Joanne Mallon's Opposable Thumbs

Lessons in writing from Jacqueline Wilson

Last week I went to see an exhibition about the life and work of prolific children's author Jacqueline Wilson. It's a free exhibit in residence at Hove Museum until the end of April 2013 and well worth a visit if you're a Jaqueline Wilson fan.

l love to see how writers and wrtists actually work. There used to be a great feature in The Guardian on Saturdays showing a writer's room. The messy ones were the best. I think you can tell a lot about a person's internal world by looking at the external world they choose to surround themselves with.

It was great to see Jacqueline Wilson's actual typewriter which she used to write Tracy Beaker:

 

And her notebooks:

 

Not so much her spooky monkeys dressed as bride and gimp:

 

 

How can she ever get anything done with those guys in the house?

 

Then it all became clear - she goes unplugged:

 I think she might be on to something there. 

My book in the Daily Telegraph

Good news - my book about fear of driving was the subject of a big feature in the Daily Telegraph recently. The only snag was that it was featured in the motoring section, which is the equivalent of a book about arachnaphobia being featured in Spiders Weekly.

An edited version of the feature has also been published online - you can read it here - so hopefully one way or another the people who could benefit from the book will get to hear about it.

The feature led to me being invited on to BBC Radio Stoke this week to talk about the issue of fear of driving, which was great because I think it's one of the most widely held fears around, yet it hardly ever gets talked about.

I feel that it's the stuff we keep in the dark that has most power to do harm. As soon as you start to shine a light on it, that power shrinks away and you wonder what was so scary in the first place.

How to deal with toddler tantrums at Christmas

 

Toddlers, eh? Can't re-wrap 'em, can't send 'em back to Santa.

The Christmas and New Year period is prime time for adult meltdowns, let alone for the under fives. So don't be surprised if you find your child is playing you up more than usual around now.

My book  Toddlers: An Instruction Manual contains a whole chapter on dealing with tantrums, so I've adapted that advice with the festive season in mind.

• Accept that at least one meltdown is likely, and it won't be at a time that's convenient to you
  Your usual schedule is all over the place and you may be travelling or staying with relatives. Many young children don't react well to this much change, and being toddlers, will let you know about it. 
• Don't let them open all their presents at once
  Many parents are keen on the 'wow' factor of a big pile of stuff, but for little kids this can be overwhelming. Spread it out over a few days and don't be surprised if your child is less interested in the toy you paid a fortune for than the cardboard box it came in
• Anticipate tantrums before they happen
  If you know the Christmas meal is planned for naptime, or Granny's house is full of breakables, plan ahead before this becomes a problem. Change the mealtime, feed your child earlier, do a swoop for toddler-unfriendly items. Plan a solution rather than complaining about the problem.
• Get your toddler outside at least once a day
  If you see someone leaving the house, clamp the toddler to them with cries of  "Jimmy just loves to look at the Christmas trees!". Then when they've gone, sit down and have a mince pie and a glass of Baileys. 
• Don't be a mummy martyr
  Accept offers of help, and if they're not forthcoming then ask. Don't end up cooking the dinner and childminding whilst also sweeping the floor with a broom up your arse. You'll end up having a tantrum of your own at that rate.

And if all else fails, there's always gin. (For you, not the child)

 

How's your toddler enjoying the Christmas season so far? Do you have any tips to add? Leave a comment

 

You can find more help on dealing with toddler tantrums in my book Toddlers: An Instruction Manual which is available in paperback and Kindle formats. 10% of proceeds go to the family support charity HomeStart.

main image credit: flash.pro

Christmas gifts for kids aged 8-12

Children aged 8-12 can be hard to please. They have a definite idea of what they like, but it might not necessarily be what you the adult would expect or approve of. It could be anything from cuddly toys to wildly unsuitable video games.

The cliche about kids this age is that they're only interested in expensive bits of technology. But whilst you might not be able to get away with a stick and a cardboard box like you could with a toddler, many tweens still like the simple stuff.

So if you're trying to please one of these hard to please pre-teens, I wanted to pick out some of the biggest hits from products we've reviewed this year. Click through and you can read our full review.

• Claymation Studio by Honestech is undoubtedly our favourite product we've reviewed this year - and since we reviewed it, it's come down in price to £30. It's a system to let children make animated films, via a camera that looks like a dog. My children have gone back to it time and time again - it's creative, imaginative and easy to use. Doggycam is currently being put to work making a Lego animation. This is one dog you can give for Christmas.
• Lego video games are the ones to go for if you're buying for a junior gamer. We enjoyed Lego Batman 2 this year, but the older titles in the Lego video games series are worth revisiting because they will have come down in price now. Our favourite is Lego Harry Potter. These games are great for promoting co-operative play and (in theory) will encourage warring siblings to play nicely together.
• Stationery is a fairly safe bet for this age group. Notebooks, pens, things with owls on them etc. And if you've got a junior drawer in the house, my son would like to recommend How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. We love this book.
• Books in general are another good bet for this age group - if you can remember it as a classic from your own childhood then try it on a new generation. Black Beauty, The Hobbit, E Nesbit, Noel Streatfield and the rest. Here's our pick of books that even reluctant readers will like.

And if you are buying a Christmas gift for a pre-teen who's not your own and are scared you've got it wrong, then there is only one failsafe solution - tape a chocolate bar to it. Works every time.

What are your 8,9,10,11 & 12 year olds after this year?

Gandalf style: The Hobbit toys reviewed

This week Peter Jackson's long-awaited The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey reaches cinemas, and we'll be in the queue to meet it. In fact jammy JMR managed to wangle his way into a preview screening and has given it the thumbs up already.

We got very excited at the prospect of Hobbit toys when we spied Hobbit Lego plastered all over the most recent edition of The Lego Comic. But - my out of stock precious - it turns out this range has only limited availability this side of Christmas.

What's a Hobbit fan who wants to re-enact the film/book with teeny tiny figures to do?

Luckily, a new range of Hobbit toys and collectibles are available now from Vivid Toys, and we were sent some samples from the shire to review.

 

The Hobbit Five Figure Pack by Vivid Toys

It's fair to say that you will need to know your Tolkein pretty well or have seen the film to recognise the guys in The Hobbit Five Figure Pack. This pack includes: Bilbo Baggins with sword, bottle and bag; Thorin Oakenshield with sword and dagger; Kili Le Nain with bow and arrows; Fili Le Nain with hammer and swords and Dwalin Le Nain with three axes and dagger.

So as you can tell, weapon-wise they're totally tooled up. Normally I'm not keen on toys with weapons but these axes and knives are so teeny tiny you're unlikely to get stopped at customs.

The down side to this set is that the accessories are extremely small, so it's hard to keep the set intact without at least one sword disappearing inside the hoover. Also there's no Gollum or Gandalf, though they are available separately. 

The great part is that the figures are incredibly well detailed - they look just like their film counterparts. They move well too, with up to 12 points of articulation (toy-speak for: their arms, legs and head all move). My son liked that you could manipulate them and found them to be a lot of fun. He has blogged his Hobbit thoughts here.

We were also sent three of the individual packs of collectible Hobbit figures.

Each individual figure comes in gold, pewter or bronze coloured. These come in sealed packs containing one figure, but (like Lego Minifigures) you won't know which one you've got until you open it. Each pack contains one of the 17 figures in the set, a plinth to stand it on and a collector's card.

These are simpler figures whose arms and legs don't move - they're sort of cute and menacing at the same time. Coming to a cinema (and possibly a Christmas stocking) near you soon.

 

The Hobbit toys are available now in toyshops, online and in some branches of Waterstones.

Suitable for age 4+. The single collectible figures are around £2.50 each (best price I found was £1.99 at Forbidden Planet) and the five figure set is RRP £29.99 Amazon have it for £26).

Fear, chaos, music, books

In a moment of serendipity that almost never happens, our house has birthed two new books in the same week.

The kids are feral, the washing mountain has its own postcode, but at least the bookshelf is looking nice and healthy.

I already told you about my book about fear of driving. It seems to be doing alright; every time I mention fear of driving on Twitter I'm met with blasts of I NEED THIS BOOK from all corners, which is gratifying.

And not content with already publishing a novel this year, Himself has gone back for seconds.  This is what happens when you work on books for years and years - occasionally they light up all at once.

 

KLF: Chaos Magic Music Money is the true, and thoroughly bonkers, story of the band who made a million quid, then burned it all on a fire and tried to delete themselves from musical history. Even if you haven't heard the KLF's music in years, I bet if you were around in the Nineties you remember this:

 

 

The KLF book is being promoted by an algorithmic radio station, broadcasting a mix of music samples and chunks of the book read out by a computer. I know! Publishing is crazy these days. Radio Eris is only broadcasting until midnight on Friday 7th December so catch it while you can. 

I, on the other hand, am doing an interview for a broadsheet newspaper. This makes me feel about 105. But in a good way.

Books for kids who don't like reading

Is a book is one of the few things it's OK to give as a gift to someone who might not like it? Maybe if that person's a child.

With an adult who says they don't like reading then I guess you have to respect their life choices and file them away under B for barbarian.

But a kid who doesn't like reading - surely they just haven't met the right book yet? And maybe if you provided it, you could be the one to help them fall in love with books?

My son was never a huge reader, but slowly slowly this year we have infected him with bookwormitis. This week he's been getting up extra early to fit in more reading time, which never would've happened a year ago. So how did he get from reluctant reader to avid one?

What sort of books will tempt a reluctant reader?

• A book about whatever they DO like
  OK, so you don't like books but maybe you like football or superheroes or all-in wrestling or trees or puppies. They have books about all that stuff.  Marvel pocket books have been a big hit here.
• Where's Wally books
  There's no actual words in these, so they're much less threatening to a struggling reader. They get the message across that books can be a fun way to pass the time.
• Guinness Book of World Records
  We were sent this by the publishers a while ago, and I was surprised at how popular it's been. Primarily this is because there are loads of facts, plenty of words but no big long stories to read and tons and tons of amazing pictures. The other big draw in the 2013 edition is the accompanying app. Download it, hold your phone over the pages and the pictures jump out in 3D.

Shark!

• The LEGO Book
  Check out our review of this here. This is the book we've returned to most often over the last month. It's fantastic for any reluctant readers who'd rather be playing - basically you're tricking them into reading by presenting them with loads of pictures of LEGO.
• Audio books
   The book that's not really a book, except it is. You could even give the book as well as the audio version so they can read along. We like the How to Train Your Dragon books read by former Doctor Who David Tennant. The Harry Potter books read by Stephen Fry are great too, but unfortuntately they still cost an arm and a leg - the full set is about £400! For cheaper options, my son has listed his top 5 audio books over here on his blog.
• Tom Gates books
  These award-winning books are our current birthday party gift of choice and they always seem to go down well. They're a series of illustrated books about a little boy, written by Brighton author Liz Pichon. They're quite hefty but without a lot of words, so you get the satisfaction of reading a brick of a book without getting overwhelmed.
• Mr Gum books
  Hilarious! If you don't laugh at Mr Gum, check your pulse. Reading up a tree not compulsory, but it helps.

What do you think? Do you still give books to kids who say they don't like reading?

I wrote a book (again)

Aaaaages ago, I said I was going to write two books at once. And I tried to, I really did. But it turns out that whilst a book may be a small thing to hold in your hand, it's a very large thing to hold in your head. So once I got about half way through both, about 20,000 words on each, the words started to pile up like snowdrifts and I felt, well, like my head was full of snow.

So at that point I set aside Book Two and concentrated on Book One only. And that eventually became Toddlers: An Instruction Manual which was published at the end of 2011.

After that I returned to Book Two and after a long time of writing, re-writing and mental chewing, I'm pleased to say that it's due to be published in a couple of weeks.

So here is How to Overcome Fear of Driving: The Road to Driving Confidence

The paperback edition is now available to pre-order on Amazon. There will be a Kindle editon as well but that's not pre-listed; I guess it will just spring fully-formed from Amazon's bosom.

I now have two more ideas for books. Am I going to write them both at the same time? Not bloody likely. But at least I had a go, and two books in two years is more than a lot of people produce in a lifetime.

During this time I was also very busy with other work and general lifestuff.

So if you think you've got one, or maybe two, books in you, if only you had the time to write them, what I would say to you is this:

We're all busy. Life is getting shorter, not longer. Chip out little bits of time here and there. Write 100 words a day - you probably tweet or text more than that. 100 words a day and in a year you've got one non-fiction book or quite a lot of a novel. We live in a very fast-paced world but books are marathons, not sprints and as long as you keep moving you can take it at your own pace. Just keep moving, that's the key.

TV show seeks parents whose children won't sleep

Sleep, or the lack of it, is a huge issue for parents of small children. There's a whole chapter on sleep in my book Toddlers: An Instruction Manual, where we offer solutions for every sleep issue from refusal to go to bed to early waking.

But it's not an easy one to tackle - the solutions in themselves are often quite simple; the main problem is that we the parents are too exhausted to implement them.

Now a new programme from Channel 4 is attempting to find a new way to help parents deal with sleep issues.

They have experts ready to help, but what they need are the parents with sleep problems to solve. So if your child is aged 2-11, experiencing some sort of sleep issue and you're interested in taking part in a TV show, get in touch with Jacqueline Paul on bedtime@twofour.co.uk or call 0207 438 1851

And if you don't want to solve your child's sleep-related issue by going on TV, you can always buy my book instead.

Just a thought.

Well, it was worth a try.

#please

Review & Giveaway: The LEGO Book COMPETITION CLOSED

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS NOW CLOSED. DON'T LEAVE A COMMENT, IT WON'T BE COUNTED

Our recent giveaway of the LEGO Batman Visual Dictionary was hugely popular so I'm pleased to be able to offer another treat for Lego fans from publishers DK.

The LEGO Book is an updated and expanded version of the  international bestseller celebrating the story of LEGO - and we've got 5 to give away.

 The LEGO Book explores every brick of the LEGO Group’s history and output, from its beginnings in a carpenter’s workshop and the development of the first plastic brick.

This new edition of The LEGO Book features 28 exciting new sections, including LEGO Ninjago, LEGO Friends and LEGO Minifigures.

It's superbly illustrated with images from the LEGO photo archives – many of which are on show for the first time.

 My son has been engrossed in our review copy of The LEGO Book all week, and when I can get a look in I've found it pretty fascinating too. The only thing we didn't like about this book was the fact that it shows you so many Lego sets you've missed.

 The nine year old boy's verdict on The LEGO Book:

"It's very good. I like it because it's got lots of interesting facts and it shows you really cool Lego. DK have done this really well because all the pictures of the different Lego sets look really good on the page. It must've taken a long time to make this book. It shows you loads and loads of Lego sets and it shows you Lego through the years and how it started. I like how it shows all the themes of LEGO. It also shows fans of LEGO and what they've made and it made me want to go and build more LEGO!"

THE PRIZE
Five winners will each get a copy of the latest edition of The LEGO Book by Daniel Lipkowitz, published by DK, RRP £18.99. This new edition, released on 1st October 2012, is a large hardback with 256 pages. Suitable for all ages.

 

HOW TO ENTER

To be in with a chance of winning a copy of The LEGO Book, simply leave a comment below stating:

 

If you could build anything with LEGO, what would it be?

 

EXTRA CHANCES TO WIN

You can have an extra entry if you like this blog on Facebook. Please state in your comment if you are claiming an extra entry.

Leave an email or Twitter address so I can contact you if you win - this won't be retained or used for any other purpose.

 

RESTRICTIONS

UK entries only please.

 

CLOSING DATE

This giveaway closes at Midnight on Wednesday 7th November 2012. Five winners will be chosen at random as soon as possible after that.

You can find more competitions to enter at ThePrizeFinder - UK Competitions and Loquax Competitions