Stephanie Williamson

What do published authors make of NaNoWriMo? by Stephanie Williamson

Read & Quiz is a series of the Chelsea Young Writers book reviews & comprehension quiz competitions. Young readers are invited to enter a monthly quiz competition by reflecting on the books they’ve read and sending their full answers to the comprehension questions to Chelsea Young Writers. The winner receives a certificate award & an Amazon voucher worth £10!
Our Book Review
Back in Afghanistan, Sami’s grandfather was a famous musician. Even now in Boston, the sound of his instrument, the reb...

Merry Christmas from everyone at Chelsea Young Writers ! To make sure that our young authors don’t run out of books this holiday, we’ve put together a list of some of our favourite wintery reads.
Age 6-8
She only has one kind of thing to say.
Just as cats go miaow and cows go moo,
The Truth Pixie can only say things that are true.
A very funny and lovable tale of how one special pixie learned to love herself. The Truth Pixie is an enchanting, rhyming story that will delight younger readers.
O...

Animal narration and environmental topics are at the heart of our Spring term curriculum. We’ll cover a wealth of animal stories and poetry for all ages, and look at how to touch on issues that concern us– like plastic pollution and endangered species– in our storytelling. Our number one tip for budding writers is to read, so we’ve put together a spring reading list of some of the best animal and environmental stories.
For Older Readers
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Fiver, a young rabbit, i...

Read & Quiz is a series of the Chelsea Young Writers book reviews & comprehension quiz competitions. Young readers are invited to enter quiz competitions by reflecting on the books they’ve read and sending their full answers to the comprehension questions to Chelsea Young Writers. The winner receives a certificate award & an Amazon voucher worth £10!
Our Book Review
Aimed at readers age 8-12 years, this CILIP Carnegie Medal 2019 nominated novel is a magical adventure to be read again and agai...

The first step to finding the right match is often an introductory meeting. These can be nerve-wracking but at Nannies Incorporated we’re here to walk you through the process and make sure that both the family and nanny are happy and start to build a strong relationship.
Both the family and the nanny should ask questions and discuss what they expect from each other. Here are a few tips and questions for you to keep in mind.
For families:
-Provide clear expectations of the nanny’s role and wha...

What is a professional nanny? What are a nanny’s duties?
A professional nanny is a childcare professional who specialises in looking after children in their own home. Professional nannies will create a safe, stimulating and happy environment for the children to grow up in. All of our nannies will hold a British Diploma in childcare,and/or they will have had considerable experience in professional childcare and nannying over a number of years.
Professional nanny’s duties are confined to childc...

Since the 16th century, the booksellers, or bouquinistes, of Paris have been setting up their stalls along the river Seine.
A site now protected by UNESCO as part of French cultural heritage, the bouquinistes of Paris continue to sell rare editions, out of print magazines and collectors’ items from their green boxes – which were used as secret letterboxes by the French resistance during the war.

Perfume, or at a more basic level—scent, is a mighty powerful thing.

France has produced some of the most famous literary writers across the globe and ranks first in the list of Nobel Prizes in literature by country. It boasts a culture rich with the ideas of Voltaire, Maupassant and Molière, and Paris was for a long time considered the hub for writers of the western world.
So why is it that we simply do not see a lot of French literature published in Anglophone countries?

French children’s books are a little different from what Anglophones are used to. The stories are often written in a formal language and contain plenty of moral lessons, and a happy ending isn’t obligatory.
But this doesn’t mean French children’s books can’t be magical. Some of the most beautiful works of literature for children are French, and I’ve put together this selection of great French children’s books to prove it.

Many of us devour fiction. Whatever the genre, we will read it. Some of the best works of fiction are foreign literature, and are translated so perfectly that we don’t realise that they weren’t originally written in English.

Until now, lack of time and cooking skills would have made this impossible, but now it need not be that way with this French home chef service.
Late last year I discovered Lou Papé, a French chef service that brings home-cooked French cuisine right to your table–incroyable!

France’s intense love of auto-fiction is unique. Countless French novels are auto-fictive, and this is so characteristic of French literature that French writers have been criticised as lacking in imagination.
Here at MyFrenchLife™, we read a lot of French literature, yet auto-fiction is avoided by Anglophone publishers of French texts in translation because of its unpopularity abroad.