More here … https://www.tes.com/news/5-ways-schools-are-celebrating-world-cup

I’d like to ask for some advice from teachers, please. My plan is to use that advice to help me develop some resources that will work for schools this autumn. Thank you in advance.

This September I have a book out called Armistice Runner. It is aimed at children aged 8 to 13.

It’s about a modern-day girl called Lily who is a cross country runner. Through reading his diaries, she finds out that her great- great-granddad was a champion cross country/fell runner in 1918 and that he went on to become a trench runner in the last days of the First World War, performing a dangerous mission during the last minutes of the conflict right up to 11 a.m.

The Armistice is a central theme of the book. It is published on 6^th September, ten weeks before the centenary this November.

I am already working on materials that schools can use as they mark the centenary of the Armistice. There are videos of me talking from key Armistice sites in France already up. You can see them here: https://tompalmer.co.uk/armistice-runner/.

I will be creating more resources that I hope will be useful in schools, based on some of the materials you can see on my Over the Line webpage: https://tompalmer.co.uk/first-world-war-literacy-resources/. There you will find posters, stories, scripts, discussion questions and quizzes.

But is this what schools want?

I’d be very interested to hear what schools would like to help them work on the Armistice with their students. Your own ideas, but also things you have used in the past, particularly that are based around a novel to help children get their heads round a moment in history. I’ll be spending a lot of time working resources up over the summer, so your advice would be useful.

All the resources I create will be free to all schools – and anyone else – by the way.

One idea I have is that, if a schools uses Armistice Runner as a class read around the autumn, then I could offer a free half-hour Skype to that school.

What do you think?

Please email me any thoughts at info@tompalmer.co.uk. And please, also, pass this on to any colleagues you know who might be able to help.

Many thanks.

Read the full blog here

My last two books published have featured Syrian child refugees who have made it to the UK to be taken in by families and communities.

I did this because I have been in several schools and communities that have children who are refugees from Syria (and other troubled places in the world) and heard their stories in the staff room at lunch time.

That – and reading books and articles about Syria today – motivated me to develop Yusra, Galip and Aylan as characters in my children’s books.

I did it, also, because I want children who are in all schools to be able to read about how we – in our relatively safe and stable country – can help people whose lives have been smashed to pieces and how we need to remember this country has a history of taking in and accepting refugees.

Gus the Fantastic Football Cat (Egmont, KS1) is about a Syrian girl and her dad who look after a rescue cat when they arrive in the UK from Syria. The parallel of the girl taken in by a UK community and her, in turn, taking a rescue cat in is the only thing about the story that relates to her background. The rest of the story is hopefully a lot lighter, as the cat reveals it can predict World Cup football results.

Pitch Invasion (Barrington Stoke, KS2) is a bit more direct. The story is about a haunted hillfort in Cornwall and a ghostbusting duo – Seth and Nadiya – who realise there is a parallel between the ghost of Iron Age refugees escaping the Romans by heading west and two Syrian boys – Galip and Aylan – who have recently been taken in by a Cornish family, after tragedy in Syria.

Both books would have worked well enough without introducing Yusra and Galip and Aylan. But, because they are being published last year and this, I think it works better that I did include them.

I am delighted to be able to  say that I have a new book coming out in autumn 2018.

It’s called Armistice Runner and is about a  thirteen-year-old cross country/fell runner called Lily. And her great great granddad, who was a champion fell runner as well as a trench runner during the last weeks of the First World War.

The story is based very loosely on my daughter’s love of cross country and fell running and the champion fell runner of 100 years ago, Ernest Dalzell (above).

You can read Barrington Stoke’s Press release about the book here.