Swindon author encourages children to find magic in nature with new book

Kate's debut book 'My Mum's a Tiger' became a worldwide success thanks to social media.

This month, the children's author is back with her brand-new picture book 'Searching for A Roarer' that invites children to use their imaginations to find adventure in the great outdoors.

A spokesperson said: "Searching for a Roarer is a story of misunderstanding, magic and the much-needed and timely idea that you don't have to spend lots of money to have adventures when you use imagination, art and nature."

Kate, 35 from North Swindon, originally wrote her first book, 'My Mum's a Tiger', as a birthday gift for her daughter, but when the body-positive ode to stretch marks started to gain a following, celebrity endorsements and awards, she made the decision to leave her job in theatre and follow a new career path as a writer.

Kate said: "It's been a whirlwind couple of years since publishing My Mum's a Tiger and I can't wait to do it all again with Searching for a Roarer! I had no expectations for my first book and am still in disbelief that it's now translated around the world. I really hope people will take the new book to their hearts in the same way.""

Illustrated by Amber Orozco, Searching for a Roarer tells the story of Maleri, a little girl who overhears talk of 'a roarer' dancing through the night skies and goes off in search of what she thinks is a lion. Desperate to bring the mystical beast home for her hard-working mum, Maleri is disappointed to find something completely different. That is until she realises she found something quite magical after all.

Said to be ideal for children up to the age of eight, the new book also includes themes of single parent families, multi-generational childcare and limb difference - an inclusion that Kate has made as tribute to her late father who had a lower arm amputation following a motorbike accident.

Kate explains: "Growing up, the only representation we saw of my awesome dad was Captain Hook or Bond villains. Disability and limb difference in particular has long been used when depicting movie 'baddies' and so it's been really important for me to normalise limb difference in one of my books.

"The mum of our main character has one hand. This isn't part of the story, in fact it's not mentioned once, but it's incredibly important for children to see how many different ways there are to be human and books are the perfect way to introduce this. I hope that this book reaches children who have themselves or family members with a limb difference. I wish we'd had this representation when we were growing up."

Searching for a Roarer publishes with Really Rather Wild Books on the 20 October, and can be found at www.reallyratherwild.com, in store at Bert's Books in Old Town, Swindon, and from most UK bookstores.

Kate will also be attending the upcoming Swindie Makers and Shop Small Swindon markets, as well as offering reading and craft sessions at the Enchanted Garden Light Trail every Tuesday throughout December.