Christmas WS's!By Karen King
In this week’s children’s author series, we’re bringing you the second installment of books for tween readers. I’m certainly going to buy the first book – Firstborn. Our daughter is in fantasy phase and is devouring all books with dragons and wizards.
Hi everyone. Last time I blogged about the things young kids can learn from my picture books. This week, I’m going to talk about a couple of my books for older children. These are all adventure story books but there are lots of things kids can learn from them, and some interesting projects they can do, based around them.
Firstborn
This is a fantasy book for 9-12 year olds. When Myden and Tsela are captured by the evil Isleck, two dragons rescue them but soon they are all entangled in a dangerous quest to find the Golden Dragon and a battle to save Cryenia. Kids can learn about making the right choices, bravery and looking out for others in this book. And for extra fun, they could create their own fantasy world, like Cryenia.
The Amy Carter Mysteries
These podcast detective stories are for 8-11 year olds. Amy Carter is an American girl who stays at her gran’s B&B in Cornwall, England for the summer. When Gran’s prize-winning pooch goes missing, Amy and her side-kick, Max, are determined to find it. So far there are three books in the series. Kids can learn about observation, solving clues and never giving up from these books. You can encourage them to make up their own codes and secret messages.
All Aboard!
This collection of six adventure stories for confident readers of 6-8 years tells of Lili and Zac’s adventures on Karlin Island, their nature reserve home. There’s a lot to discuss in this book as kids read about Lili and Zac’s adventures with rare birds, dolphins and basking sharks. You can talk to your kids about survival skills and use the book as the basis for a fun project on sea creatures.
Remember, your kids are never too old to read to and discuss books with, so next time you see them engrossed in a book talk to them about it. You’ll be amazed what they’re learning from what they’re reading.
Karen King has been writing children’s books since the mid-eighties. She’s written for many children's magazines too including Sindy, Barbie, Winnie the Pooh and Thomas the Tank Engine. Some of her short stories were featured on Playdays BBC and some of her poems on the BBC One Potato, Two Potato website. She writes for all ages and in all genres. Story books, picture books, plays, joke books, she’s written them all!
She tutors for the Writer’s Bureau and runs writing workshops in schools.
