She's bad and she's back. Beetle Queen will be in all good bookshops from April 2017.
The Art of Make Believe: Staging Children's Stories - an exhibition at The National Theatre
The entrance to the Art of Make Believe exhibition at the National Theatre
This week I did something new. I curated and opened a public exhibition about staging children's stories, at The National Theatre.
It is a free family friendly exhibition which aims to encourage playful participation and features books such as The Wind In the Willows, His Dark Materials and The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-time. I hope will be enjoyed by everyone coming to see Peter Pan over the festive period. It's playful and full of activities, so if you are on the south bank between now and April 2017 you should pop in because it's free and utter fun.
Here are some pictures!
USA Publisher's Weekly chooses Beetle Boy as top twenty Middle Grade title of 2016
One of the overwhelming delights of penning a story is watching it grow its own legs and find homes in other countries. The news that Publisher's Weekly selected Beetle Boy as one of their 20 best Middle Grade books of 2016 completely blows my mind and makes me absurdly proud. GO BEETLES!
Beetle Boy is nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2017
The library is where I found out who I am, and what kind of person I want to be, so I am beyond delighted to announce that Beetle Boy has been nominated by librarians for the 2017 CILIP Carnegie Medal. You can read the full list of nominations here.
Chris Riddell put me in a picture!
Chris Riddell, children's laureate.
This is a dream come true. I've been a huge fan of Chris's work since he illustrated Philip Ridley's books twenty years ago. I squealed when I saw this image pop up on his Laureate Log. Now I just have to persuade him to illustrate one of my books.
Beetle Boy breaks the Chicken House record for international licences sold
In the past week, four more territories have joined the Beetle Brigade and that meant that my little book broke a Chicken House record! I've never held a record before. It's rather wonderful.
Beetle Boy Shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag awards
This week saw the announcement that Beetle Boy has been selected by booksellers up and down the country as one of the finalists in the Children's category for the BAMB awards. I am so delighted to be on this list and if you enjoyed Beetle Boy, you can help me win. The award is voted for by readers. That's you! Vote here: http://www.nationalbooktokens.com/vote
Beetle Boy long listed for the 2017 UKLA awards
I am very proud to be able to tell you that Beetle Boy has been long listed for the UKLA (UK Literary Association) Book Awards 2017. There are some pretty awesome books and authors on the list, so fingers crossed! More details on the link below. Go Beetle Boy!
https://ukla.org/resources/details/ukla-book-awards-2017-longlists
Beetlemania hits Blue Peter for National Insect Week
Me and Baxter the rhinoceros beetle on Blue Peter
On the 23rd of June I had the great honour of appearing on Blue Peter as part of National Insect Week. It was such a great experience, and a long held dream come true. I've never done a live TV programme before, so I was mega nervous. If you missed it, you can catch it on the iplayer for the next month.
I loved meeting Scott, who brought the beetles onto the show, and finally got to hold a living rhinoceros beetle, just like Baxter. He was beautiful, and the whole experience was wonderful.
Barney was great fun, Lindsey is awesome and Radzi was lovely.
I even got a Blue Peter badge. I hope I get to go on it again.
I did an online quiz for the Blue Peter fan site. So if you think you know about beetles, you should take the Blue Peter Beetle Quiz
Coleopteran Cover Girl
I'm on the cover of the Spring edition of Antenna magazine
I've never been on the cover of a magazine before, and considering how terrified of insects I used to be, I find it faintly hilarious that the first magazine I should ever appear on the cover of is Antenna, the Royal Entomological Society's publication. If you could jump in a time machine and show this to the seventeen year old me, I'd probably faint!
Peter Smithers, the editor, very kindly came to interview me in Weston Super Mare in between back to back school events.
I have to admit to being more than a little bit proud of being put on the cover. It means a lot to me that entomologists like Beetle Boy. It means I did a good job.