A Selection of Catherine's Books
Catherine Cooper
Type of Artist:
I’m the author of the Jack Brenin series, Hawke & Co. books, and Ariadne’s Adventures.
I Illustrate some of my books and occasionally I put on my cape, pick up my story staff and tell tales of long ago.
I give a presentation which includes props, costumes, and an outline of how I use the, who, where, why, what, and when, of storytelling.
The session lasts about two hours and I’m always happy for questions. It’s a listening and participation session. The presentation above features the Jack Brenin series and the content is about magical fantasy adventure.
I am happy to have a whole key stage or year group for the whole afternoon. It would be a presentation and not a workshop. As well as what I've done in the past, I also have an afternoon presentation about Knights and Dragons. With costumes, stories, props, poetry and prose.
Details
Preferred age range:I prefer KS2, sixth form students or adults for hour long sessions.
For shorter storytelling sessions, I prefer KS1 children.
No of sessions per day:
I am only able to do afternoon sessions with a maximum of two one hour sessions or one longer two hour session.
Session Length:
An afternoon would be for 120 minutes with a 30-45 minute book signing/meet the author opportunity at the end of the afternoon.
Areas prepared to travel to:
I would prefer to be within a 40 mile radius of Shrewsbury for school events.
Transport:
Car 45p per mile
Fees:
Please indicate which author you are interested in
DBS/CRB:
PII & DBS
Website:
Titles include:
The Golden Acorn ~ The Adventures of Jack Brenin Book one Glasruhen Gate ~ The Adventures of Jack Brenin Book Two
Silver Hill ~ The Adventures of Jack Brenin Book Three The Lost Treasure of Annwn ~ The Adventures of Jack Brenin Book Four
The Oak Lord ~ The Adventures of Jack Brenin Book Five
The Wichen Tree ~ The Adventures of Jack Brenin Book Six
Finnik the Delve's Book of Dragons ~ a companion book to the Jack Brenin series
The New Neighbours ~ Hawke & Co. book one
The Pirate Ship ~ Hawke & Co. book two
Hanging Gate Hall ~ An Ariadne Adventure The Book of Dragon Lore (ebook only) ~ a full colour book of Bardic Tales and Dragon Information.
The second companion book to the Jack Brenin series will be out later this year.
The last Jack Brenin adventure, Uriel's Well, will be published in 2019.
Testimonials:
Catherine has visited Tettenhall College on a few occasions to talk about her life as an author and talk about the Jack Brenin collection of stories. She is a huge hit every time! She vividly brings to life the characters and the plotlines, explaining how the characters were created and developed.
She uses a myriad of props and costumes and gets the audience involved by asking for volunteers to dress up and transform into the characters. The children love this and it certainly proves popular with everyone. She varies the talks dependant on age groups and she has spoken to year groups from Year 2 to 11 – keeping them all equally enthralled.
Catherine is entertaining and expertly deals with all the questions she is bombarded with. She takes time to set everything up for a wonderful author visit.
I cannot recommend Catherine highly enough. I would have no hesitation in saying she would be an asset to any book week or book fair in schools or libraries. We have been lucky enough to have visits from many authors at our school but Catherine has been one of the very few we have asked to come back.
Deborah Liddle, College Librarian, Tettenhall College
Within minutes of walking into the classroom, accompanied by her various props – home-made 3D models of some of the main characters in her books (the raven, Camelin was a particular hit with the children), hats and other dressing up materials and magic wands come to mind – the children were entranced, engaged and actively involved. Teachers were superfluous, and the classroom transformed into the magical world so brilliantly invoked in her books.
Catherine’s wide experience of teaching is evident in her excellent classroom management skills, but she also has an innate ability to relate to children and engage with them at any age. I should also mention that, unlike a few other authors who have visited, Catherine is punctual, organised and thoroughly prepared!
Judy Clowes, Literacy link Governor, Mount Pleasant Primary School, Shrewsbury
Catherine spent an hour with my year six class and the time flew for both pupils and staff alike! Her use of resources and her obvious talent as a teacher engaged the children from the outset.
She was able to tailor her delivery to match their current work in literacy
and children have referred to her advice in subsequent lessons.
I can't emphasize enough how valuable an experience it is for children to work with a published author and Catherine's previous role as a teacher makes her a perfect choice for school visits.
Suzanne James, Albrighton Primary School
Published work: