Do Goalkeepers Wear Tiaras?

The reviews of Girls FC are starting to come in now and they’re looking good.  The Scotsman called the series ‘bang-up-to-date’ and the Bookseller had it as one of their August choices of the month.  Sue Steele, of Simply Books in Cheshire wrote that: ‘Do Goalkeepers Wear Tiaras ‘got a big thumbs up from my girl reviewers.’

The reviews on Amazon gave me a huge boost. ‘A great book for girls and boys,’ began one. ‘I read it to my six-year old son and he absolutely loved it after turning his  nose up at it at first when spotting Girls FC on the cover. We both loved the humour in the book and the short chapters. The dialogue is funny and catchy and the story includes details from everyday life.’

A second reviewer states: ‘My daughter read it from start to finish in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed it. We’re off to the library now to get the others from the series. Highly recommended.’

I think my favourite review is this one: ‘My eight-year-old granddaughter really enjoyed this story. She is a very girly girl who loves football so the title caught my eye. It’s a nice counterpoint to other series for this age group and shows girls in a very positive role.’

So there you have it. My books are bang-up-to date, suitable for boys and girls (girly and otherwise), funny, catchy and enjoyable. What more do you want for £4.99?

Walker Books have also been promoting the books in various magazines and publications, among them was National Geographic Kids (Summer 2009 issue).  What a great magazine - I’ve never seen it before. it’s full of interesting, thought provoking articles, reviews, competitions and its trademark high quality graphics of the natural world. A bargain at £2.99!

Don’t forget to play the Girls FC online Penalty Shoot Out game. The link is on the Girls FC page on my website or go to www.walkerbooks.co.uk/girlsfc . My highest score so far has been three out of five. Rubbish!  I’m sure you’ll do loads better

I was honoured to be asked to talk at the YLG ‘Read to Succeed’ conference at Warwick University on Saturday.   These conferences are massive - for librarians, publishers and the invited speakers. The weekend is a mixture of seminars and small group talks culminating in a gala dinner on the Saturday evening during which all the librarians get dolled up (yes, even the fellas).  My talk was on Girls FC - can football get reluctant girls reading?  I think it went down OK but it’s always hard to tell. Nobody fell asleep so I’ll take that as a thumbs up. If I’m never invited again I’ll know it was a disaster!

One of the other talks was called ‘New Voices - 4 exciting new authors’.  Weird to think that I was one of the new voices at the 2000 conference. Simone’s Diary had just been published and all the delegates were given free t shirts on their way in to meet me. It was also at that conference I saw J.K. Rowling IN REAL LIFE and shook Jacqueline Wilson’s hand. Yey! I still get a buzz out of meeting other authors. At this year’s conference I caught a fleeting glimpse of the bearded bear himself, Philip Ardagh, bumped into Alan Gibbons on his way home, chatted to Marie-Louise Jensen and Michelle Harrison and caught up with Gillian Cross, Tim Bowler and Geraldine McCaughrean but missed Celia Rees as she was speaking on the Sunday.  Oh, and Chris Wooding signed a copy of his latest book Malice for me. If it’s half as good as Poison I’ll be well impressed.

The picture above is of me with Andi Watson (middle) author of the new graphic Glister stories and John Harris Dunning who wrote Salem Brownstone ‘All along the Watchtower’ with illustrations by Nikhil Singh. Graphic novels have really taken off recently and I wish Andi, John and Nikhil all the best.

The freebies the librarians get from the publishers at these conferences are reassuringly generous. OK, it’s not quite an Oscar goody bag but even I came home with about 15 bound proofs of new titles, several badges, stickers, a teacher pack of Mini Grey stuff and, courtesy of Walker, a handbag full of chocolate footballs to promote Girls FC. Thanks to everyone for making me feel so welcome and to Sophie and Fiona from Walker Books for getting me the gig and looking after me in splendid fashion.

I’m looking forward to reading my bound proofs of Wishing for Tomorrow, Hilary McKay’s sequel to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess (Hodder) and The Sky is Everywhere by American writer Jandy Nelson (Walker) but I’m going to start with The Death Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean in the hope that some of McCaughrean’s brilliance will rub off on me. Sonia Benster, who runs the Children’s Bookshop in Huddersfield said that Geraldine was one of her favourite authors because she ‘never writes the same book twice.’  It’s true.  She’s also one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Damn her.

Me n’ my Carnegie Medal buddy, Big G!

Ouch!  At 2-3 down I thought we had a chance but the last half hour did it for us. Germany were just too strong, too experienced.  Still,  we got to the FINAL of the European Cup and the U19s won it so let’s not be too downhearted. Well done, Hope Powell and the England squad. You can leave Helsinki with your heads held high.

Brilliant England!  The women’s team had just got through to the EURO 2009 final after a Jill Scott header in extra time.  They played their hearts out, winning by  wearing down a Netherlands team who gave very little away at the back. Thank goodness it didn’t go to a penalty shoot out; my nails couldn’t have withstood it.

So with that and a fine win by Huddersfield Town over MK Dons (3-2) I’ve had a good weekend. Now enough of watching the game and back to writing about it.

Good luck to England Women’s football team who meet Netherlands on Sunday in the semi-finals of EURO 09. Go girls!  You are all excellent role models, unlike the French team who posed topless for newspapers to ‘raise’ their profile.  No, mesdames. All you did was set the game back another twenty years. Reminds me of this Jacky Fleming cartoon.  Honestly!  Jordan’ll be writing children’s books next…