Karen with her new book What If?

A former St Gregory’s teacher has published her latest children’s book and says her aim is ‘to get children talking to each other.’

Karen Greaves, pen name KD Greaves, tested out book What If? during a visit to St Gregory’s earlier this year.

The mum-of-three says What If? is full of open questions, meaning children have to think about their answer rather than just saying yes or no.

The picture book is aimed at children aged six to 10 with creative questions including ‘what if you could turn into a fish, what would you do?’ and ‘What if the world was upside down, would walking still be a thing?’

Karen said: “I wrote it for use with families because every page has a what if question.

“I taught children at key stage 2 to 4 and when you ask them about things they are very much ‘yes’ and ‘no’ with their answers but all the questions in the book are open so they have to give thought to answering them.

“Reading is not passive, you can take characters and use them to think and debate and take messages forward.

“As a writer I am always thinking ‘what if’ and anything can happen. One question asked was ‘what if fish had feet, what kind of shoes would they pick?’

“A little year one boy at St Gregory’s said running shoes in case you need to run away from the sharks and that led to a debate about should the shark be chasing the fish and then talking about bullying. So they are creative ideas that get children thinking.”

Karen says in a world where children are surrounded by so much social media, using books to encourage them to interact is really important.

She said: “What I wanted to do as a teacher, parent, tutor and writer, was to show the importance of children talking to each other and recognising that we are not always going to have the same outlook about things because we are all different, but that’s ok and it makes life interesting.

“With social media, you look at it, give likes, but you do not have to think for yourself.”

Karen has previously published books including The Tombstone Detective Agency – inspired by one of her sons. who as a child would always lean over the graveyard wall on the way home to touch the tombstones!

She has also penned Grandma Georgia’s Amazing Handbag and Please Sir, the Gremlin Ate My Homework!

To find out about Karen’s books visit her website at: https://kdgreaves.com/