A Selection of Jo's Books
Jo Simmons
Book talks, readings, and creative writing workshops
I use lots of humour to tell children about my latest books, I Swapped My Brother On The Internet and The Dodo Made Me Do It.
Swapped has been shortlisted for three local book awards, was included in 2018’s Summer Reading Challenge and was one of Tom Fletcher’s picks for his 2018 Book Club. It throws up lots of questions about family and sibling relationships, while Dodo looks at the idea of home and responsibility.
My presentations involve a PowerPoint of images, lots of questions to keep the children thinking and engaged, quizzes with prizes, challenges and reading extracts from my books.
I typically show children my notebooks, too, and an edited draft of my first story, complete with my editor's comments and whole pages she has deleted, to explain the whole process of producing a story, from first ideas to final edits.
Type of Artist:
AuthorDetails
Preferred age range:Any primary age children from Year 2 to Year 6.
No of sessions per day:
Maximum of 3 sessions per day
Session Length:
Approx 45 minutes for a talk, questions and signing; about 60 minutes for a workshop
Areas prepared to travel to:
If travel and overnight expenses are met, anywhere. I live in Brighton in East Sussex.
Transport:
Rail and taxi preferred.
Fees:
Please indicate which author you are interested in
DBS/CRB:
No
Website:
Titles include:
I Swapped My Brother on the Internet
The Dodo Made me do it
Early reader
How Bobby Got His Pet
Ages 6-9
Pip Street – A Whiskery Mystery, reissued as The Great Kitty Kidnap
Pip Street – A Crumpety Calamity, reissued as The Crazy Crumpet Kerfuffle
Pip Street – A Piggy Pickle, reissued as The Pesky Pig Panic
Pip Street – A Brotherly Bother, reissued as The Big Brother Bother
Super Loud Sam
Super Loud Sam Vs Birdman
Testimonials:
'Jo spoke about her own road to becoming a published writer and read from her book, both of which really captured the interest of the children. Jo answered the children’s questions with great respect, honesty and good humour.
The children were engaged throughout and thoroughly enjoyed meeting her.
She had a lovely manner with the children and communicated with them on a very appropriate level without being at all patronizing. The children were very enthused about the book and learning about becoming an author.' Teacher, Stanford Junior School
'I accompanied Jo on a 1-day tour of schools in Lewes, East Sussex, to promote Pip Street: A Whiskery Mystery. Jo did a fantastic job and I had great feedback from the schools, who had all enjoyed the visit. We visited three different schools, and Jo spoke to quite a wide range of different group sizes and age ranges. One of the schools wanted all the pupils from Yr 1 right up to Yr 6 to see her, which can be quite challenging for an author, but Jo managed to keep them all enthralled!
Anna Morgan, Owner of independent children’s bookshop Bags of Books in Lewes, East Sussex
Published work:
