Author Vashti Hardy visits Blaydon West!

KS2 were lucky enough to have a visit from the celebrated children’s author Vashti Hardy as part of the Northern Children’s Book Festival.

Vashti gave us tips on how to start writing our own stories by starting with our interests. She explained how she came up with the idea of her first book ‘Brightstorm’ based on her interest in explorers like Ernest Shackleton. She explained how reading non-fiction books and watching documentaries can also inspire story ideas. Another one of her tips was to collect images linked to the story ideas and use these in your own writing journal.

Vashti explained how creating your own world map once you have a story idea can help you develop it further. She showed us how to do this and we even gave her a helping hand with our own ideas!

Some of the children purchased a copy of Brightstorm and were then lucky enough to get them signed by Vashti herself.