I have a few close friends who are teachers, which means that occasionally I receive some reliable, usually humorous and always honest reviews of my stories from them when my stories have been used for carpet-time reading.

This week, my lovely friend ‘Mrs K’ sent me the following her Friday afternoon story time. This is from Primary One, in a school I will soon be visiting, and it really made me smile so I wanted to share it with you…

Mrs K:
“I read The Unicorn in the Castle with my kids today and they burst into applause at the end! A rave review!!
Me:
*shocked-face-emoji*
Mrs K:
“One kid yelled ‘I LOVE IT.'”
Me:
“Yay! That’s brilliant! I haven’t been anywhere yet to read it so that’s so nice to hear.”

Mrs K:
“Well, I thought P1 might be a bit young but they’re a clever bunch so I thought I’d give it a go for a Friday and they just loved it. I wish I could have filmed their wee faces while I was reading it. I thought it would be nice for them to already know one of your stories before you come to read to them.
They don’t normally applaud at the end of a book, it was so funny!
I told them I would pass on the applause to the author.”

Me:
“Aw, that has cheered me right up!”
Mrs K:
“Oh! They also laughed so much at the big where Alfie reads onion instead of unicorn – it was very cute.”

So there we have it – officially endorsed by 4-5 year olds as applause worthy, and by one in particular. I quote – “I LOVE IT.”

Available now in all good bookshops.

Rachel