Welcome! I hope this website will help readers, parents, teachers and librarians find out more about me and my children’s books.  And you can subscribe to my termly e-newsletter here or email to ask me something particular here or use my contact form here.

“Tom Palmer is a true reading hero and has been responsible for motivating many thousands of young people to get into books” Booktrust

I am the author of fifty five children’s books including three Puffin football series, Football Academy, Foul Play and The Squad and 16 books for Barrington Stoke. Foul Play was short listed for the 2009 Blue Peter Book Award.  “An excellent fast-paced detective novel” The Times.   More awards here.  

“Tom Palmer is definitely in the premier league of children’s authors with an impressive back catalogue of soccer stories.” Mumsnet

RESIST : One Girl’s Fight Back Against the Nazis                   OUT 4 AUGUST 2022

I am delighted to announce that my next children’s story shines a light on the incredible work of the WWll Dutch resistance, in a story inspired by the childhood of Hollywood legend Audrey Hepburn.

PRE-ORDER NOW! Signed and dedicated copies are available personalised to order from my local independent children’s bookshop “The Thoughtful Spot” here.

More about Resist here

 

 

 

---

WOMEN’S EUROS 4-15 July 2022

I’m delighted to announce that I will be writing a new FREE 10 part read aloud story with the National Literacy Trust during the 2022 Women’s Euros.

It will feature characters from my Roy & Rocky of the Rovers books: Rocky, and her brother, Roy.

More here

 

---

NEW FOOTBALL FICTION :  Game Changer

The next book in the Rocky of the Rovers series, “Sudden Death” is out 23 June 2022.

The newly formed Melchester Women’s team are going from strength to strength in their first full season of professional football, lead by the tenacious Rocky Race. Can she maintain her match-winning performances? And just where does her footballing future lie?

Pre-order a signed and dedicated copy of Sudden Death  from my local independent children’s bookshop “The Thoughtful Spot”  here.

More about Rocky and Roy of the Rovers here

---

AVAILABILITY : Virtual & In Person Author Visits

I am delighted to be still going into schools this term for in-person author visits and have availability from September 2022.  More here.

“The impact of last year’s visit was massive and has really helped us develop reading with our current year 6 group. In reading surveys and discussions your books always get a mention and are still read by a lot of the year group.” Green Lane Primary School

And discover the choice of bespoke virtual workshops learning options I am still offering to schools here.

• virtual visits
• my Football Reading Game
• my Rugby Reading Game
• talks about Fair Trade
• a focus on Historical Fiction
• writing workshops
• assemblies
• presentations
• workshops
• writing-history-with-the-imperial-war-museum
• careers talks

“The work of this author is making a valuable contribution to improving pupils’ writing.” Ofsted  

“There is no doubt that Tom Palmer has a Growth Mindset!”  Reigate St Mary’s

“Many thanks for a great morning with our school. Everybody had a fantastic time and the children are very keen to read the books now. The teachers are very  impressed with all the resources that you put together as well.”  Thomas’s London Day Schools

“Every single child in the hall, of all ages and stages, absolutely loved what he said and did and I had teachers staying voluntarily (when they had free time, reports to write and other things to do!) and so many of them came to see me afterwards to say how much they had enjoyed listening to him and watching the way in which he engaged with all of our children, from Year 3 to Year 8.  We really enjoyed having Tom visit Edgeborough again.” Edgeborough School

More about my school author visits here.

---

AWARDS latest

After the War has just been longlisted for the 2022 UKLA Book Awards (11-14 + category) and shortlisted for the @historicalassociation 10-13 yrs Young Quills shortlist.  I am so happy!

D-Day Dog was voted the overall winner at the 2020 Children’s Book Awards, run by the wonderful Federation of Children’s Book Groups. The fact that over 100,000 children nominate, longlist, shortlist and choose the winners makes it all the more brilliant. Thank you 100,000 times over.

I was thrilled to be awarded the Ruth Rendell Award for Services to Literacy by the National Literacy Trust in association with the ALCS.

 

More awards news here

 

---

Buy Books

Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available personalised to order from my local independent children’s bookshop “The Thoughtful Spot”  here.

Schools bumper book pack and class set offers here.

Visit my  bookshop  or support your local bookshop HIVE

Overseas : FREE Delivery worldwide from The Book Depository.
Australia: Boomerang   
Canada: Amazon Canada
New Zealand: Wheelers       
USA :  Indigo books

Email me here for more information or use my contact form here to ask me a question.

Thank you.

PRIVACY & COOKIES POLICY                            TERMS & CONDITIONS