Whitworth students get chance to quiz author Tom Palmer

Students were delighted when they got the chance to meet leading children’s author Tom Palmer, who visited Whitworth Community High School as part of a whistle-stop tour of Rossendale schools to celebrate the ‘We Are Reading’ initiative.

In the summer, whilst the football World Cup was being held, he wrote a chapter a night of a new book and students in Rossendale read it each day.

At Whitworth, students left inspired after asking the author a series of questions on his books and he was impressed by the vast range of books the students were reading.

Isabella Taylor, 13, said: “He looked different from the photo in his book, he was very ‘dad’ like.

“He was really inspiring. When he was asked if he had any tips he could give to young authors at first he jokingly said, ‘No,’ as it would affect his book sales. He then said we should keep on going and always be inspired.

“He had a good sense of humour and explained how he got into writing because he was given newspapers and magazines to get him interested in reading.”

For Gabriella Greenwood, 11, who has Down Syndrome, meeting Tom was extra special as he personally signed the book she bought, ‘Armistice Runner’, and answered three questions that she had written.

She said: “He is very fashionable, and he was nice to me. My mum will be reading his book to me.”

 

 

For the 14 lucky students who asked questions, he gave them the chance to try to score a goal and school footballer Finley Leech won the knockout competition in the third round.

Finley, who plays for the school team and last year was in the quarter final of the English Schools’ Cup, said: “He inspired me to read and he hooked me in. I will be going to the school library to borrow his books.”

Grace Kenny-Whitehead already writes her own short stories and said after the talk she wanted to write more.

The students learnt that out of the 58 books he has written, 10 have not been published and only two are about female athletes

Grace asked him if he would write a book about netball and he said he would like to but explained that publishers were not very keen on sports novels about female characters.