PLENTY OF VOTING, COLOURING AND ROARRRING!!!

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur, my debut rhyming picture book for young children, is currently being showcased in the 2015/16 summer collection of The People’s Book Prize, where the winners are picked exclusively by the general public.

Thank you to everyone who has voted for Stonely so far! Your support for a new children’s author is much appreciated. I have received some super comments. Here are a few examples:

‘A really popular book with children at our dinosaur museum.’

‘This is a lovely book for children – it captures their attention and they really enjoyed it. I thoroughly recommend this book.’

‘Problem-solving skills! A must for our kiddos. Stonely is a perfect book for that task.’

‘My young son and daughter absolutely loved this book. The story is exciting to read and the illustrations are wonderful, complementing each part of the story. A superb book and a real must-read for all dino fans! Yabba dabba doo!’

‘Go, red dinosaur! Colourful, exciting and fantastic fun for kids. Ideal for bedtime reading and learning purposes. Recommended book.’

The general public can cast their votes until 31st August 2015. To help Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur become a finalist, I would be thrilled if you could click on the logo below to register and vote. It only takes a few minutes, and it’s free!

I’m also really excited to let you know that a Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur colouring competition is currently being featured in the Kids’ Corner section of the summer 2015 edition of the South West Wales Primary Times!

The competition closes on  Monday 17th August.

There were plenty of ferocious ROARRRS! last Wednesday when I visited Little Green Man Nursery in Leytonstone, East London, to do a staged reading of Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur.

It was an absolute pleasure to introduce Stonely and his pet dinosaur to such an attentive class of forty three- and four- year-olds! I was very impressed with the little learners, who happily listened to the story and interacted fabulously when required.

After the reading, the children were eager to take turns to bang the ‘wooden drum’ that Stonely uses in the story to wake up the snoring dinosaur

To my delight, the children all said they wanted to own a roaring, red dinosaur, just like Stonely! How wonderful is that?

After the reading session, the boys and girls enthusiastically coloured in drawings of the main dinosaur characters from the story.

                  

Thank you for inviting me, Little Green Man Nursery – I had a lovely time!

Please keep voting, colouring and roaring, everyone!!

xx

It’s time to celebrate again!

I’m very excited to announce that Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur, my debut rhyming picture book for young children, has been nominated for the UK’s prestigious annual book award, The People’s Book Prize 2015/2016. HURRAY! (Or should I say ROARRR?!) 

The People’s Book Prize winners are voted for exclusively by the public. The national competition was set up to discover new talent and encourage reading. The founding patron was Dame Beryl Bainbridge, and the current patron is internationally renowned author Frederick Forsyth CBE, who has written multiple bestsellers including The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File. 

The general public can cast their votes from 1st June to 31st August 2015. To help Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur become a finalist, I would be thrilled if you could click on the logo below to register and vote. It only takes a few minutes, and is free!

Thanks for your support!

Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur is already a winner! 

Soon after the release of Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur in August 2014, I decided that it would be a good – as well as daunting – idea to enter my book into a book competition, to see what a wider audience thought of it, rather than just my own family and friends. I searched the internet and found The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards website. The annual awards are run by the prize-winning author Edward Trayer, aka Billy Bob Buttons.

 

Nervously, I sent a PDF of the book plus JPEGs of the covers to Edward. To my delight, the book was accepted into the pre-school picture book category. In order to promote excellence in independent publishing, many books that are entered are turned down, often due to poor grammar, covers or formatting, and so I was pretty chuffed to be accepted.  

There are six categories in The Wishing Shelf Awards, including four children's categories.  The judges of the pre-school picture book cateogry are UK primary school children, which I think is fantastic.  The children, assisted by their teachers, assess the books and decide on the finalists, based on which books they enjoyed the most and why.  A smaller group of children then read the chosen top books and pick the gold, silver and bronze winners. The books are marked according to their editing, theme, style, cover and illustrations.

 

On 1^st March I found out that Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur had reached the finals of the pre-school picture book category. I was extremely happy – it was a fabulous feeling to know that my book was being enjoyed by children and their teachers.

On 1^st April, the winners of each category were announced. I was amazed, and over the moon, when I found out that Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur was the silver medal winner of the pre-school picture book category! As the silver medallist, I received lovely reviews on Amazon.co.uk and Goodreads from The Wishing Shelf Awards, a smart certificate, a silver medal logo (which I’ve added to the back cover of my book!) and a catchy quote: ‘Colourful! Exciting! Fabulous fun for kids’ to help promote my book.

 

The People’s Book Prize 2014/2015 awards ceremony for all finalists was broadcast on Sky News on Wednesday 27^th May, and I enjoyed watching it, thinking that perhaps I could be there next year! Well done to all the winners.

I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I get enough votes for Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur to reach the finals of The People’s Book Prize 2015/2016. It is my dream to wear a posh frock (which will be red, of course) and attend next year’s awards ceremony as a finalist, so please please support me and vote now!

Thank you.

Naomi x