I loved reading schemes when I was at school. I especially liked primers, thick books that had a bit of everything in them: short stories, poems, pictures, puzzles, non-fiction and extracts from classics. I remember reading a chapter from Dicken's A Christmas Carol in our Year 4 primer. It was the bit where the Cratchits are laying the table for Christmas dinner. The smell of the pudding steaming in the outhouse was described as that 'of a wash house.' It was such an intriguing description, it made me want to read the whole book, which I did a couple of years later when I got a copy as a prize at the end of the summer term.
Sadly, no one produces or uses old-fashioned primers anymore but reading schemes are more exciting than ever, and I love writing for them whenever I am asked. My first two were for Harpercollins some twenty years ago. They were called HOP HOP KANGAROO and HIDE AND SEEK. The series is not in print anymore but I still keeping the books in a lot of schools. Recently I have started writing for the Collins Big Cats series which, in my humble opinion, is one of the best reading schemes out there. Here are my educational books in print:
GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
Harpercollins 2015
My next book for the Big Cats Collins series will be aimed at 6 to 8 year olds. It's a retelling of the legend of Saint George, based mainly on an excerpt from Jacubus de Voragine's The Golden Legend, first published around 1260.
THE KING OF THE FOREST
Illustrated by Tomislav Zlatic
Harpercollins, September 2012
This is an ancient Chinese folktale, from back when there were still tigers in China. That's how old it is. The main character is the fox, a popular trickster in far Eastern folklore. He is pounced on by a ravenous tiger and he has to use all his skills and resources to outsmart her.
Published in September 2012.
THE DOLPHIN KING
Illustrated by Fausto Bianchi
Harpercollins, 2012
A French folktale from Provence, this is a story very close to my heart. It's got all the ingredients to get my imagination going: ships, dolphins, ghosts and a sunken castle bedecked with coral and jewels. It's a fantasy with an ecological message.
Writing it was a real challenge, as it's quite a long story and I had a very small word count. In the end I relied on Fausto, the illustrtator to fill in the details with his work. The biggest challenge was deciding how old, or young, the main character should be. The original, a fifteenth century fable, only specifies that he's a fisherman; it never gives the age. In the end we went for a young man in his twenties.
DINNER WITH A PIRATE
Illustrated by Shahab Shamshirsaz
Harpercollins, 2012
A folk tale from Spain, this is the story of a Christian fisherman who befriends a Muslim pirate. I wrote several versions of it for various publishers but I never felt happy enough with the end result to let it be published. Until now. I had a very small word count to work with for this book and somehow that helped me crystallise the plot.
Shahab's illustrations capture the spirit of Moorish Spain and North Africa perfectly, with the last spread glowing with jewel-bright colours.
THE MYSTERY OF THE COCOS GOLD
Illustrated by Mark Olroyd
Oxford University Press, 2003
This is the true story that partly inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to write Treasure Island. Cocos Island, which is 500 km off the Costa Rica in South America, was the haunt of many 18th century pirates.
In 1821 a revolution was breaking out in Costa Rica. The people there were rising against their Spanish masters. Some priests hired a Mr. Thompson, the captain of the Mary Dear, to carry the treasures from Lima Cathedral back to Spain. But the crew of the Mary Dear revolted, threw the priests overboard and made off with the treasure. They buried it on the remote island of Cocos, hoping to return for it when all the fuss had died down. All the crew except two - the captain and the first mate - were caught and hanged before they could go back to Cocos. The remaining pirates tried to retrieve the gold, but luck was not on their side...
HATS FOR THE CARNIVAL
Illustrated by Suzanne Carpenter
Ginn, Lighthouse Series, Year 1
Winston and his school friends are very much looking forward to the carnival, one of the most exciting times of the year in Trinidad. But then disaster strikes! The carnival hats they have ordered from the big city go missing.
Can Winston and his friends get hold of new hats before the great parade starts? Read the book and find out....
