Pupils at Keswick School have completed a two-year novel writing project and their book has now been published.
The talented students, from years 7 to 13, are members of Keswick School’s Writers and Illustrators Club, and their book, The Puzzle of Hazel Tree Farm, which they have written, illustrated and edited, is now available to buy worldwide via Amazon.
The school closed in March, just before the project was completed, which meant the story had to be finished online with the students using Google Classroom to liaise with each other to write the story’s ending.
The idea for the novel came from school English teacher and librarian Helen Robinson, who runs the club.
It tells the story of Charity, who is expecting a boring summer as her parents are always busy and her friends on holiday.
So, when her mum and dad suggest she could go to her uncle’s farm, she sees it as the perfect opportunity to enjoy herself.
“I noticed that a lot of our students from the farming community were often asking for fiction relating to farming, but there wasn’t really anything,” said Helen. “That gave me the idea to get the club involved in writing a story based around a farming family.
“None of the club members were familiar with farming so I organised a research trip to a dairy farm where we had a tour, met the animals, and spoke to the farmer about a typical day in his life.
“Back at school, we spent weeks outlining various story ideas, before narrowing them down and finally choosing the plot we wanted to develop.
“From there, the students worked in their groups to write, edit and illustrate the story. We also tested our chapters out on pupils from Borrowdale and Braithwaite primary schools.
“Feedback from both schools was that the pupils were very much enjoying the story and looked forward to receiving the next chapter.
“Writing for an audience who sent back constructive criticism to improve the story was a great help for the writing and editing teams as they moved the story forward.”
The club uses the pseudonym K. S. Aitken. K. S. stands for Keswick School and Aitken is in recognition of Rosemary Aitken, after whom the school library is named.
This is the club’s second novel, as back in 2014 members wrote a historical fantasy called The Reader.
The book was launched at the Theatre by the Lake’s Words by the Water festival.
In ordinary circumstances, this group of students would also have had a book launch at which the youngsters would have celebrated their achievement.
Helen has had three books for children published, including A Tale of Two Shoes, which was released earlier this year.
She is best known for her Amber’s Pony Tales series.
Her fourth book, The Dalmatian that Lost its Spots, will come out just before Christmas.
