Children's Book Reviewer, Writer,
HarperCollins Reading for Pleasure Award Winner 2024
Project Manager (Young Readers Programme, National Literacy Trust)
LATEST BOOK REVIEWS
Children's Publishing
From Messy Drafts to Published Books
Featuring... SF Said, Jasbinder Bilan, Elle McNicholls, Chris Vick, Tamsin Winter, Joseph Elliott, Jenni Spangler, Lucy Strange, Fleur Hitchcock, Joan Haig, Tom Huddleston, Louie Stowell, Chrissie Sains, Penny Chrimes, Anna Hoghton, Anneliese Avery, Alex Cotter, Dan Smith, Sinead O'Hart, Joanne O'Connell, Clare Weze and many more!
S.J. Wills
Q & A
Author of early-teen mystery-horror 'Bite Risk' in a Q&A.
My review of the book is here.
STORYTIME
In 2024 I won the HarperCollins Reading for Pleasure Award (Experienced Teacher) in association with the Open University. This award was for my work on the 'Storytime in School' national project with publishers Farshore, as part of HarperCollins.
I believe that Storytime is and should be the 'beating heart' of literacy in primary schools. You can read about how I made time for Storytime and how it helped develop a reading for pleasure culture in my school. I also wrote an article on my Five Best Books to Read Aloud in the Classroom: Engaging Reluctant Readers. Click on the images for the links too.
While I am no longer a teacher, I now work at the National Literacy Trust on the Young Readers Programme, planning and delivering reading events in schools where children get to choose books to take home and keep.
MY WRITING
I love writing. It may be a cliché, but since about the age of six I have wanted to be an author (and illustrator). As Philip Pullman recently said in an interview: 'when I write, nothing bad can happen.' I feel the same. I have to write to make sense of the world; to allow myself to enter the realm of the imagination and come out feeling renewed. It is part of who I am.
The Book of Monsters (and other heebeegeebees)
Anxious Benjamin Beam attempts to heal the rift in his family by summoning the creative power of his great-grandfather's Book of Monsters...
My current middle-grade book for children is one I am most proud of. A joyous, emotional adventure story with oodles of charm and magic. For fans of Studio Ghibli.
A story about how reading, writing and facing our feelings can heal us.
Here are some examples of small chapter heading illustrations I created for it.
I was a mentee of the Golden Egg Academy where I received 1:1 editorial guidance while learning more about crafting stories for children. During this time I wrote 'The Once and Future Boy', a middle-grade fantasy-adventure about a descendent of King Arthur searching for his missing military father across a dangerous, mythic Cornwall.
BIO
ABOUT ME
Children's Writer, Reviewer, Project Manager
Project Manager, Young Readers Programme, National Literacy Trust
HarperCollins Reading for Pleasure Experienced Teacher Award 2024
I am a Project Manager for the Young Readers Programme at the National Literacy Trust. I plan, design and attend fun reading events to encourage reading enjoyment and book ownership. I work with partners such as Hachette UK publishers, Bupa and the Moondance Foundation in Wales.
Previously, since 2010, I was a primary school teacher, having worked in schools from deprived areas of London to the Andes of Ecuador. I championed children's literature and reading for pleasure as an English Lead and OU UKLA Teachers' Reading Group (TRG) Lead for Hertfordshire/ Watford. In 2024 I won the HarperCollins Reading for Pleasure Award for leading my school on the national Storytime project.
I review the latest children's books and have been included in publicity campaigns for some of the major children's publishing houses in the UK. I am also a middle-grade writer and a mentee of the prestigious Golden Egg Academy. My latest work-in-progress is a middle-grade magical-realist adventue: 'The Book of Monsters (and other Heebeegees)'
Before becoming a teacher I worked for arts organisations, including setting up and running a community magazine. I also briefly worked as a freelance reporter and arts reviewer for a local newspaper.
Creativity is my thing - I love writing and reading books especially. I love championing the very best in children's literature. I am also a husband and father to two wonderful daughters.
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CONTACT
Email: chrissoul@hotmail.co.uk | Twitter: @ChrisSoulUK | Insta: chrissouluk
Web: chrissoul.co.uk
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