Today we were joined by Jenny McLachlan, author of The Ladybirds series, Stargazing for Beginners and Truly, Wildly, Deeply.

Jenny spoke to the Thirds as part of our World Book Day celebrations. She told us about her journey to becoming a writer (including being chased by an elephant) and how she draws inspiration from her own experiences when planning her novels. Her first novel Flirty Dancing is about a shy teenager, based on her teenage self, who gets signed up for a national dance competition. She also talked about the kinds of research she does for her books; learning about physics for Stargazing for Beginners which follows the story of Meg as she tries to win a prize to go to NASA, and the experiences of teenagers with cerebral palsy for her latest novel Truly, Wildly, Deeply. After reading us the opening chapter of Truly, Wildly, Deeply, which caused many a chuckle and a spontaneous round of applause, Jenny challenged us to plan our own stories – getting us to think about where it would be set, whose story we would tell, and what would drive the narrative. We also had a chance to ask our own questions from what was her favourite book to which differed most from it’s original draft.

Many thanks to Jenny for coming and inspiring us to engage in the joy of reading and to write our own stories.