A Selection of Ali's Books
Ali Sparkes at Hay Festival
Ali Sparkes
Interactive, lively presentations for up to 500+
Entertaining workshops for up to 60, aimed at all abilities.
Type of Artist:
AuthorDetails
Preferred age range: Year 3 to year 8, but can (and fairly often do) entertain whole primary schools in presentations.
Happy to take older groups (Year 9 upwards) for structured workshop sessions, in smaller numbers.
Adult – creative writing groups or students and teachers/librarians.
Maximum number in any one session:
No upward limit with presentations, provided the venue is well appointed (ie: need a microphone and PowerPoint screen/laptop for the bigger venues). The more, the merrier, especially if I get all the teachers and Head too!
No of sessions per day:
Maximum of three sessions a day, provided one is a workshop - can also do additional bits like informal chatting and signing, interviews for school magazine/website etc.
Session Length:
Usually around an hour for presentation or workshop but can trim to 45 minutes where needed. Signing is usually extra to this.
Areas prepared to travel to:
I live in South East England but am happy to travel UK-wide if logistics and funds allow. Abroad also considered where possible. If my journey is significantly over two hours I will normally request a B&B overnight.
Transport:
For most events I travel by car at a rate of 45p per mile.
Fees:
Hold PLI (public liability insurance):
Yes
Website:
Ali Sparkes website
The Switch series website
Titles include:
There were 30 odd at the last count…
Including:
Death by Detention (2018)
Shapeshifters series
Destination Earth
Frozen in Time
Out of this World
* But please note that Monster Makers (Scholastic) is currently out of print.
Testimonials:
Just wanted to send a quick email to say a massive thank you for your visit yesterday. The children came away buzzing after your visit and I hope you enjoyed your time at Valentine with us.
It was the best author visit I have had to pleasure to see and I'm sure everyone that was there would say the same thing.
A huge thank you for your visit on Tuesday. We all had a fabulous day and everyone has said how much they enjoyed your engaging talks. I enjoyed all three!
For homework, Years 3 and 4 were asked to talk to a parent for five minutes about your talk and two parents have told me how surprised they were by their children’s reactions.
The parent of a boy who struggles with reading and is not at all keen talked about how surprised he was that you struggled at school but then became a writer – she felt he had learned a valuable lesson. The other parent has a son who is an able reader but is not always engaged and she was amazed that he talked non-stop for five minutes giving a full account of your talk from beginning to end. Suffice to say that not one of your books is on the library shelves at the moment and several children have ordered their own copies – the whirly whirly hypnosis really does work!
Hawthorns School
Thank you so much for an enormously enjoyable event which was hugely appreciated by all who attended. It was great to have such an interactive session and seeing the children really thinking about creative writing.
Ginny Arnison, Assistant Library Manager, Fleet Library, Hampshire
Four Lanes Community Junior School in Basingstoke, earlier this year.
‘…You so inspired even the most unlikely children to want to write their own stories and books. We had mums coming in and saying they couldn’t get their children to put their light out at night because they were to busy writing their book! FANTASTIC! Children were taking their writing out into the playground to continue writing during breaks …’
Published work:
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