I would love the chance to talk to your students! Some of the things we could discuss:
- The real-life London history behind my books
- How writers think about story and language
- The hard work and persistence required on my road to publication
- Using research as a springboard to creativity
If you’re interested in a school visit, please contact me. In non-pandemic times, I’m available for in-person visits to schools within reasonable distance of my home in London. Presently, I’m available for virtual visits via videoconferencing. Needless to say, I’m happy to visit you virtually anywhere in the world, as long as we can navigate the timezone difference.
A 15-minute online Q&A session is free. If you’re interested in a longer presentation (whether virtual or in-person), drop me a note and let me know your needs, and we can discuss the cost.
If you’re a librarian or bookseller and you’d like kids to have a Hyacinth & The Secrets Beneath-themed adventure among your stacks , you can download a free book stack treasure hunt. It features the American edition of the book, but could be easily tweaked to suit the UK edition.
If you’d like discussion questions for my books, here are some ideas. (Be warned that they include spoilers, so don’t read them until you’ve already ready the appropriate book!)
Hyacinth & The Secrets Beneath
• Who was your favorite character and why?
• Now that you’ve finished the book and you know who the goodies and baddies are, think back to Hyacinth’s first impressions. Did she trust the right people? If not, what clues do you think she missed that might have told her who to trust?
• In your own life, have you had a mistaken first impression of somebody you met? What did you think they were like, and what did they turn out to really be like? If somebody was going to get the wrong impression of you, what do you think is the most likely mistake they might make?
• At the end of the book, there are still some questions left to answer. What do you think Little Ben’s secret past could be? What do you think is the connection between Hyacinth’s family and London’s magical rivers? What other questions would you hope a future book might answer?
• In my afterword, I wrote, “I made up much less of this book than you might think.” What were you most surprised to learn was based on historical fact? What other parts of the book do you think might be based on something in real-life?
• Think about where you live. If some place near you had secret magical powers, which place do you think it would be? What seems magical about it? If you were going to base a magical story on your own life, what real-life details would you change and which ones would you keep?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR OTHER BOOKS COMING SOON!
