I hope you've enjoyed my blog up to now. I love writing them. I'm a writer by profession, actually, so I want to take this opportunity to tell you about my new children's book. Even though it's not based on my adoption experiences, it was inspired by my son who we've discovered is mildly dyslexic.
I wrote it because we discovered there is a leap in children’s books where they go from cute picture books straight into chunky reads like Mr Gum and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. These books are brilliant, but the fact they're a full pages of text makes that leap a bit too much for some children. Children like my son who used to throw books across the room in frustration because he couldn’t keep up with his peers. He needed something in between. I was trying to think about what I could do to help him and this is when I had a light bulb moment.
After having my bright idea, I took my laptop to a local café, J.K. Rowling style, and started to write a story. By day, I’m a freelance advertising copywriter, so I’m used to working with words. I wrote the story as if it were a play, the idea being that you choose characters and only read their lines as they come up with the more confident reader taking the part of the narrator. This way, you share the reading with your children so it’s altogether less intimidating for them. You can put on funny voices if you like and have a bit of fun with it.
The stories are written so that they take around 15 minutes to read from start to finish and they can enjoy a satisfying conclusion before their head hits the pillow. This stops the need to turn the corner of the book down and the next night pick up again where you left off, if your son or daughter hasn’t hidden the book. I doubt we’ll ever know what happens at the end of The Machine Gunner in our house, it’s long gone.
Anyway, The Spaceship Saga and Other Stories is out soon. It sits perfectly next to Horrid Henry, Mr Gum, Mr Stink and Harry Potter on the shelf and it has five short stories suitable for boys and girls alike. Reading this way is much more fun and a lot less scary for struggling readers. All the stories are tried and tested on my own two children and they’ve assured me they love them, and I don’t think it’s just so they got their pocket money, at least that’s what they tell me. Buy the book and see for yourself. I hope you like it.
You can buy it from Amazon here or, if you prefer, from Waterstones here. If you want to find out more about it or contact me, go to my little website here, Read a Play
If you like it, please spread the word. Thanks for reading!
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