Midsummer News

Award Win, New Fox Project, and a Tale of Two Robins

Hello from London, where midsummer is well and truly here, delivering us a 30-degree heatwave just in time for the longest day of the year. Here in the UK most of us love long, lazy evenings in the garden with a glass of rosé, but there is one fly in the ointment – most of us don’t have air-conditioning! Thus the initial excitement really does wear off pretty quickly thanks to the attendant restless nights – wish us luck 😎.

I’ve been meaning to share this post ever since returning from a trip to Costa Rica in March. I only realised the other day that I hadn’t done so (I think jet lag got the better of me), so here is a long-overdue update on what’s been happening this year.

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Beyond the Secret Lake wins Children’s Book Award

Back in March, while relaxing at a beach bar in Costa Rica (appropriately called Hemingway’s!), I received an unexpected message from London Book Fair where it had been announced that Beyond the Secret Lake had won the 2025 UK Selfies Award for the best independently published children’s book of 2024! Needless to say, I was thrilled; I’ve been shortlisted a few times before, but this was my first major win.

The award came with a cash prize, PR coaching, and an interview in the magazine BookBrunch talking about my writing process and the research that went into Beyond the Secret Lake. To read the full interview click or tap here.

A huge thank you to my author friend Jane Davis – winner of the first-ever Selfies Award in 2019 – who accepted the award on my behalf. I couldn’t have asked for a more stylish stand-in – her outfit even matched the book cover! Follow this link to see a video of her accepting on my behalf.

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A New Fox Story Collection for Ages 6–7+

In the last few months, I’ve been working with my illustrator, Andrew Smith, on creating a single illustrated rhyming storybook collection of all six of my Ferdinand Fox rhyming tales.

The stories will include:

• Ferdinand Fox and the Hedgehog (already a picture book)
• Ferdinand Fox and the Lost Boy (already a picture book)
• Ferdinand Fox, the Kittens and the Alley Monster
• Ferdinand Fox and the Break-in
• Ferdinand Fox’s Close Shave
• Ferdinand Fox’s Big Sleep (already a picture book)

The three existing picture books are all hugely popular at my school visits. But the remaining three have sat in my virtual drawer for way too long and I have decided that this needs rectifying! The change in format is partly driven by budget, but also the fact that the remaining stories have quite complex plots for ages 3–5.

I tested the collection idea with a small group of ‘advance readers’ aged 6-8+ from my newsletter by sending a mock-up and text describing where the images would go, as well as asking for preferred book size and number of illustrations. They were wonderfully enthusiastic and loved all of the stories 😊. In response to that feedback, the collection will be in standard paperback size and aimed at children aged 6–7+ to read to themselves or with the help of someone older, and will include scattered colour illustrations. See a couple of samples below.

While there will not be an illustration for every scene, there are certainly enough to engage young readers as they move through the action. This also means that the stories could still happily be shared with younger children by parents who love rhyme (like me!), then the children can grow into reading them themselves.

Those of you familiar with the existing picture books will see that Andrew has reworked the Ferdinand Fox and the Hedgehog images to ensure a consistent illustration style in the new collection I love them! What do you think? He will do the same for Ferdinand Fox’s Big Sleep when he gets to it.

Below is the opening extract from Ferdinand Fox, the Kittens and the Alley Monster one of the as-yet ‘never published’ stories – complete with a sketch for the next image in line! 🦊

A key theme of the longer stories within the collection is that Ferdinand Fox is an unsung hero – going out of his way to help those in trouble (be they animal or human) but never getting the credit. 😊

I do hope you’ll enjoy the collection when it comes out, which is likely to be in September.

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Celebrating World Book Day 2025 (back in March)

Before heading off to Costa Rica, I visited five schools for World Book Day week – as ever, it was a whirlwind of assemblies, readings, and brilliant questions from enthusiastic young readers. Here’s a photo from One Degree Academy in East London, where Year 4 pupils, who had been studying The Secret Lake, came armed with the most thoughtful questions. These in-person visits where I connect with my readers are always a highlight of my year, and such an uplifting reminder of why I love what I do!

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The Tale of Robbie and Roberta

Back on the theme of animals… I can’t write this post without introducing my latest muses: two robins, Robbie and Roberta, who have been nesting in our garden for two years now and feed directly from my hand. Their daily visits have been a true delight – and who knows, perhaps a story will come from them in time. Here they are in action! (As I write, they are moulting! Who knew that robins moult?!)

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Secret Lake 4…? 🚣‍♂️

I have been getting emails asking about Book 4 in The Secret Lake series; the ideas for this are currently tumbling around in my mind, which is what always happens. At the moment, it’s a case of ‘watch this space’ until Tom, Stella, Emma, Lucy, Sophie, Hannah and Jack let me know that they are ready for me to start putting pen to paper.

In the meantime, I’m excited to share that following strong sales of The Secret Lake in China, Return to the Secret Lake is soon to be released in Chinese, and the Japanese edition of The Secret Lake (Book 1) is not far behind. I can’t wait to see the covers and share them with you.

And here is the text from one lovely review posted on Amazon for Beyond the Secret Lake. Please do take a moment to help your children leave reviews; it means a lot to us and helps other families discover our stories.

Thanks so much for reading, and for continuing to follow my journey. I’ll be back soon with more news. In the meantime, wishing you a wonderful start to the summer. Stay cool (or warm!) wherever you are

With warmest wishes,
Karen 🚣‍♂️ 📚 😊 ❤️