Author Visit – Helen Peters
Wednesday 12th June
Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 & Year 5
What a fantastic and
inspirational visit with Helen Peters!
Helen Peters, award-winning
author, was in school on Wednesday 12th June to give a presentation
on her books and writing to our Years 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
There was great
excitement as children and staff gathered in our lower junior assembly hall.
Helen is author of Friends and Traitors, The Secret Hen House Theatre trilogy, and the Jasmine Green animal rescue series. She introduced to the children, ‘A Llama called Lightning’, the sixteenth
book in the Jasmine Green series with
beautiful illustrations by Ellie Snowdon and ‘Friends and Traitors’, a second world war mystery. Her stories are
about adventure, bravery, family and friendship.
Helen spoke in a fun and engaging way about her path to
becoming an author. The children were enthralled by the stories from her
childhood growing up on an old-fashioned farm in Sussex, surrounded by family,
animals and lots of mud. As a child she loved reading and putting on plays.
Together with her friends she transformed an old barn into a theatre. All this led
to her becoming an English and Drama teacher and eventually becoming a writer.
Helen’s cute photos and illustrations of animals that
feature in many of her stories filled the hall with lots of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’
from the children.
“It was so interesting and my absolute favourite part was when she
talked about the animals and showed us cute pictures”. – Sophia (Diamond Class)
It was also fascinating for the children that Helen
explained clearly how a book is made from pen to print. She showed her note
books and rough drafts and explained that an editor is just like a teacher who
corrects and helps you improve your writing which the children immediately
related to.
“I loved how she explained how the books were actually made” Theo
(Diamond Class)
It was wonderful that
Helen also made the time for the children to ask her questions and gave warm
and engaging replies.
To finish off her talk Helen engaged the children in a fun quiz about her
writing. There was much laughter and excitement.
This was followed by a book signing in the library for the children who
had pre-ordered copies of her books.
We now have signed copies of Helen’s books in our library and they have
been flying off the shelves.
Thank you so much
Helen for coming into St Josephs and inspiring the next generation of writers.
