I am excited to be taking part in another of The Write Reads Ultimate Blog Tours for Victoria Williamson this time for her fabulous middle-grade novel, Norah’s Ark.

Victoria Williamson is an award-winning author who grew up in Scotland surrounded by hills, books, and an historical farm estate which inspired many of her early adventure stories and spooky tales. After studying Physics at the University of Glasgow, she set out on her own real-life adventures, which included teaching maths and science in Cameroon, training teachers in Malawi, teaching English in China and working with children with additional support needs in the UK. Victoria currently works part time writing KS2 books for the education company Twinkl and spends the rest of her time writing novels, and visiting schools, libraries and literary festivals to give author talks and run creative writing workshops.

Victoria’s previous novels include The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle, The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, Hag Storm, and War of the Wind. She has won the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award 2020/2021, The YA-aldi Glasgow Secondary School Libraries Book Award 2023, and has been shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Awards 2023, The Leeds Book Awards 2023, the Red Book Award 2023, the James Reckitt Hull Book Awards 2021, The Trinity School Book Awards 2021, and longlisted for the ABA South Coast Book Awards 2023, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2020, and the Branford Boase Award 2019.

Her latest novel, The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams, is a middle grade fantasy inspired by classic folklore. Twenty percent of the author royalties for this book are donated to CharChar Literacy, an organisation working to improve children’s literacy levels in Malawi.

You can find out more about Victoria’s books, school visits and free resources for schools on her website: www.strangelymagical.com

Her latest book Norah’s Ark is about two very different lives. One shared hope for a brighter future. No time to waste. The flood is coming…

Eleven-year-old Norah Day lives in temporary accommodation, relies on foodbanks for dinner, and doesn’t have a mum. But she’s happy enough, as she has a dad, a pet mouse, a pet spider, and a whole zoo of rescued local wildlife to care for. Eleven-year-old Adam Sinclair lives with his parents in a nice house with a big garden, a private tutor, and everything he could ever want. But his life isn’t perfect – far from it. He’s recovering from leukaemia and is questioning his dream of becoming a champion swimmer.

When a nest of baby birds brings them together, Norah and Adam discover they’re not so different after all. Can Norah help Adam find his confidence again? Can Adam help Norah solve the mystery of her missing mother? And can their teamwork save their zoo of rescued animals from the rising flood? Offering powerful lessons in empathy, Norah’s Ark is a hopeful and uplifting middle-grade tale for our times about friendship and finding a sense of home in the face of adversity.

My stop on the tour will take the form of an author interview.

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Welcome to my blog Victoria. to start us off could you please tell us a little bit more about yourself and the inspiration for your book Norah’s Ark.

As a former teacher, I’ve got to know a lot of children in my years in school, and have been struck by the very wide range of background experiences they bring to the classroom, despite often living in the same area. A lot of my contemporary issue stories explore these differences, and the ways in which they can be overcome so that children can form lasting friendships. In previous books I’ve explored subjects such as cultural differences and neurodiversity. For Norah’s Ark, I wanted to explore something that can have a big impact on children’s educational experiences: class differences – how the cost of living can be a big struggle for some families, while barely affecting others. However, I didn’t want it to be a book about how children from poor families who experience homelessness have negative outcomes while children with stable home lives whose parents have well-paid jobs all have positive experiences. Life is much more nuanced than that, and Norah – who lives in temporary accommodation and relies on food banks, and who initially sees only the positive sides to Adam’s life – eventually comes to learn that Adam’s battle with cancer and his problems with his overprotective parents have led to him to live a much more lonely life than she imagines. Their friendship gives them both something to look forward to and provides them both with hope for a better future – this is a theme that I particularly enjoy emphasising in books, as I’ve often seen the transformative power of friendship in my work as a teacher.

Why did you decide to write Norah’s Ark from a dual viewpoint?

I think empathy is a vital thing to teach children – how to see the world from the point of view of someone else who might live a very different life. While single-narrative stories give children the opportunity to walk in the shoes of someone else and experience their thoughts and feelings, I particularly like using dual narratives to help children explore prejudice and biased initial impressions. We’re all guilty of making assumptions about other people, but dual narrative stories give readers the opportunity to see how two children might make assumptions about each other based on external factors – such as clothes, where they live and how they speak – and how these assumptions make each character feel. Dual narrative stories are particularly good at teaching children that there are two sides to every story, and that two people might experience the same event in very different ways. This can help them to understand a very common occurrence: why, when they argue with someone in the school playground and they come running in to tell the teacher, there are often two conflicting stories being told about the same event, and both children are convinced they’re the one telling the truth about what ‘actually’ happened!

What are the underlying themes of Norah’s Ark?

There are the initial themes which jump out at the reader from the blurb and opening chapters – childhood poverty, childhood illness, bullying, loneliness, homelessness, the cost of living and the problems associated with it (foodbanks, temporary accommodation, zero-hours contracts, lack of certainty and stability for families). But this is very definitely not intended as a ‘doom-and-gloom’ story. Ultimately this is intended as a story of hope – of friendship, overcoming adversity, and of developing close family relationships through honest dialogue.

Where did you get the idea of rescuing such an odd menagerie of animals?

Children love animals – I think that’s why they feature so often in my stories. As adults we tend to think of ‘suitable’ pets as being dogs, cats, rabbits – if there’s space for them – and hamsters if space is an issue. However, children tend to be much more curious about the world, and will befriend pretty much anything that moves! Norah lives in temporary accommodation and can’t have the dog or cat she’s always wanted – she’s not even supposed to keep a hamster in the hostels or B&B the Council moves her and her father to. She loves animals, though, and is always on the lookout for anything she thinks might need to be rescued, which includes baby birds, the occasional hedgehog, and even a spider called Boris!

Is there a particular place you like to write?

I don’t have a writing shed or anything like that! I do need peace and quiet to write, though, and I like to be fairly close to the kettle so I can easily reward myself with endless cups of peppermint tea for getting through particularly tricky pages!

What made you decide to donate 20% of your author royalties for Norah’s Ark to Shelter?

I like to give 20% of my book royalties to a particular charity, as it’s my way of ‘giving back’. I’ve been lucky that I’ve had the opportunity in life to work towards the career I’ve always wanted. Becoming a writer hasn’t been easy, but it has been an option for me. I’d like to make sure my books contribute in some small way to ensuring other children get the option to work towards the career of their choice too. Shelter and Shelter Scotland both do a great job in supporting children like Norah whose families experience homelessness – as well as making a small contribution to this work, I’d like to use this book as an opportunity to open discussions in schools about homelessness and to hopefully help publicise the work that Shelter and Shelter Scotland do.

If you could spend a day with another popular author, whom would you choose?

I know I should pick a current author, but there are so many wonderful authors out there, it would be impossible! I’ve been very lucky to have had many opportunities to spend time with other lovely authors in real life – at book events, festivals, on school visits and even on special occasions such as the recent ‘Children’s Publishing Picnic’ in Edinburgh. So I’m going to cheat a little and pick my favourite author – Jane Austen. I adored her books when I first discovered them in my late teens. I used to swish around the Glasgow University campus in empire-line dresses and lace-up boots with my hairstyles copied from whichever period drama I’d most recently watched. I might not have looked so out of place if I’d been studying English Literature, but since I was doing a degree in Physics at the time, the white lab coat and safety goggles really messed with the Regency Period look I was aiming for!

If you had to describe yourself in just three words, what would those be?

Oh, that’s a tough one! The three words would depend on the day of the week and what mood I was in at the time! I’ve been working hard on a new writing project over the summer, and unwinding after battling with first drafts and edits by watching some of my favourite period dramas in the evening, so I suppose right now I’m:

Lost. In. Austen.

Is there an aspect of writing for children you wish someone had told you when you started out?

‘Don’t write in a vacuum!’

When I first started writing, I thought that you were supposed to hide away for ages while working on your magnum opus and only show it (and yourself!) to the world when you were finished. Now, I always tell other aspiring authors to engage as much as possible with local writing groups, talk to other authors, and attend lots of writing events. It’s really hard to keep the momentum and motivation going on your own, and there are lots of wonderful people out there you can learn from and who will support you on your journey, so the more you share ideas and discuss writing with other people, the better your stories will be.

Is there anything else you would like to tell readers about your books and writing for children?

A bit of a plug here on behalf of myself and other children’s authors, but to all the lovely readers out there – please do consider leaving a book review or even just a rating on Goodreads, Amazon or another website after reading a book! It makes a very big difference in terms of other readers being able to find a particular book, and makes writers like me very happy!

Thank you Victoria for such an insightful look into the writing of Norah’s Ark and the themes behind it. I look forward to reading more of your books in the future.

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You can find out more about Victoria Williamson, her books, her free resources and competitions for schools on her website: www.strangelymagical.com. She can be found on Twitter (or ‘X’ as it is now!) at: @strangelymagic.

You can buy a copy of Norah’s Ark by Victoria Williamson direct from her publisher Neem Tree Press at: https://neemtreepress.com/book/norahs-ark/. You can also purchase a copy from any independent bookshop or online at uk.bookshop.org, an organisation with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.

I would like to thank The Write Reads for inviting me to take part in this ultimate tour. Thank you.

To follow the rest of The Write Reads Ultimate Tour please take a look at the schedule below:

You can read my review of another of Victoria’s books, The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams published by Tiny Tree Publishing here: Blog Tour – The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams by Victoria Williamson