandemic

Heartbreak and Hope – Voices of a Pandemic

Back in March, when the world seemed to have lost its way, a group of friends – women – mothers – writers – got together over Zoom to provide comfort to one another and to try to make sense of it all. Alice, Chrissie, Maddy, Nikki, Renee and Sophie – talked about...

100 days of lockdown.

100 days of lockdown.

It’s been 14 weeks and two days since schools closed their doors and the majority of us went into lockdown. That’s 100 days! I don’t know where the last few months have gone. It’s all blurred into one, each week seeming to go quicker than the previous. Considering the...

Book Review – Holes, by Louis Sachar

Book Review – Holes, by Louis Sachar

A mob sets fire to the school house and burns it to the ground. They are angry because the schoolmistress was seen kissing the local onion seller. She is white, he is black. According to local law, this is not allowed. Sam, the onion seller, escapes in his boat, the...

The Leaver’s Book with the Missing Images

The Leaver’s Book with the Missing Images

Year 6 in the English school system, the final year of junior school. The year before they make the transition to secondary education. Most will have been at their school since the age of 4. It is all they have ever known. Now 11, they have outgrown this place. It is...

Tips for using Zoom with Primary aged children

Tips for using Zoom with Primary aged children

My Zoom learning journey has been very steep indeed and there are a few things I've learned along the way that I'd like to share with you. For virtual learning, you'd find Zoom hard to beat and its recent surge in popularity is testament to that. Skype is great too,...

Why authors should connect with their readers

Why authors should connect with their readers

I’ve made it my goal for this year to get out and meet more of my readers. Whilst this, on the surface, seems perfectly obvious and a natural thing to want to do, I can tell you for sure that, for me, it’s been no easy feat. Though a natural introvert, at one point, I...