World Book Day

Happy World Book Day everyone!

As any of my regular readers will know, we as a family love books and I have read daily to my little girl from her being a few weeks old. We enjoy some of the well known household names such as Julia Donaldson, but have also come across some other fantastic children’s authors over the last two years, who are new to us including Clara Vulliamy, author of Martha and the Happy Bunny Brothers and Benji Bennett, author of Before You Sleep to mention a few.

World Book Day is a fantastic day to celebrate all things literary and as with last year lots of book publishers and booksellers, in partnership with schools all over the country, have been distributing millions of £1 World Book Day book tokens to children throughout the UK. When you get your book token, all you need to do is to take it to your local bookshop and swap it for one of eight select World Book Day titles or, you can use your book token to get £1 off any full price book instead! A great excuse to add a new title to your collection! there’s also a host of games, information, tips and ideas about enjoying books on the World Book Day website.

In celebration of World Book Day today we will be reading The Tiger That Came to Tea, (Judith Kerr)

We love finding new books to enjoy! Do you have any favourites or recommendations? If so we’d love to hear your comments!

Last year in my World Book Day Post I profiled the lovely Liz Million, a children’s illustrator that I have the privilege of knowing. This year I am proud to introduce another lovely lady and friend, Gemma Wilford. Gemma is the author of the children’s book The Ruby of Egypt.

Gemma self published her first children’s book, The Ruby of Egypt in 2011, a story of Ruby, a young girl who finds herself being dragged on a sight-seeing holiday to Egypt. Viewing the pyramids is the last thing she wants to be doing but her disappointment soon turns to delight when she curiously follows a black cat inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, where upon entering she is mysteriously transported back in time to Ancient Egypt. Aided by a talking feline, guided by a dragonfly and protected by a Falcon headed God, Ruby must embrace an important mission that will not only challenge her ability to amend her stroppy attitude, but will change the purpose of her life forever.

The book is available via Amazon as an ebook and Gemma is currently working on and aiming to get published, a chick-lit recession based novel too. I’ve asked Gemma to tell us a bit about how she came to develop her passion for writing, which she shares below. However in the meantime to find out more about Gemma and read some of her fantastic interviews with other authors and literary views visit Missuswolf’s Storyland Blog or view a trailer for the Ruby of Egypt

A word from Gemma…

Thanks to AMummysView for having me here today, I am honoured to be featured on her amazing blog.

I have always loved reading a writing, English was my favourite subject at school and I couldn’t wait to dive write in to creative writing stories.

As a child, I loved adventure stories; early favourites include The Famous Five, The Secret Seven and Nancy Drew. I spent my summers engrossed in these books and when I did come up for air, I would immediately start writing my own version.

I loved my English Lessons in Middle School and the teacher that helped nurture my writing back then has recently published his first novel Beyond Saving. It was during my time at this school that I was a member of BBC Newsround’s Press Packers and I was twice runner up in their journalistic competitions, attending their studios to film in the Blue Peter Garden a news piece to camera.

Adolescence then the hum drum of working adult life soon crept in the way of any creative writing. It was the back end of 2010 when I started writing again and wrote a children’s book The Ruby of Egypt ,which became my first self published book in 2011. It has since been revamped; fully revised and edited with a brand new cover and the second edition is now available.

Last year, I had a short story ‘Breaking The Rules’ published in the I Am Woman Campaign Anthology Volume Two as well as spooky story ‘Lady In Black’ featured on GK Adams blog as part of a Halloween theme. I am currently in the editing stages of my first novel, a humorous Chick-Lit recession based book ‘Miss Pooshoe’, which I hope to release Autumn 2013

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As you can see Gemma followed her childhood passion and has fulfilled her ambitions in the literature world. World Book Day is a fantastic celebration of literature and the wealth of information, events and online information will undoubtedly help inspire more young people in the way Gemma was inspired and I for one think that is a fantastic thing.

Happy Reading One and All!

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