Do the Summer Reading Challenge!

The Summer Reading Challenge is a fantastic way of keeping children interested in reading during the six-week school holidays.

This year the theme is Creepy House.

One of the first things my daughter wants to do when school breaks up is go to the library and join up for the challenge. She likes the free goodies she is given. She likes the stickers. She likes the books (usually). And she likes the challenge. Can she read six books over the summer break?

I have made a short video about Creepy House that schools and parents may want to use. In the video I talk about the Summer Reading Challenge and about how libraries are worth a visit in the summer. I also recommend a few creepy books that I have enjoyed.

Tom Palmer on the Summer Reading Challenge

The characters in my new book - Ghost Stadium - do not head for the library on the day they break up, like I hope my daughter will. Instead, they sneak into an abandoned football stadium on a daring camping trip. Unfortunately for them the stadium is haunted and they do not have a very nice time. On a more positive note, they help solve a mysterious unsolved murder. Ghost Stadium is published by Barrington Stoke.

Please encourage any children you know or work with to go to their local library and join the Summer Reading Challenge. It'll be good for the libraries, good for authors like me and - most importantly - it will be good for them.

Have a great summer.

Visit the Summer Reading Challenge website.

Dyslexia Awareness Week

I was in Edinburgh earlier this week, touring schools and libraries with the wonderful Barrington Stoke publishing house, who publish books that are accessible to dyslexic readers.

Barrington Stoke publish my book, Scrum!

I am really proud to be published by them, because I have met so many teachers and librarians and children who think the world of them and their books.

It's Dyslexia Awareness Week this week and - as if by magic - I got my first email from a reader telling me what they thought about Scrum!

Dear Tom
I have read up to page 15 of your book scrum and I am totally loving it right now. I got this book at 6.30 tonight and I've only put it down to email you.
S, age 9


Getting emails from readers is one of the best things about being a writer. To know that, at this moment, someone is sitting there, somewhere, reading one of my books and liking it, is a great feeling.

This week we are more aware than ever that some children struggle to read. But we should also be aware that, because of publishers like Barrington Stoke, if these children find the right books, they can start to build the confidence and ability to become readers.

There's a great round up of Barrington Stoke's latest books here, published by the Daily Telegraph today.