MY RECENT LITERARY ADVENTURE

Over a week ago, I went to an author reading in Ely Cathedral featuring Katherine Rundell. She was signing books and speaking about her latest novel. Katherine Rundell is a best selling author whose books for children have won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, The Blue Peter Award and the Costa Children's Book Award among others. I haven't read all of her books yet, but I enjoyed reading Skysteppers, Wolf Wilder and Rooftoppers. I love her books because they are often adventure stories with straight talking, stubborn female characters.

When she spoke, she was funny, warm, chatty and inspiring. When she laughed, I couldn’t help but laugh as well, she was infectious! She made me feel very confident about myself as a creative writer, saying that you have to let yourself write badly to improve. Any idea, even if it doesn't seem very good at the time, can become something better. Her new book is called ‘The Poisoned King’ and it is the second book in a series called ‘Impossible Creatures’. She said that these two books are probably her favourite that she has written so far because of the mythology element. Every single creature in these books are either based on a mythical creature, or an actual one. For example, the Al-Miraj is a golden horned hare that is real in Arabian folklore, but has slightly different traits and meanings in the Impossible Creatures book.

She is currently writing the third book in the series that will probably be released next year and has said that there will be at least five books in the overall series. Many different things inspired her research, especially her travels. For example, she went to Russia to research ‘The Wolf Wilder’ and to the Amazon for her book ‘The Explorer’. She even tasted a tarantula so that she could write about it in her book!

I was lucky enough to get the book report that I wrote on ‘The Wolf Wilder’ in Year 7 signed! She was ecstatic about the fact that I had written and designed it and that her books had inspired me so much. She thought it was amazing and I came away feeling very proud of what I've accomplished and I was so glad that my Mum bought the tickets! 

Nieve, Year 8