Friday 8 March 2024

World Book Day 2024

Every year, I am blown away by all the amazing things that people do to celebrate books on World Book Day! I love it - it really is an incredible thing for a writer to see their books being celebrated in that way.  So here are some of the highlights I've seen this year...

Thursday 22 February 2024

Author Visits: Children's Bookfest & Rose Green Junior School

I'd like to say a huge THANK YOU to Karen Ison and all the students and staff I met at Rose Green Junior School when I had the pleasure of visiting them last week – and to Georgina Lippiett, Jen Rogers and everyone at Children's Bookfest for making this visit possible!

Children's Bookfest is an amazing organisation that brings authors into schools.  The authors do events, and then every child is given a copy of a book, which the author signs and dedicates for them.  I was delighted to do an event for them in Chichester last year, and was excited to do another one in Bognor Regis at Rose Green, organised by the brilliant teacher Karen Ison.

We had a fantastic assembly where we talked about reading and writing and books, and it was clear that there were many brilliant readers in this school.  Some of them had come across all my books before, from Varjak Paw onwards.  But the book that everyone was currently reading was my new book Tyger, which Children's Bookfest had given to everyone in Years 5 and 6.  

I saw some fantastic creative writing and artwork that Year 6 had done with Tyger last year.  And this year's Year 6 were already getting started on it – a wonderful thing for an author to see!

It's an incredible thing to feel the buzz around reading and books that this kind of visit creates.  There's something so inclusive and inspiring about giving a book to every child on a visit, and I've loved working with Children's Bookfest.  So thanks again to everyone who was part of this brilliant day!  And thanks to Karen Ison for the fantastic photos!


Monday 4 September 2023

Tyger is Book of the Month in Waterstones & Foyles!

Some amazing news!  The Tyger paperback has just been published – and it's been picked as Children's Book of the Month in both Waterstones and Foyles!





I love bookshops, they've always been my favourite places, so this means more than I can say.  It's been absolutely amazing to see some brilliant Tyger bookshop displays on Twitter and Instagram, and I'd love to see more – please send me pictures if you see any!


Wednesday 9 August 2023

TYGER PAPERBACK!

I'm so excited to be able to share the TYGER paperback with you – and it's just as beautiful as the hardback!  I think Dave McKean's cover is one of the most amazing covers I've ever seen – just look at the way it comes to life when you open it out!



It's published on August 31st by David Fickling Books, but is available for pre-order now – here are some links:







Wednesday 28 June 2023

Competition!

I'm running a competition with BookTrust!  We want young people to create pieces of writing and artwork inspired by animals - just as I was inspired to write Varjak Paw and Tyger.  There are lots of prizes to be won, including sets of books and signed artwork, and the first 1,000 entries will all receive a free poster!  There are lots of free resources to help you, too - all the information is on this page on the BookTrust website!  And here's a video to get you started:

















Tuesday 23 May 2023

Tyger wins Children's Book Of The Year at the British Book Awards!

Incredible news - my new book Tyger has just won the Children's Fiction Book Of The Year at the British Book Awards!  


You can read all about it in this wonderful piece on The Bookseller site.

And here's a video of the whole evening - you can see me receiving the award from Davina McCall from around 1:33!



Thursday 2 March 2023

World Book Day 2023

Happy World Book Day 2023!  This year, I made a World Book Day video of me reading aloud from Tyger, and it's been amazing to see people watching it in classrooms, libraries and homes around the world. And I absolutely love seeing all the different ways people celebrate their favourite books, so here are some of the incredible pictures I've seen this year - including the very first ever World Book Day TYGER costumes!  Huge and heartfelt thanks to everyone!


Monday 27 February 2023

World Book Day 2023 - SF Said Reads Tyger!

For World Book Day this year, I've made a video of me reading from my new book TYGER!  Here it is – I hope you enjoy it!  And if you do, please pass it on to anyone else you know who might enjoy it too!




Tuesday 20 December 2022

Happy Midwinter!

I just want to wish all my readers Happy Midwinter! My new book Tyger is set at Midwinter, around about now, but in a strange alternate world where there is no Christmas, but there is Midwinter...  and this year, Midwinter Night falls on the night of December 21st.  

So here's a short video all about it:



Happy Midwinter – and Happy Reading!


Monday 19 December 2022

Author Visits: Welton St Mary's

 I'd like to say a very big THANK YOU to Paul Gibson-Barton and all the amazing students and staff at Welton St Mary's Academy for the wonderful welcome they gave me when I visited them last week!










It was a total pleasure to talk to Years 4, 5 and 6 about reading and books.  This is a school where they've been reading my books for a long time now, so it was wonderful to see that a lot of them had already read Varjak Paw, or Phoenix, or even Tyger!














There were lots of fantastic questions, although we didn't quite have enough time to answer all of them!  So if anyone from WSM would like to ask me another question, or to say anything about the visit or my books, just leave me a comment below!



It was also wonderful to do a workshop with Year 4, who'd just been reading Varjak Paw, and to see some of the work they'd been doing with it.  They had created these amazing story maps, and were able to tell the story themselves by using them!

















And finally, it was a total pleasure to sign books for everyone who'd ordered a book.  HAPPY READING to everyone at WSM – and thank you again for a fantastic visit!