My first book was published about 15 years ago, when my youngest child started school. Since then I have written scores of books for children age 4-12, including a wide range of fiction and non-fiction - school and family stories, ghost stories, whodunits, adventures, animal stories, ‘issues’, plays, biographies, instructions, information, recounts and self-help.
I have also written non fiction, magazine articles and poems for adults. My latest project is a fiction series for boys aged 5+ (Hodder, June 2009)
Talks
I usually do talks in the classroom for individual classes but I’m happy to speak to up to 100 children if they’re the same kind of age. For infants, I feel half an hour is long enough; for juniors, talks are about an hour.
I can focus on writing fiction or non fiction or both, or talk about my personal journey and approach to writing, but with older children I quite like to throw the whole thing open and start straight in with questions and answers after a brief introduction.
Workshops
Up to class-size groups are ideal for workshops. These can be anything between one hour and a whole day.
Writing in the school curriculum seems to be very focused on technique, but the energy that drives creativity is joy, curiosity and a sense of personal meaning.
My workshops are about finding what you have to say and feeling empowered to say something interesting whatever ‘level of literacy’ you may have attained.
For juniors
My workshops begin with discussion, then writing warm-ups, then some fitness-and-skills training, before going on to more sustained writing.
In non-fiction workshops I start by uncovering the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience every child in the class has available to write about. I ask the children to choose a topic from their lists and then look at what they already know, what they would like to know and where they could find that information. After a recent session, Y3-4 children created pamphlets from the work we did on topics as various as ice-skating, Spain and keeping gerbils.
Fiction workshops begin with some imagination warm-ups, so we can all get the point and thrill of exploring the unique world inside our minds. I don’t have a fixed menu of workshops, they usually develop from an initial conversation with the literacy co-ordinator, but some recent workshops include creating stories from characters
This approach lets children explore one of the points of writing stories, which is to explore solutions for problem situations. I’ve also used it for a ‘writing on a theme’ day with a Y6 class, the theme being bullying.
Writing from fact to fantasy
This is a three-visualization session where I take children from a familiar place, such as school or their walk home, and then introduce some surprise elements to trigger their imagination writing in a landscape.
This was a whole day, starting with a trip to some woods, where we did various writing exercises with notebooks and had a picnic, finishing with an afternoon writing in the classroom
For infants
In fiction workshops I read one of my big book stories and then create a similar one with the class. A recent workshop from ‘A Rat for Mouse’ involved choosing a pet in a pet shop, so each child could make their own variation. We wrote and drew the story as a book.
With non fiction, I start by reading some big books including ‘How to make a feely box’ and then the children create their own version.
I am happy to devise a programme to meet your individual requirements.
You might choose, for example, to have three workshops in a day with different age-groups, say fiction with infants and P5-6 and non-fiction with P3-4. Or you might prefer to focus on one age-group; to opt for writing fiction on the same theme throughout the school, or go for a mixture of talks and workshops.
A day will typically consist of two or three sessions; a half-day of one or two.
Feedback
Jenny Alexander worked in our school running a Writing Club with our Y5/6 children, last school year. The quality of each workshop was excellent. I attended the club myself and I was amazed at the wide range of children who chose to attend the club each week. I was impressed by Jenny’s approach to writing which really got the children motivated and enthused; personally I particularly enjoyed the warm-ups and short tasks and they gave me plenty of ideas for my own teaching. The club had a real buzz with everyone being engaged in writing and being totally focused – it was brilliant!
Mary Dolan, Tregadillett Community Primary School, March 2008
The children’s enthusiasm and willingness to ask questions was testament to Jenny’s approachability as a character and effectiveness as a spokesperson.  Jenny remained after the presentation to further discuss her work with those pupils who still had questions.  The children thoroughly enjoyed Jenny’s visit and they all gained a valuable insight into the work of an author.
James Lye, Year 5/6 teacher, Oreston  Community Primary School
Jenny was extremely professional and calm when working with children at our school. She was able to motivate them to write quickly and worked in an interactive style to encourage participation from all. The children were very eager to talk to Jenny where she demonstrated honesty and sincerity.
Jenny was encouraging to all abilities, empowering the children to write about what they already knew, being ‘experts’ in a particular topic. They were inspired to write and we were thrilled with the reaction of the children after her visit.
Mrs M J Saunders, Literacy co-ordinator &class teacher, Brixton St Mary’s Primary School
Longmans Streetwise, novels and short stories – 2003-2004
Stranded! (ISBN 0582 79615 6)
Tom, Sid, the Goth and the Ghost (ISBN 0582 79628 8 )
Ricky, Karim and Spit Nolan (ISBN 0582 79614 8. Access version ISBN 0582 79614 8 )
The Guess, the Curse and the message (ISBN 0582 79625 3. Access version ISBN 0582 79626 1)
A and C Black – fiction and non-fiction - 2004-2006
Finding Fizz (ISBN 9780713676259)
Going Up! The no-worries guide to Secondary School (ISBN 0-7136-6863-6)
How to be a brilliant writer (ISBN 0 7136 7380 X)
How 2 B Happy (ISBN 0 7136 7559 4)
Hodder – fiction and non-fiction - 2006-2009
Bullies, Bigmouths and So-Called Friends  (ISBN:0340911840)
The 7-day Bully-buster (ISBN 13: 978 0 340 93066 3)
The 7-day Self-esteem Super-booster (ISBN 13: 978 0 340 93067)
The 7-day Stress-buster (ISBN 13: 978 0 340 93068 7)
The 7-day Brain-booster (ISBN 13: 978 0 340 93069 4)
Rabbittalk – 50 ways to make friends with your rabbit (ISBN 13: 9780340931271)
Car-mad Jack series – 6 stories for boys 6+ - June 2009
My website www.jennyalexander.co.uk