Mij Kelly's Blog

Hooray! Friendly Day is published today. It’s a tall tale of idealism and unlikely friendships, beautifully illustrated by the amazing Charles Fuge.

Hello to all the Harry Potters, Captain Underpants, Pippi Longstockings, Alex Riders and Red Riding Hoods in Year 4 at Lyndhurst School. I loved your costumes! Have a good time making your picture books for the Year 3s – remember, if you enjoy writing it, it’ll be fun to read.

To the nursery class at Invicta School in London – thank you so much for your letter! I’m so glad you enjoyed William and the Night Train. In answer to your question, the roof of the train isn’t part of William’s dream, so that’s why it’s not there… I think… Maybe Alison Jay can give you a better answer!

Thank you to everyone who has written to me about Have You Seen My Potty. It hasn’t picked up that many reviews yet (probably because of the subject matter) so it’s great to hear that it’s making lots of people laugh. A follow-up story, Atchoo, will be in the bookshops in July. Ostensibly it’s about being polite, but really it’s about being kind. Which all sounds very worthy…. but it did make me chuckle when I was writing it.

The paperback edition of Baby Blue Egg will be published in October – same story, same illustrations but, just to confuse you, it’s been given a new title: I Want My Mummy.

The Bump came out today – hooray!

A Bed of Your Own is still available on BBC iPlayer . Check it out. Tristan Gemmill reads it brilliantly!

I’ll send a free, signed copy of The Bump to the first three people who email me ([email protected]) the correct answers to these questions about my all-time favourite children’s picture books.

1. What is the name of the little girl in The Cat in the Hat?
2. What is Max wearing in Where the Wild Things Are?
3. Name one of the many characters in Each Peach Pear Plum.

Not sure how difficult these are – they’re easy for me! Will post here when I have three winners and the competition is closed. If you’d like to hear about other competitions, “like” my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter. Mijx

P.S. I haven’t seen the film of The Cat in the Hat – or Where the Wild Things Are, for that matter – so these questions relate only to the books.

I’ve finally got three winners for The Bump competition (those questions were hard!) I’ll post the books out today and post a new, improved, easier competition next week.

I’ve got five copies of Atchoo to give away. This is the perfect companion to Have You Seen my Potty? and A Bed of Your Own. If you’d like the chance to win a copy, just email me ([email protected]) with the subject line “Atchoo give-away”.

The give-away runs from Monday 2nd April until Sunday 15 April when (being a very random person) I’ll randomly select five lucky winners and post out the books.

If you’d like to hear about other competitions/give-aways, “like” my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter. Mijx