In the past week, four more territories have joined the Beetle Brigade and that meant that my little book broke a Chicken House record! I've never held a record before. It's rather wonderful.
Beetle Boy Shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag awards
This week saw the announcement that Beetle Boy has been selected by booksellers up and down the country as one of the finalists in the Children's category for the BAMB awards. I am so delighted to be on this list and if you enjoyed Beetle Boy, you can help me win. The award is voted for by readers. That's you! Vote here: http://www.nationalbooktokens.com/vote
Beetle Boy long listed for the 2017 UKLA awards
I am very proud to be able to tell you that Beetle Boy has been long listed for the UKLA (UK Literary Association) Book Awards 2017. There are some pretty awesome books and authors on the list, so fingers crossed! More details on the link below. Go Beetle Boy!
https://ukla.org/resources/details/ukla-book-awards-2017-longlists
Beetlemania hits Blue Peter for National Insect Week
Me and Baxter the rhinoceros beetle on Blue Peter
On the 23rd of June I had the great honour of appearing on Blue Peter as part of National Insect Week. It was such a great experience, and a long held dream come true. I've never done a live TV programme before, so I was mega nervous. If you missed it, you can catch it on the iplayer for the next month.
I loved meeting Scott, who brought the beetles onto the show, and finally got to hold a living rhinoceros beetle, just like Baxter. He was beautiful, and the whole experience was wonderful.
Barney was great fun, Lindsey is awesome and Radzi was lovely.
I even got a Blue Peter badge. I hope I get to go on it again.
I did an online quiz for the Blue Peter fan site. So if you think you know about beetles, you should take the Blue Peter Beetle Quiz
Coleopteran Cover Girl
I'm on the cover of the Spring edition of Antenna magazine
I've never been on the cover of a magazine before, and considering how terrified of insects I used to be, I find it faintly hilarious that the first magazine I should ever appear on the cover of is Antenna, the Royal Entomological Society's publication. If you could jump in a time machine and show this to the seventeen year old me, I'd probably faint!
Peter Smithers, the editor, very kindly came to interview me in Weston Super Mare in between back to back school events.
I have to admit to being more than a little bit proud of being put on the cover. It means a lot to me that entomologists like Beetle Boy. It means I did a good job.