Staying Home Synopsis
Staying Home is a book that very much speaks to our current situation, the free eBook has been developed, written and illustrated by the fantastic creative duo at break-neck speed, to be released to the public whilst we’re in the middle of lockdown. The aim is to help parents going into the second month of quarantine, explain a little more about the Coronavirus pandemic, and how important it is we all isolate at home.
About This Edition
ISBN: |
0000000004 |
Publication date: |
24th April 2020 |
Author: |
Sally Nicholls |
Illustrator: |
Viviane Schwarz |
Publisher: |
Andersen Press Ltd |
Format: |
Ebook |
Suitable For: |
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Other Genres: |
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About Sally Nicholls
I was born in Stockton-on-Tees, just after midnight, in a thunderstorm. My father died when I was two, and my brother Ian and I were brought up my mother. I always wanted to write - when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I used to say "I'm going to be a writer" - very definite.
I've always loved reading, and I spent most of my childhood trying to make real life as much like a book as possible. My friends and I had a secret club like the Secret Seven, and when I was nine I got most of my hair cut off because I wanted to look like George in the Famous Five. I was a real tomboy - I liked riding my bike, climbing trees and building dens in our garden. And I liked making up stories. I used to wander round my school playground at break, making up stories in my head.
I went to two secondary schools - a little Quaker school in North Yorkshire (where it was so cold that thick woolly jumpers were part of the school uniform) and a big comprehensive. I was very lonely at the little school, but I made friends at the comprehensive and got on all right. I didn't like being a teenager very much, though.
After school, I got to be an adult, which was fantastic. I went and worked in a Red Cross Hospital in Japan and then travelled around Australia and New Zealand. I jumped off bridges and tall buildings, climbed Mount Doom, wore a kimono and went to see a ballet in the Sydney Opera House. Then I came back and did a degree in Philosophy and Literature at Warwick. In my third year, realising with some panic that I was now supposed to earn a living, I enrolled in a masters in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa. It was here that I wrote Ways to Live Forever. I also won the prize for the writer with most potential, through which I got my agent. Four months later, I had a publisher.
I now live in a little house in Oxford, writing stories, and trying to believe my luck.
Photo credit Barrington Stoke website
More About Sally Nicholls
Author Sally Nicholls has said of the project, “Like many authors, I've been finding it hard to concentrate on writing projects. My husband and I are at home at the moment with two children aged four and two, and I wanted to write something which reflected their new lives. The day-in-the-life format is a very familiar one in picture books. Like most stories for young children, this one is somewhat idealised - there's no sense that the family are worried about money and the parents are remarkably patient. But it does contain more screen time and fighting than you'll find in most examples of the genre. I love Viviane's warm, energetic raccoon family. They're making the absolute best of a difficult situation, and they're doing it with affection and good humour. I can only hope I'm managing half as well!”
Illustrator Viviane Schwarz added, “I was busy working on a book that I am writing myself - a book about feelings and worries, and I was feeling rather worried and stuck myself, seeing the trouble to come. So when Sally mentioned that she felt the need to write a book about what family life might be like right now, I said I would illustrate it, and as fast as I could. We considered making it a cosy bear family, but then decided that the family would be raccoons instead because we both like them. Also, it’s quite easy for bears to hibernate, they’re used to it. raccoons are a lot more lively! - After a day of scribbling I suddenly realised that in German a raccoon is called “Waschbär”, a wash-bear, because they wash their food. I watched a lot of videos of them splashing around in the water, and it helped with the bathroom scenes. Wash your hands like raccoons, stay in and be kind to one another.”