Best-selling children's author visits Noremarsh Junior School

In celebration of World Book Day, Noremarsh Junior School had a visit from best-selling children’s author, Paula Harrison.

Paula Harrison has written over 40 books, and her series' include 'Robyn Silver', 'Secret Rescuers', 'The Tiara Friends Mysteries', and 'Red Moon Rising.'

Pupils at Noremarsh Junior School received a visit from the author, which was arranged as part of the school's reading week to celebrate and share the love of reading.

The children had an assembly with Paula in the morning followed by a Q&A, where the children had the opportunity to ask her lots of questions.

Paula then went into classrooms, completing workshops with the children. Children also had the opportunity to receive signed books written by the children’s author.

The author has a new book called Fairytale Ninjas. The book follows the characters Snow, Red and Goldie, who are trained as fairytale ninjas where they long to meet unicorns, ride dragons and fight trolls.

Staff at Noremarsh said the Q&A with Paula was full of some great questions from the children. In the crowd was an aspiring future author who wanted to understand how he would go about getting his own books published.

Paula said her books can sometimes take her a month to write, but big books can take her a very long time. The author creates not only short stories but longer more complex stories so that children from a variety of different reading levels can access her books.

One child asked Paula how she came up with her ideas for her story, and the author explained that it comes from a part of her mind that you are not in control of, almost like dreaming.

She went on to say how her mind had turned to thinking wouldn’t it be funny if an alien ship landed in the playground right now and the story unravels from there.

Hilary MacMeekin, Headteacher at Noremarsh Junior School, said: “Paula Harrison is an author that is a personal favourite of mine. Her Robyn Silver books are ones I used to read to my own children. It was a pleasure to host Paula, she had all of the pupils inspired by her books and the stories behind creating them.

"It was amazing to see all of the creativity flowing between the classes and the massive variety between all of the animals the children had chosen. Events such as this create an environment where the children can feel safe to be confident and ambitious and it really came across in the school assembly during the Q&A.”