Book Penpals – October Newsletter

Hello Book Penpals

How are you getting on with the new term? Do you have a new class or have all your friends moved with you?

Friends are very important. Especially for authors like me. Being an author is brilliant because it means my work is also my passion. But writing books is lonely work and I have to spend many hours sitting in the library or at my desk with no one to talk to. So I love it when I get the chance to catch up with my author friends.  Here is a picture of some of my very best friends. We are at the launch party for Chitra Soundar’s picture book ‘You’re Safe With Me’ illustrated by Poonam Mistry.

We all write books for children but our books are very different. Why don’t you check our our websites to see the differences in our work.

Left to right Savita Kalhan, Anita Loughrey, Chitra Soundar, Me

I bet at school you are never alone. Do you love to run out into the playground at break and catch up with all your friends? Or do you have an indoor space like the library to chat quietly?

Today I am going to meet my critique group at lunch time to chat about what we have been writing this week and then I am meeting Anita (above) for afternoon tea. But before I go I need to pop my postcards with my book recommendations in the post.

Hope you have a good October. It will soon by half term. See you on the other side.

Best wishes

Jo Franklin

Book Penpals September 2018

Book Penspals newsletter September 2018

Dear Book Penpals,

Welcome to the new school year. What are you looking forward to most this year?

Even for authors like me, September feels like the beginning of the year. This term I’m planning on starting a new book. I can’t tell you what it is yet because I’m not sure myself. I’m hoping that it is Book 2 about my dog Mickey, but that depends on a new publisher asking me to write it. I’m waiting to hear from them so please keep your fingers crossed for me. If that doesn’t happen then I need to start writing something new. I have an idea but have to work out the details.

Here is the French cover for the book about Mickey.  I hope you like it as much as I do. Are you able to translate the title? I call this book Totally Dogless but sadly it is not published in English yet so if you want to read it, you will have to learn French.

Jamais sans mon chien

As a beginning of term present, I am sending you a copy of Help I’m an Alien for your class library. If you read it and like it then it would be great if you could ask permission to leave a review on Amazon. The more reviews the better. Who is your favourite character in the book? Why don’t you have a class vote and send me the results.

My book recommendations this month are featured on the postcards I have sent you.  There is a different one for each of my three schools. These books are classics. That means they are books written some time ago, but still in print and enjoyed by children today. ‘In print’ means that a book is still being printed, marketed and sold to booksellers. Thousands of books are published a year so books don’t stay in print forever otherwise the choice would be overwhelming in the bookshop or library. If you discover that a book you want to read is out of print then you can try and buy it second hand. Sometimes second hand books are more expensive than new ones.

I have set you a literary challenge on the back of your postcard. I’d be very interested to hear how you get on.

If you’d like to write to me please use the contact me form or if you just want to leave a short message then use the comments section on this blog post