The gorgeous little black and white Shetland is called Spirit. Isn’t he adorable? Spirit shares a luscious pasture with Dakota and Blake. They’re often visited by Tinker the cat. He wanders in from a village a few miles away and loves to torment Emma, she’s the beast with the horns. I felt extremely brave being photographed with Emma because if she wanted to, she could flick me with her strong head and mighty horns up into space. But instead she chose to munch on the fresh hay and try to ignore me.

All of these animals had such character and great personalities and being with them reminded me of how I love writing about animals. They’re great fun, playful with each other and have their own stories to tell. I watched Tinker wander under the hooves of one of the bigger horses and the stallion bolted and chased the little cat. But Tinker loved tormenting him, because there’s a lot to be said for being so small and Tinker whizzed under the fence, tail in the air and looked back with a big superior cat grin and meowed ‘can’t catch me’. Emma just loved looking fierce, but she was a big softy really.

Enjoy the pics and remember that February 4th is National Libraries Day so get down to your local library and hunt out some fun animal stories to read. I’ll be popping into Bath main library to read Click Clack, Crocodile’s Back and the kids will be colouring some great pictures and masks. Hope to see you there at 11 on Saturday morning.

But before National libraries day, I’m looking forward to visiting Wyvern School in Leicester. We have exciting writing and reading events planned for the day and I can’t wait to meet everyone. I’ll also be taking my case of writing tricks to Downsend School in Surrey in February. Ruby my latest character will be coming with me and I can’t wait to see the artwork the children are going to produce after our story reading.

But before then, it’ll be Marnel School in Basingstoke. We’ve got lots of bookish, fun things planned and I’m preparing a powerpoint presentation all about my books, characters and what’s in store for the future. Can’t wait. Finally, Elmhurst is going to have their book day on March 1st and everyone is going as Where’s Wally, I wonder, if I turn up in my Wally outfit will they ever find me?

More news to come and pictures too so drop in again, anytime.

Happy reading,

Kathryn.

For more information, go to the National Libraries Day website.

“Winter is coming,” Mother Bear said. “We must snuggle down to sleep in our den.”

Little Bear doesn’t want to sleep! He wants to know what snow is like. His friends try to show him by making mud-balls and angels in the sand. But Little Bear knows that while he’s asleep his friends will have fun in the soft, white snow. Will they forget all about him?

Buy When Will it Snow? on Amazon

It’s always nice to see my stories in action!

The Noisy Jungle is one of three books I have coming out soon for children of all ages. The others are When Will It Snow?, also published by Little Tiger Press, and Beast Hunter, which will be published by A & C Black.

All three books will be out this Autumn, so keep your eyes peeled!

Also, don’t forget that you can check out all my other books right here on my website.

It should be a great event and I’d love it if you could come along and join in the fun. Hope to see you there!

The Summer Reading Challenge was developed to enhance children’s reading by creating a fantastic atmosphere though events and activities around reading. The challenge is to read six or more of the selected books from your library over the summer holidays. Each year the theme changes. 2011 is ‘Circus Stars’!

The Summer Reading Challenge is run by The Reading Agency through the summer holidays and takes place in 95% of British public libraries with over 750,000 children aged 4-11.

For more information visit the Summer reading Challenge Website: www.summerreadingchallenge.org.uk

I had a fantastic time meeting and working with the children at Stonar, and was delighted to receive this wonderful feedback from Sophie Drew, who is in Year 9.

“We got the chance to read some of Kathryn’s stories as well as write our own. Kathryn was very helpful and inspirational to us all and we would like to thank both her and the English department for such a great morning!”

Remember, if you’d like me to read and work with the children at your school, you can find more information on my Schools page and get in touch directly. I’d love to hear from you.

Jenny’s email included the end of a story by Eleanor in Room 3 at Tapora School. Looks like Crocodile is a changed reptile and knows just what to do to save his friends!

Well done Eleanor, Click Clack, Crocodile’s Back will be winging its way to you for your class.

This is Eleanor’s story. She is seven. 

The crocodile noticed the tiger and jumped right in front of his friends to save them. The tiger leapt with fright.
“Don’t take a lick,” said the crocodile. “We’re all made of candyfloss, chocolate, rock and slime.”
The tiger put on a disgusted face.
“Ugh!” he said, and ran off.
The next day they celebrated all day.
Go, Crocodile!

Reported in the Guardian on the 11th February, Martin Amis’s comments about writing for children:

“People ask me if I ever thought of writing a children’s book,” “I say, ‘If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children’s book’, but otherwise the idea of being conscious of who you’re directing the story to is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable.”

“I would never write about someone that forced me to write at a lower register than what I can write,” he added.

There has been offence taken on this comment, quite understandably. However, I think that all Amis’s comments show is that he is ignorant in the area. Any writer would be dissuaded from taking on a project that could limit their freedom of expression and scope, which Amis assumes happens when writing for children.

I think JRR Tolkien, Roald Dahl and Rudyard Kipling, to name but a few, have produced work of amazing breadth and imagination for children that is of notable quality and will remain a part of our culture for years to come.

Writers, who write down to children, patronize and show no understanding of their audience, generally fail. Children of all ages are astute and at times painfully honest, more so than adults.

So I believe that Amis has merely shown ignorance and inexperience in the field of children’s books which is quite sad in this enlightened age.

Photograph: David Levene