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Award-winning author meets our readers

An award-winning author visited us during Session 4 to spend time with our youngest students.

An award-winning author visited us during Session 4 to spend time with our youngest students.

Alex Gutteridge talked to a group of our Year 7, 8 and 9 students the day before she won the Northamptonshire Children’s Choice Book Award for her book called No Going Back.

No Going Back is about a teenager called Laura who gets the shock of her life when she moves to rural Derbyshire and finds the ghost of her dead father in her grandmother's home

CBA Librarian Amy McKay said: “No Going Back challenges genre perceptions because it is not a typical ghost story as it’s not scary.

“As a result students who wouldn’t normally read a ghost story read it and those who wouldn’t normally read about teen issues also enjoy it.

“During her visit Alex spoke to the students about her publishing journey. Alex was very interesting because she hasn’t got an agent so she does all her negotiations herself.

“She also talked about her inspiration and how she writes.

“The students had a great talk with her about contemporary Young Adult fiction and because our students are so well-read they were able to make as many recommendations to Alex as she made to them.”

Alex’s novel, Oven Chips For Tea, was broadcast on radio and her Young Adult novel Last Chance Angel earned her nominations for five awards, including the Romantic Novelist of the Year Award.

(Alex Gutteridge is pictured with a group of our students during her visit)