Fellow writer Charlotte Comley invited me to share my top five writing tips on her new channel, The List Writer.
North Somerset Teachers’ Book Award: WINNER!
DAVE PIGEON WON THE NORTH SOMERSET TEACHERS’ BOOK AWARD: READ ALOUD CATEGORY. WE WON! And yes, I am so happy I am shouting about it!
Yesterday afternoon, we were treated to a wonderful awards ceremony, packed full of children’s books and delicious cakes. Shortlisted authors and illustrators were invited to Bournville Primary School in Weston-super-Mare to celebrate an amazing shortlist of books and we got to take our families along too.
After a quick stop at the beach for a lunch of fish and chips and mushy peas, we headed to the ceremony which was packed full of authors, illustrators, teachers, librarians and lots of people passionate about children’s books.
The full shortlist
The Read Aloud category shortlist
WE WON!
This award is a rather special one because it was voted for by teachers, librarians and educators. It was my brilliant teachers and librarians that got me hooked on reading as a child and I can’t thank them enough for opening up my world to adventures and characters that have inspired and challenged me. Reading improves empathy. That’s a fact. In the world we live in now, it’s more important than ever that we encourage children to read and to learn to empathise.
CHILDTASTICBOOKS REVIEWS DAVE PIGEON
Have a read here of a lovely review for Dave Pigeon from Sam Pope of ChildtasticBooks.
Surrey Libraries’ Children’s Book Award
I’m over the moon and beyond excited to see that Dave Pigeon has been shortlisted for the Surrey Libraries’ Children’s Book Award 2017. Dave Pigeon sits alongside some of my favourite books on this list.
BookTrust: Great Books Guide 2016
It’s Children’s Book Week. This is the week we celebrate reading for pleasure with children, teachers, librarians and parents. I’m so thrilled that BookTrust has selected Dave Pigeon to be part of their Great Books Guide 2016. 
Cheltenham Literature Festival
Our first trip to The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival was fantastic. Sheena and I had the chance to not only to run one workshop but two where we met lots of talented young authors and illustrators who helped us design brand new pigeon characters and write exciting new adventures.
Thank you so much to all those who came along and to the wonderful folk working tirelessly behind the scenes at the festival. You are all BRILLIANT.
Incredible illustrations from one of the young artists who came along to our worskhop (age 10 years old).
The Independent: Eleven Best Books for 4 to 7 year olds
I’m so thrilled to see that The Independent has been selected Dave Pigeon as one of their eleven best books for 4 to 7 year olds. You can read the full list of books here.
Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!)
Our publisher has only gone and trusted Sheena and I to write a brand new Dave Pigeon adventure!
I’m beyond excited to reveal the fantastic cover of ‘Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!)‘ right here on the Roosting With Dave blog. Illustrated by the pigeontastic Sheena Dempsey, ‘Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!)‘ will be flying on to the shelves in February 2017.
A Love Letter to Libraries
This weekend has been a celebration of books and those wonderful unsung heroes who do everything they can to get books into the hands of children. On Saturday was the inaugural Books Are My Bag Bookshop Day and as a debut author, I can’t thank bookshops and booksellers enough for all they have done to support Dave Pigeon. THANK YOU, YOU BRILLIANT BOOK FOLK.
This weekend was also the Youth Libraries Group Conference in Cardiff and I had the wonderful honour of being invited to join the new authors’ panel alongside Ross Welford (Time Travelling with a Hamster), Huw Davies (Scrambled) and Claire Fayers (The Accidental Pirates).
We showcased our work and answered questions put to us by the wonderful chair Jake Hope on writing humour and the books we enjoyed as children. Whilst we were discussing our love of stories, it transpired that we were all children of books, whatever the age we came to love reading, and that libraries and librarians played a huge part in getting those books into our hands.
As a child, the local library visit was my weekly treat. We didn’t have much in the way of fiction at home and when our mother sent us along to the library, her trusty ‘babysitter’, it was a chance to get my hands on all the books she would have hated me to read. I remember the children’s section of the Treaty Centre Library in Hounslow and then when we moved house to North London, the equally inviting children’s corner of the Wood Green Library. The librarians became accustomed to our presence and they started to put books aside for me on Saturday mornings as they pointed me in the direction of brilliant stories and great authors. My sisters and I would be head deep in adventures, romance, crime and horror as my mother got on with her weekly chores, blissfully unaware that we were not self-educating with maths books and encyclopaedias as she thought.
There were so many topics and issues we weren’t allowed to talk about at home. Mine was a childhood of an imported prudish Indian culture, compounded with my parents newly-gained straitlaced Britishness. My sisters and I didn’t stand a chance when it came to asking our parents about anything that might help us understand the changing world around us. Books gave me a chance to explore feelings and ideas before I faced them in the real world. All I know is that if it hadn’t been for brilliant librarians and the accessibility of books in the library I would be a pretty incompetent human. Or at least a far more incompetent one than I am now.
THANK YOU TO THE LIBRARIANS OF HOUNSLOW AND WOOD GREEN x