Books make perfect Christmas presents but finding the right book for the right person can be tricky. Here are a few tips from me to you (you being, say, ten years old and someone who likes my After School Club series…)

For your stressed out older sister who can’t possibly join in the fun because she’s got GCSE mocks in January and she has to revise or else she’ll fail and all her friends are so clever and will get A* in everything but she won’t so, no, she can’t possibly come down for Christmas dinner. Just leave a sandwich by the door…

Recommendation: Accidental Friends by Helena Pielichaty. This is about four characters and what happens after they receive their GCSE results. It will put things into perspective for her.

For your laid back older brother who also has got GCSE mocks in January (you’ve suddenly gained 15 year old twin siblings - how nice) but thinks revising is lame:

Recommendation: Accidental Friends by Helena Pielichaty (then you only have to buy one copy, thus saving £5.99. And you know how much twins like to share)

For your annoying cousin who is in Y7 and keeps telling you what it will be like next year when you go secondary school and how horrible it is:

Recommendation: Love Simonexxx by Helena Pielichaty (tell her she’s turning into Chloe. If your cousin’s a boy, tell him he’s Anthony)

For your mum and dad:

Recommendation: The Usborne Book of Christmas Stories.  This will remind them you are not too young to be read to yet, especially at Christmas time. Besides, the story on page 45 ‘Room at the Inn’ by Helena Pielichaty will make them smile.

For your best friend who is a big Jacqueline Wilson fan:

Recommendation: Clubbing Together by Helena Pielichaty.  Your friend can’t keep re-reading Dusbin Baby forever.

I really hope this helps!

Helena P

It’s cold and frosty outside and I’m skint so it must be nearly Christmas! I do love Christmas - apart from the usual reason - the giant Toblerones - it means I have genuine displacement activities to do .  While I’m thinking through the next chapter I can write a few cards, wrap a couple of presents, drop into town to buy that last little item… it all feels more justifiable than spending ten minutes on Google… every ten minutes.

December usually means no school visits but I did undertake three late bookings this year. Hello first of all to everyone I met at Rishworth School on the outskirts of Halifax. I think that was my third or fourth visit and it’s a joy every time. The audiences are always bright and the coffee fresh and hot - a perfect combo.

Hello, too, to the staff and pupils at Whitemoor Primary School and Heathfield Primary School in Nottingham whom I visited on the 1st and 3rd December. They are taking part in the excellent Reading Champions initiative. Both schools rose to the challenge of illustrating and adapting a story I’d written called Go, Jordon, Go.  At Whitemoor I had the pleasure of awarding prizes to pupils from each year group judged to have come up with hte best design ideas. Interesting and varied they were too. One class created a brilliant hi-tech photo story, while others produced three-dimensional pop-up effects. Most impressive!

Heathfield were in the process of transforming Go, Jordon, Go (about a young Welsh boy who needs a ‘thing’ when he celebrates scoring a goal at football but all the usual ‘things’ are taken) into a comic strip as I left - I can’t wait to see the results.

Finally, hello to Catherine Johnson. I met up with Catherine in London on the 9th for the day (having lunch with fellow authors is probably the best displacement activity of them all). Catherine was born and bred in London and showed me round the Spitalfields area in the East End. It’s so much better exploring streets with someone who knows their history and Spitalfields (so called because a hospital was there) is full of beautiful buildings and interesting side streets, individual little shops, cafes and pubs. I found it much more enjoyable than heaving Oxford Street.  Catherine showed me Dennis Severs’ House on Folgate Street. This house has been refurbished just as it would have been in the 18th century and inspired one of Catherine’s books, Nest of Vipers. Pity the house was closed when I went!

More soon - on favourite Christmas books - and a round up of my writing year.

Till then - wrap up warm.

Helena