Keswick school teacher, Helen Robinson, who writes in her maiden name, Helen Haraldsen, has published her fifth book this year.
It is the third instalment in the Daley’s Dog Tales series and is festively titled Jingle Bella to the Rescue.
The book stars Helen’s dalmatian, Bella and follows directly on from book two in the series, Petra and the Dogs in Danger, which dealt with the issues of puppy farms and dog theft.
Jingle Bella is dedicated to working dogs as books two and three both feature a number of working dogs.
Anyone who has a dog will know what wonderful friends and companions they are, but many dogs go beyond that and provide invaluable service to their owners or the wider public through a range of jobs.
From service and assistance dogs, police dogs, search and rescue, detection, herding, hunting, pulling sleds, guarding and therapy, dogs help us in so many ways.
Jingle Bella’also introduces school reading dogs who are working with a number of charities to support child literacy by visiting schools to help children develop a passion for reading.
Helen, an English teacher, also ran the Keswick School library for 10 years, said she was passionate about literature.
“Being an author as well as an English teacher and librarian is another brilliant way to promote reading and writing for pleasure in order to develop high level literacy skills.
“Anything I can do to raise the profile of books in an increasingly technology-based world, can only be a positive.”
Helen has had her other dog, Petra, accompany her on in-person and virtual author visits as far away as New York, USA.
Children and teachers have loved the experience of meeting a real-life character from a book and seeing how her personality is part of the storyline.
She is also currently running an illustration competition linked to the dog books which is open to children aged 12 and under until December 31.
In January, she’ll be running her six-week writing course Pet Time Stories, which is aimed at children aged 10 and over, and adults who want to write for children.
Jingle Bella is available from Amazon and can be requested from local bookshops.
