I had a warm Yorkshire welcome from children in the Kirklees area this week thanks to Kirklees Library Services. I began at Meltham Library on Tuesday morning with Y4 children from Crowlees Primary School. A jolly bunch, as you can see!

Y4s at Crowlees

The afternoon was spent in the brand new Rawthorpe/Dalton Library on the outskirts of Huddersfield with Netherhall Learning Centre’s Y3s. I loved being back in Yorkshire. ‘How much does it cost to borrow a library book?’ I asked. ‘It costs nowt!’ came the reply. It’s true, an’ all.

Netherhall’s finest!

Thursday was Dewsbury and Batley Libraries. I had forgotten how majestic those Early Victorian sanstone mills (now mainly shopping centres) can look in the bright sunshine and how much stunning countryside there is round that region. It was such a treat driving along the roads, wearing my sunglasses and listening to the radio. It was even more of a treat to meet the Y4s and Y6s from Eastborough School in the morning and the Y3s from Field Lane School in the afternoon.

Eastborough Y4 all sitting so nicely!

Eastborough Y6 sitting just as nicely. Look at those beaming faces!

I’m sorry there’s no photo of Field Lane School but as they’d had the Huddersfield Town legend Andy Booth visit them the day before, I’m sure they won’t mind too much.

I’ll be back in Kirklees on June 28th and June 29th with Tom Palmer for two days of Reads United sessions so watch out Lepton CE and Rowley Lane (28th) and Whitechapel Middle and West End Middle in Cleckheaton (29th).  Meanwhile many thanks to Dianne Hurd of the library services for organising the visits, Ben Ruddlesden for taking such good care of me during the visits and all the librarians I met - Ann, Linda and Chris - who put up such great displays of my books and made some fine cups of tea for me. One day I’ll actually finish a whole cup before a class arrives!

How to make an author feel welcome! Dewsbury Library setting the standard…

If John Prescott is known as Two Jags, I can be known as Two Tables. This is what I need to ’set my stall out’  - and that’s just for the introduction…

Reads United

Flaming June already. Well, more drizzly than flaming but still June. Arghh! I’m not ready. June is my crazy-busy month with Tom Palmer and Reads United.

To tie in with the World Cup in South Africa we’re visiting schools, libraries and festivals up and down the country (actually, two countries as we’re in Wales as well). Our ‘tour’ starts on June 22nd in Portsmouth. We’re doing two days in the Victory Lounge at Fratton Park, home to the beleaguered Portsmouth FC, thanks to Peter Bone at Portsmouth’s Children’s Library Services. After catching the second half of the England v Slovenia match in a pub or motorway cafe somewhere we’ll be heading for Wrexham (a mere 5 hour drive) on the 24th followed by Rotherham Children’s Book Festival on the 25th. Not wishing to have even weekends off we’ll be heading for Ipswich (Ip-Art Festival) on the 26th.  The following week we have three days in God’s own county of Yorkshire (Kirklees to be precise) rounding off on the 4th July in Derby with the Big Book Bash. Reads United then goes its separate ways and I visit St Austell’s in Wakefield on July 6th and Willow  Brook School near Nottingham on the 7th, leaving me free to watch Brazil v Spain in the World Cup Final on the 11th July.  (I’d love it to be England in the final but…)

Before all that traveling starts I need to finish Gemma’s story (book 9 of Girls FC). I also have a couple of days with Kirklees libraries as part of their Mission Active programme. This is where libraries are working with schools on a fitness and healthy eating scheme. The idea is children walk to the library from school, have a healthy snack and, when I’m there, listen to how I researched Holly’s story in ‘Who Ate All the Pies?’

Even more exciting than all the above (no offence, librarians/Tom/ World Cup etc) is that next week I’m traveling to Edinburgh to see my son Joe’s art exhibition. He’s just completed his degree in graphics and illustration at the College of Art and got a 1st. We’re all over the moon and so, so proud of him. Go Joe!

book signings, visits… it’s all kicking-off!

Dearest Blog Readers,

Just to let you know that there is a new ‘Events’ page on my website. It isn’t up on my homepage but can be accessed on the toolbar once you start exploring - look to the right of the ‘links’ button and Clubbing Together girls.

The events page will include new titles as well as letting you know where I’ll be performing and running workshops.

You’ll see I’ve got a pretty busy Spring/Summer coming up including trips to County Down in Northern Ireland and Kiev in Ukraine. June is stacked with Reads United performances with Tom Palmer because of the World Cup.

I’ve also got book 7 of the Girls FC series out in May. ‘So What if I Hog the Ball?’ is the tiny terrier Jenny-Jane’s story.

So What if I Hog The Ball? Out May 3rd

ALSO COMING SOON: Girls FC download of the team by illustrator Sonia Leong. You can use it as wallpaper background for your computer screen… just in time for the Women’s FA Cup Final on May 3rd. Arsenal v Everton at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground.

Letter written by King George V as a child © Bodleian Library, Oxford

OK, so we’ve got Facebook and Twitter and email and Youtube and txt (LOL) and telephones and four million other ways of communicating with each other but nothing beats receiving a letter. A real letter, in an envelope with a stamp, delivered to your letter box by a postie in a red van.

A hundred years ago, letter writing was a real art. Ladies would include it as part of their daily routine - that’s why antique shops are full of exquisite Davenport writing desks and glass ink stands. In large houses, letters would be delivered by the butler on silver trays, such was their significance.

I love it when I receive letters from children who have read my books. These tend to come either individually via my publisher (as decreed on my website) or in batches after a school visit. Either way, I’m happy. I might not be as happy if they arrived in sackfuls every day as I’m sure happens to JK Rowling and Jacqueline Wilson but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

stamps

My most recent letters and e-mails have been about Girls FC. it is great that these books are beginning to find a readership - especially as they are about girls’ football, quite a niche market. Two letters came from girls in a school near Newcastle. They were both beautifully written and even contained a self addressed envelope - I could tell their teacher was on the ball.

I received a batch of letters from pupils at Padiham Green Primary School this week who’d been to the Reads United event at the town hall in early March. On card and colourfully illustrated, they brought a huge smile to my face. It’s the quirky little details they included that I liked. Aaron wrote: ‘Firstly I would like to thank you for the nice little chat about your books. Secondly, I enjoyed it because I stood in front of about fifty people holding flags of your confusing family.’

Leah commented: ‘I have never met an author before but now I have. A lady like you has a great sense of humour and can persuade children very fast!’

I’d obviously chosen my extracts well that day. Luke put: ‘My favourite part of the day was when you read your book (Whats Ukrainian For Football?) However, it really got to my emotions when you said that the players got shot. Nevertheless you were very funny indeed, especially about Lily Parr’s penalty.’

That’s me. Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry.  Thank you Padiham Green.

I keep all of my letters; I have boxes of them bolstering the shelves in my study. I know there will come a day when I have to have a big clear out but I see them as part of my archive. One must have something to leave to the nation when one pops one’s clogs, don’t you know.

PS: Just been to check my post and found a letter from writer Sally Prue containing a photocopy of a review of Do Goalkeepers Wear Tiaras? that appeared in The School Librarian alongside her new book Wheels of War (OUP).  Cushty!  Happy Easter all!

Fridays will never be the same…

As if the Burnley area hadn’t had enough excitement for one day, not only did Reads United perform at Padiham in the morning but they were somehow also able to summon up enough energy to perform again at the smart Burnley Campus in the afternoon. How do they do it? People were heard to gasp.

Once more, hundreds of children were entertained and informed by the dynamic duo. Once more, a girl won the penalty shoot-out trophy. Was this sheer coincidence? Was this because I was the goalie? I think not. It is simply down to my inspirational anecdote about Lily Parr breaking the American goalie’s arm when he goaded her by saying women couldn’t shoot.

Hello to all the kids and staff from Heasandford Primary, Holly Grove and Barden Primary.

waiting for the best day of their lives to begin…

The football season officially started on Friday March 12th when Reads United hit Padiham. Padiham, until then a sleepy town near Burnley in Lancashire, had never known such fuss since Owen Coyle announced he was to become manager of Bolton.

As you can see, primary schools turned out in force to see the legends who are Reads United, thanks to the organizational skills of Allyson Richmond and Alison Turner, two of Lancashire’s finest.  Sitting amazingly still without breaking a thing for almost two hours were: Hapton Primary, Padiham Primary, Padiham Green Primary, St Leonard’s Primary and St John’s RC Primary.

First of all Tom Palmer dazzled the audience with his world famous Reading Game and I made them cry by reading a passage from ‘What’s Ukrainian for Football?’ The experience ended with the unique penalty shoot-out game won, naturally, by a girl!

Tom Palmer presents the awesome solid gold trophy to the penalty shoot-out winner

The Alisons. Allyson Richmond (left) Alison of Padiham Library (middle) and Alison Turner (right)