Lesley Sims - Children's Author

Lesley has written ever since she can remember. After winning prizes for English at school, she went on to study law at university because her mother insisted she had something to fall back on.

She qualified as a barrister but realised she didn't want to spend her life in a wig. She was also writing short stories when she should have been revising for her Bar Finals, another clue that she wasn't cut out for legal life. Instead, she joined a small publishing company and edited their directory of the legal profession.

In 1993, Usborne Publishing advertised for a fiction editor in their Oxford office and she leapt at the chance. She transferred to the London office in 1995, writing puzzle fiction and humorous history books. Her "Visitor's Guide to Ancient Rome", a spoof tourist guide to the city, won the Times Educational Supplement Senior Information Book Award in 2000. She is now a managing editor in charge of the Young and First Reading Series, Handbooks and Treasuries, among others.

When she isn't writing or editing, Lesley loves watching plays and films, learning to tap dance, taking long walks beside the Thames and playing her tenor sax in a jazz band. Her favourite colour is purple.

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Featured Books, with extracts by Lesley Sims

Usborne Very First Reading 14: Knight Fight
Lesley Sims
Knight Fight introduces the ‘silent consonants’ in combinations of letters such as ch, gn, kn, ld, lm, mb, mn, rh.  These can often prove tricky, especially when it comes to spelling, and it’s worth spending a little time to be...
Featured in: 3+ readers | 5+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 26/03/2010
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Usborne Very First Reading 5: Grizzly Bear Rock
Lesley Sims
Grizzly Bear Rock introduces the useful letter-combinations ch sh ng and th.  It’s important for your child to learn to recognise these combinations and read them correctly as distinct sounds, not just read the sounds of the individual letters.  The...
Featured in: 3+ readers | 5+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 26/03/2010
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Usborne Very First Reading 8: Moon Zoom
Lesley Sims
Moon Zoom introduces and practises longer words that begin or end with more than one consonant and simple two-syllable words.  This stage almost doubles your child’s reading vocabulary.  Your child should now be trying to read the whole story, but...
Featured in: 3+ readers | 5+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 26/03/2010
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The Little Giraffe
Lesley Sims
First Reading: Level Two. This charming African folktale reveals how giraffes got their long necks - and why rhinos are so grumpy. Titles in this level stretch the reader with more advanced storylines, more text and more complicated sentence structure and...
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Format: Hardback - Released: 28/09/2007
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The Dragon And The Phoenix
Lesley Sims
First Reading: Level Two. A delightful tale set in China about friendship.  Titles in this level stretch the reader with more advanced storylines, more text and more complicated sentence structure and vocabulary.  32 pages in length with the main story being up to...
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Format: Hardback - Released: 28/09/2007
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Wind In The Willows
Lesley Sims
Young Reading: Series Two. Mole, Ratty, Badger and the infamous Mr Toad love nothing more than messing around on the river. But when Mr Toad develops an obsession with motor vehicles, will his friends be able to help before he...
Featured in: 5+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 31/08/2007
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The Wish Fish
Lesley Sims
First Reading: Level One. This is a wonderful retelling of an old folk tale.  Titles within this first level are designed to be the first real books a beginner reader will tackle and are designed to foster a lasting enthusiasm for...
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Format: Hardback - Released: 01/07/2007
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The Castle That Jack Built
Lesley Sims
First Reading: Level Three. An original tale based on the classic nursery rhyme "The House that Jack Built" with simple text and delightful illustrations. Titles in this level encourage the reader to develop reading stamina, increasing to 48 pages. This will include...
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Format: Hardback - Released: 23/02/2007
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