Reading Patron: Alice Hemming

We are delighted to have award-winning author Alice Hemming as our Reading Patron at Knightsfield. Alice works closely with our students, delivering fantastic workshops filled with incredible storytelling and creativity. The energy, inspiration and enthusiasm she brings truly captivate our students, sparking a genuine love of story-making and reading.
We are incredibly proud that Alice is part of our wonderful Knightsfield community. Her passion for literature continues to inspire our students’ love of books, stories and reading, leaving a lasting impact both in and beyond the classroom

Hello! I’m Alice, a Hertford-based children’s author. I’m delighted to be working with Knightsfield as your new Patron of Reading. During my first ‘official’ visit to the school last week, I worked with years 6-9 on creating picture book storyboards.  The work was of such a high standard, I’m convinced that I’ll see some of the titles on our bookshop shelves in a few years! I have set another little challenge below for anyone who would like to have a go, just for fun.  In the meantime, here is my news this month:

  • New York Times: I’m excited to report that my latest US release, The Sun Thief, with illustrator Nicola Slater, has made it to the NYT picture book bestseller list. Number 5 at the time of writing!
  • New looks: My brand new writing shed is currently being painted and I look forward to sharing the results. Cross your fingers for some sunny days, otherwise it might take a while.
  • Nibbies! On Monday night I attended my very first British Book Awards (aka ‘The Nibbies’). It was a great night for my publisher, Scholastic, who scooped 4 awards! The pic shows me (middle), my editor Sophie on the right and illustrator Nicola Slater on the left.

 

Your reading/writing challenge

I must be in an awards frame of mind, because your challenge this month is to come up with some book awards of your own. If you were to give out three awards for books, who would you give them to, and what for? Saddest book? The book you’ve read most times? Best cover art? If you’re an illustrator-type, you could even draw some fitting awards.