Good morning,
Happy Yorkshire Day!
And as if that wasn’t enough excitement, my new book is also released today.
The Girl Who Rowed the Ocean is available to order!
If you have a child aged from 7 to 12, or if you know one, then I’d be so grateful if you treated them to a new summer read.
I am really hoping that this book will become popular in schools, so please consider gifting one to a Primary School teacher or school.
This book has been a long time coming. The first document on my computer about it was a proposal to two major publishers. They both rejected the book for the same reasons:
- Girls don’t like adventure
- Boys don’t like books about girls
This made me furious! I don’t want our young people growing up in a world where a book is more successful if you swap the word ‘girl’ for ‘boy’!
So I decided to just plough on and do the book independently. To hell with the experts’ predictions of sales figures.
Once I had written it, I hired an artist and an illustrator, paid editors and a designer, and found a company to typeset and print the book whilst still allowing me creative control.
- I hope the book will appeal to adventurous girls.
- I hope boys will like the book just as much as many girls have enjoyed The Boy Who Biked the World. (After all, it discusses toilets and bottoms…)
- I hope that it encourages children to live adventurously, follow their own star, and persevere.
- And I hope it helps teachers discuss the wonders of our oceans and the problems of pollution, plastic and loss of biodiversity.
And –finally– I hope that you will help me by buying a copy or two today!
It has been a long time coming. Now I just need to sit back and see how it goes…
“Lucy wants to explore the world, and do something daring and difficult. But people laugh at her when she hatches a plan to row across the Atlantic Ocean.
So her family rallies round to help prepare for the journey, loading her boat with supplies for 3,000 miles of rowing. Her school friends follow her from afar, learning about the ocean, its wildlife and pollution.
Alone at sea, Lucy faces seasickness, storms and a very sore bottom, not to mention close encounters with ships and a humpback whale. Yet there are also the joys of wandering seabirds, shooting stars and magical sunsets, as she finds she is capable of more than she ever imagined. Step aboard and join Lucy on her life-changing adventure to become the girl who rowed the ocean.”
- ‘An inspirational ocean adventure’ – Bear Grylls
- ‘Lucy’s epic voyage brought back happy memories of my own ocean crossings. It’s a realistic and inspiring tale of adventure at sea’ – Sarah Outen
- ‘We need more young people like Lucy getting active and having adventures in the freedom of nature’ – Helen Glover
- ‘The perfect handbook for anyone young or old in search of adventure’ – Steve Backshall
- ‘Rowing the Atlantic and caring for our wild places are very close to my heart. Well done, Lucy!’ – Ben Fogle
- ‘The thing we are most excited about in this book is how well it fits in with our curriculum’ – Karen Allen, assistant head teacher and English lead at Lydiate Primary School, Liverpool
- ‘Don’t underestimate the power and strength of young people. We all have a part to play in protecting our oceans, no matter our age!’ – Ella Meek, Kids Against Plastic
Just finished reading The Girl Who Rowed the Ocean – what an inspirational book to give everyone the idea of realising their dream however big.
A brilliant educational tool for every school and eye opening for saving the planet.
I hope the publishers who refused to take on this book, mainly because Alastair was writing about a girl, read the reviews and weep – GIRLS CAN HAVE ADVENTURES TOO!!!!
Thank you!