On Wednesday 2nd March,  LIV (Year 7) joined together in their English lesson for a virtual author event with Emma Carroll.

'Emma has written lots of interesting books and our favourites are Secrets of the Sun King and The Somerset Tsunami. She even has her stories written in different languages! We also recently discovered that she is writing a sequel to Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson, which several of us have read or are now reading, so that we can enjoy Emma's sequel when it is published.

Many schools took part in the Zoom call and we found out several interesting things about her work as a writer. She has a book room to write her stories in and she has her favourite chair in the corner, and she even has two dogs who keep her company: one sits on the window sill and the other under her desk. Dr Wickson typed our questions into the Q&A box and we were excited to hear our questions being responded to, live.

She told us about her recent book, The Week at World’s End, which is about a girl called Stevie and her best friend Ray. Stevie finds a dead body in her shed, which leads to several dilemmas. Together, the characters have to solve the mystery. The book is set in 1960s England during the Cuban Missile Crisis - we learnt about this military crisis and how it was resolved, as well as seeing interesting photographs of Emma's parents and The Beatles.

The event was broadcast on the eve of World Book Day, to launch this year's Read for Good readathon. Participants are sponsored for each book they read for the appeal, and the money raised will buy books to brighten the lives of children in hospital. We will be launching this with all year groups at St Mary's before the Easter holiday, so it's time to get reading!'

Eleanor and Alice (LIV, Year 7)