I’ve just heard that FAB Club 3 – The Big Match is a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards.
I love these awards as they are judged by teachers and children.
FAB Club 3 is the final book in my chapter book series about standing up to bullying. You can get it at all good bookshops and at the Leslies in Lyttelton... ;-)
In 2015 we went to live in the Basque country to learn Spanish because it was a region of Spain where English wasn’t widely spoken. Our planned year turned into two and we learned a lot of Spanish and a tiny amount of Basque. It is a very difficult language to learn as it has no relation to any of the Latin languages (or any language anywhere). But what an amazing place and culture.
I adored the small town we lived in (Hondarribia) and collected my sketches of life there into a book, A Basque Diary.
Whilst we were living there I started work on my trilogy of books about bullying aimed at kids 8 to 12 years old: FAB (Friends Against Bullying) Club. I shared the book with my Intercambio Spanish/English learning group as the reading level was good for many of them. One of my friends in the group (Itziar) is a teacher and she shared it with another friend (Eneko) who spent a lot of time reading stories to children. Both thought that the book would work really well in Basque (bullying is also a problem for Basque schools) and they began working on a translation.
In 2017 we came home to New Zealand and Eneko sent the book and its 2018 sequel (FAB Club 2 - Friends Against Cyberbullying) to the Basque publisher, Elkar, who have bookstores all over the region.
After a little back and forth, Elkar signed up to publish the two existing books in Basque as well as the third one (FAB Club 3 - The Big Match) which I published this year. They have just released the first two and I was really excited when Itziar found them in one of Elkar’s bookshops in downtown Bilbao.
Elkar contacted me to ask me to record a promotional video for the second book. Cool!
In Basque.
I find even reading the language so hard. Which is why it took me nearly a week to get close to being able to pronounce the translation of the script I wrote. Here it is – I am sure anyone who can speak Basque will wince at my pronunciation, but I tried.
It has been a really rewarding experience working with the publisher and my Basque friends. My hope is that the book ends up in the hands of a lot of Basque children and that it helps them have a better time at school than I did between the ages of 8 and 12.
I've written the third and final in my children's book series about bullying. So far, only my 10 year old niece and 8 year old nephew have read it (it passed!) and it heads to my editor in September.
After it is edited, I will be sending out the illustrated chapters to my advance reading team. Let me know if you want to be a part of that.
But let’s make it all year!
This week is Bullying-Free NZ Week. The theme is 'whakanuia tōu āhua ake! celebrating being us' and culminates with the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand Pink Shirt Day this Friday 17 May. Schools and whanau can find lots of resources to support our kids at www.bullyingfree.nz
— hat tip to The Worry Bug Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheWorryBug
It seems that bullying is a big problem in New Zealand and not just in schools:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/112627263/our-workplace-bullying-shame
I was bullied as a child and I’ve never forgotten how lousy that felt. It is what inspired me to write FAB Club.
FAB Club is available on Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Fishpond, Whitcoulls, Booktopia, Barnes & Noble and in all good book shops and libraries.
FAB Club 2 – Friends Against Cyberbullying has just won bronze in the wishing shelf Book awards. FAB (Friends Against Bullying) Club was shortlisted for the award last year, so I’m delighted that the sequel was an even bigger hit with young readers.
Has someone annoyed you today - get cathartic release with Human Cull!
The ebook is free on Amazon on Thursdays in November (US Thursdays. Some of Friday here in NZ).
Search "Human Cull Hallatt" and have fun!
One of the hardest things about being an independent author is getting people to see your books, especially if they are to be found amongst the thousands online.
Amazon is the biggest online retailer of children's books by far, But it really only works well if you know what you are looking for. If you are looking for something new, you are unlikely to discover the best books, rather the books that sell really well. This means books that have been published for a long time, or books that have been put out by celebrity authors, or those that are already bestsellers. Because Amazon promotes books that already sell well on Amazon, it is only easy to find books that are already successful.
So where do you go if you want to discover new books for children? Where can you find ones that are written well and enjoyed by kids no matter who has published them, or how famous the author is?
This is where Toppsta comes in, by collecting reviews and ranking books accordingly. The Toppsta website says,
“We collect reviews from children and parents (and grandparents and librarians..) and ... you’ll find the top books for each year from babies to teenagers and every age in between!
We hope you’ll discover new books, new authors and new series and we’d love it if you’d join our community and write reviews of children’s books you’ve enjoyed. It takes less than 5 minutes to write a book review and you’ll be helping other children (and parents) find the very best books to read.”
I'd recommend you head over to Toppsta and review some books you've read and discover some you haven't. And a giveaway of FAB Club is running in the month of September 2018. Click the image below to head to Toppsta and enter.
click to find FAB Club on Toppsta