​Soooo!!! It’s here…publication day or book birthday which ever you like. Sometimes when you are deep in edits or maybe even at the thinking stage of your next book it can be hard to imagine that one day you will hold the actual book in your sticky palms! But it has happened and after editing over Christmas 2019 – yes you heard correct! This was what I was doing last Christmas in between munching mince pies and slurping hot chocolate. No wonder I had to put a bit of food into the story.
And what’s even more wonderful is that it is Indie Book Of The Month!!! This means that if you buy it from your local indie shop you can get one with a signed bookplate. Maybe if you do grab one of the signed ones you could post a pic of it? That would be nice.
I REALLY hope you enjoy this story – it has a cute golden monkey in it who every time he flicks his tail leaves a trail of gold-dust…

​And another bit of very exciting news…My latest book Tamarind And The Star Of Ishta comes out on 3rd September 2020. It’s another magical story set in the Himalaya, about a girl called Tamarind who visits her ancestral home for the first time and while she’s there she begins to uncover family secrets surrounding her mother’s death when Tamarind was a baby. She discovers a magical garden, meets a mysterious mountain girl and her monkey Hanu and finds a special emerald ring that belonged to her mum which she thinks might hold the answers to her questions. You can take a look at this trailer to get a flavour of what’s to come. And if you want to can pre-order the book through Waterstones!

Even though this happened a little while ago – in fact it was way away in January 2020!!! I wanted to share the news with you. It was a very glitzy celebration in London with lots of people from publishing there. I got to feel like a bit of a celeb and had my photo taken by proper photographers and then I went on stage to collect my award.

Hi   Everyone!!!! 
Sorry    to   have   been   a   little   busy   to   post   very   much   but   hope   you're   all   doing   OK?   A   few   days   ago   Asha   And   The   Spirit   Bird   published   in   the   US   -   and   here   is   the   stunning   cover   in   a   beautiful   trailer   for   you   to   share.   

I wanted to share some very exciting news. I found out a couple of weeks ago that Asha And The Spirit Bird has been selected for the Carnegie Nominations for 2020. This is such a huge honour and I am very very happy to be there. The wonderful thing about the Carnegie Medal is the commitment to public service. And to be committed to libraries and reading is in my view one of the best things. Libraries and access to books means so much to me. Not everyone is able to buy books from shops and so to be able to borrow from libraries means we can all enjoy the pleasure and excitement of reading.
At the moment my Patron Of Reading School Mellers Primary in Nottingham are doing a project all about Carnegie – who he was and his charitable work. So I will look forward to seeing their work.

​On the 3rd September I was officially able to do my very own show and tell! It was the day that I could share the amazing cover of the US version of Asha And The Spirit Bird.
Here it is – and isn’t it amazing? 

​It’s been created by an American Indonesian artist called Dion MBD and I love that it’s totally unique and really different to the UK cover which was created by a Romanian artist called Aitch.
When I visited my old primary school, Mellers in Nottingham, the children in year 6 who are reading my book gave me their views on it which I’m going to share with you all here. This is what they thought:
“I like both of them but I like the US one because I feel like it makes more sense and it has the bird watching over and protecting Asha.” 

“I like the US one because Asha is holding the pendant which relates to the bird and relates to her Grandma and this means something.”

“I like both but I prefer the US one because it has more meaning.  The bird shows you more about the book.”  

“I like how you see Asha – she didn’t look like I expected.  I thought she would be wearing traditional Indian clothes but she was wearing a hoodie.  This made me question things about the book.  I know why her hair is short now because she cuts it in the book.”
 
And here are a few extra comments their teacher shared with me about Asha And The Spirit Bird in general.
 
“They were interested in the setting too and talked about similarities between the UK and India - there were more than they expected.  They didn't think Asha would have electricity or the Internet!  We talked a lot about what Asha was wearing and the colours used in the illustration.  It was a great and lively discussion.  I think on the whole they preferred the US one.  After the discussion, I was also in agreement with them which surprised me!”
         It’s fantastic that the cover has provoked such discussion!
 
Thank you once again to the amazing children and their teacher Mrs Buttress.

​A few weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to go all the way to Nottingham to do a very special book tour. It was special because Nottingham is my home-town and ever since I was a little girl I dreamt about maybe going back there to share a real book I had written.
         So…I actually went back to my old school, Mellers Primary, and took along Asha And The Spirit Bird to share with them all. If you are one of the lovely children I went to see on the 23rd September here’s a special wave to you all!!!!
         It felt so strange to be sitting outside my old headteacher’s office – as if I was on the naughty step and was waiting to see him! But to be honest he was never strict. Mr Stanton was the most lovely headteacher. He used to play guitar and get us singing lots of amazing songs!
         I was so impressed with the children and all the teachers I met on the day. I was honoured to be shown around by Milan and J’Maer – thank you both!  They were so smart in their uniforms and actually were the most perfect shower rounders. They took me everywhere and showed me all the things that had changed since I was there. Like they have a whole new part of the school for the older pupils!!! And they have a wonderful new hall where everyone gathers for assembly.
This is where I talked to the whole of the school about my book Asha And The Spirit Bird. They all behaved so well. They were amazing. Even the littlest children who I know, from being a teacher myself, can sometimes find it hard to sit still! But they listened and asked some awesome questions.
I even got to sit in on a Maths class with year 6 – I couldn’t believe how good they were at thinking about maths and explaining their answers – super impressed!
Well I hope that you are enjoying reading Asha And The Spirit Bird – how far in are you? What’s your favourite part? Do you believe the spirits of our ancestors are watching over us?
Write and tell me!

​24.07.19
 
On July 13th I was lucky enough to be invited to take part in the very lovely Bradford On Avon Mini Book Festival or BOAMF as it likes to be called. It’s run by some hardworking local authors and it marks the start of the Summer Reading Challenge. It all took place at Bradford Library and was great.
         One of the really good things about the festival is that it’s free. That’s right it doesn’t cost anything, so if you didn’t get there this year make sure you do next year. You can just spend the whole day in the library getting creative and your parents or carers don’t need to worry about cost.
         I took along my special book objects that I always love to display and chatted to the kids about spirit birds. Then they made some amazing ones of their own. One of the organisers took a photo of the rug afterwards and it was full of feathers, bits of tissue paper and strands of shiny strips – we got all these things from Scrapstore – a total heaven of things to recycle!
         Hope you enjoy looking at the photos of the day!

​This is very hot off the press! Today I went to the very brilliant Ralph Allen School in Bath to do a visit. If you are in Ralph Allen Year 7 – I’m talking about YOU!!!
Thank you for making me so welcome today. I was very impressed with you all and I really hoped you enjoyed hearing about Asha and Jeevan’s journey through the Himalaya in search of Asha’s papa. You asked some very thoughtful questions which really made me think. It was very very difficult to decide who got to go home with the lantern balloon in the shape of a tiger but I hope that the boy who won has this little fella sitting on his desk inspiring him to write his story!
One of the very exciting things about today – well two things actually if I’m allowed to change my mind! Was that 1. I got to have my very own reserved parking spot! See photo. And 2. Chickenhouse were filming the event which I can’t wait to see. Once I have the film I will post it here so you can take a look.
Lots of you bought books – so thank you so much for that! And please do let me know what you think of the book, the visit or anything.
Later on to celebrate National Writing Day you invented your own spirit animals – can’t wait to hear about them.

It’s been a little while since I popped in to the blog to write to all of you lovely readers and web-viewers. So it’s been a bit of a busy time recently. One of the very exciting things that happened just a few days ago was that I was featured in The Guardian Newspaper’s Book page and named as one of the best books so far in 2019!!!!! I was absolutely thrilled and had a very busy day replying to all the lovely messages that lots of people sent. So a huge thank you to The Guardian for choosing me from all the other amazing books that are out there at the moment.
 
Another really exciting thing that happened last week during half term was that I was invited to join The Authors For Oceans Panel at the amazing Hay Festival! It’s always been a dream to go there and so this was incredible. I was so well looked after in the green room, which is where you get to hang out when you appear at festivals. I ate lots of cake and drank lots of tea. Sharing the stage with one of my heroes, Lauren St John, was such an honour. Along with Nicola Davies and Yuval Zommer, we discussed how important it is for all of us to get involved in helping to rid the oceans of plastic. It would be awesome if you could help and get involved!
 
I was also appearing at Waterstones Tottenham Court Road over half term with Catherine Johnson and Muhammed Khan Kick The Moon. We were talking about why there are not very many characters of colour in children’s books. In fact it’s only 1%. And also there are very few children’s writers of colour. What do you all think of that? Things are hopefully getting better but we still need more writers writing characters that reflect the diverse Britain of 2019.

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