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SCBWI Member Videos: How to Apply for Awards and Grants

2024

British Isles (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)


Girl in a Smart Uniform is the
story of Gisela Schmidt who becomes a loyal member of the girls’ version of the
Hitler Youth and later a fully committed Nazi. She eventually understands that
the Nazi regime is not good, particularly in its lack of understanding of
otherness.    
Gisela is wowed by the smart uniform of the BDM
(girls’ Hitler Youth) and the lifestyle offered is such a contrast to what she
has at home: inadequate parents, a cruel older brother, Kurt, and an abusive
step-father, Herr Silber. Her involvement with the Hitler Youth offers her
camaraderie, pride in Germany and a strong sense of duty. She soon becomes
first a pack leader and then a regional leader. Trudi Müller becomes her
deputy.   
However, the birth of her Downs’ syndrome
half-brother, Jens, whom she virtually has to bring up alone, the death of her
other brother, the gentle Bear, who has been helping his Jewish girlfriend and
the love she feels for Trudi, make her realise that being different is
possible, probable and actually desirable.   

For some time Gisela and Trudi help an SS officer,
Obersturmführer Poll, spy on a house where they think a Jewess is harbouring
severely disabled children. Once there is proof, the SS orders first the Home
Guard and then the Hitler Youth boys to burn down the house. Both refuse. Now
the girls are commanded to on pain of death. To make sure there is no
misunderstanding, Poll rapes Trudi, leaving her pregnant. 
The girls carry out the plan but help the children to
get out of the cellar into the one of the house next door first. They then help
to clear up and that evening burn their uniforms. Later, after the birth of
Trudi’s child, Marissa, and after World War II ends they move to the Netherlands
where their lesbian relationship is better tolerated. 
They are enjoying life in the Netherlands when a
letter from Kurt informs them that their mother has died. He asks them whether
they will look after Jens as neither he nor Herr Silber have the time. 
They return to Stuttgart to find a slightly more
tolerant Kurt there. They wonder if there is still a school for people like
Jens. Jens is now fourteen and considers himself clumsy and ugly. However, the
final scene shows him being very gentle and loving towards his adopted niece,
Marissa. 
Part of the story is true: a Jewish woman, Clara
Lehrs, did open her home up as a school for severely disabled children many of
whom were Downs’ syndrome. She was deported and eventually murdered. The school
was threatened as described above but nobody knows who the girls were who
showed such mercy or why. This story offers an explanation and explores how
ordinary German girls could become Nazis.                                           


Girl in a Smart Uniform


Tom
and girlfriend Amanda are in love. They quarrel and don’t have the chance to
tell each other how much they love each other.            
After
Tom dies, he meets the Guardians are not allowed to help spooks to make
decisions. Tom is trapped because there are still several issues he needs to
sort out with his former girlfriend, Amanda. 
He
meets Marcus, who, unusually, has been there for over two hundred years and who
helps him. Tom has to help Amanda get though her grief. He gets himself into a
heap of trouble by breaking some of the spooking laws in order to protect her. 
Marcus
leaves Tom just at this moment when he needs him most. Tom has unwittingly
helped Marcus to solve his problems. Now Tom has to deal with his own affairs. 
Tom
and Amanda manage to meet up once more – in one of her dreams. They had indeed
both felt as strongly about the other. They are both ready to move on.    
Spooking is a paranormal
romance. 


Spooking


Renate Edler thinks she is going to
live in the house on Schellberg Street. Instead she finds out only a few days
before she comes to England on the Kindertransport that she is officially a
Mischling, a mixed-race German-Jewish child. She has to become English. 
Renate struggles
with not belonging. As a Mischling she cannot even feel truly Jewish, worries
that her English friends will see her as the enemy and worries about her father
in Nuremberg and her mother in London. She eventually has a breakdown but her
friends help her to overcome her fears and worries. She almost becomes English.
When her father writes to say he has remarried and her mother seems keen to
stay in England, she is relieved. However, there are still people she cares
about in Germany. 
Renate has to leave
her classmates at the Wilhelm Löhe School behind. This school eventually closes
and the girls decide to stay in touch by writing letters in an exercise book
which they send to each other. Renate actually writes the very first letter but
then disappears. Most of the girls’ story is told in letter form with just one other
scene near the beginning and two near the end being in a third person
narrative. In the first scene they find out about Renate going to England. Their
class teacher joins in writing the letters and in a scene near the end of the
story she is poised to tell them about some of the darkest aspects of what has
happened during World War II.  
Hani is
disappointed when Renate cannot come and stay with her during the Christmas
holidays. She is told that Renate has chicken pox but is suspicious that this
is not true. A puncture brings her in contact with Renate’s grandmother, Clara
Lehrs, who eventually tells her the truth but only after Hani has been helping
her run a school for children with severe learning difficulties in the basement
of her house on Schellberg Street, Stuttgart.  As Clara protects these persecuted children
she does not consider her own safety. Inevitably she is forced to sell the
house and move to a ghetto. Hani and her parents, who are careful but are Nazi resisters,
stay in contact with Clara until she is transported from Stuttgart. The school
continues to function, with a few tense moments, and opens triumphantly after
the war ends. Hani is offered a scholarship on a teacher-training programme.
The action takes
place between December 1938 and August 1947. The three threads of the story
come together again as Renate travels to Stuttgart for a conference and plans
to meet up with Hani and her former classmates. Although she is now very happy
to be English she realises there is a little about her that is still
German.   
Even the young reader
will probably guess what has happened to Clara though the characters in the
story do not yet know. Their naivety is a main theme in the text.      
Renate’s story
is quite true, Hani’s is completely made up but offers an explanation about how
Clara’s school survived and the girls of class 5b of the Wilhelm Löhe school
really did write a round robin letter very similar to the one contained here. 
Even though this
deals with a tricky subject, there is some humour, with Clara Lehrs being a
particularly colourful character. I am currently working on her story for a
second book on this theme.      
 Beyond the end of the novel Renate will try to
find out what has become of her grandmother. A neighbour is keeping an eye on
the house on Schellberg Street.    


The House on Schellberg Street

rchie has quite a reputation as a practised fibber. Normally his lies are harmless but as time goes by they begin to get him into more and more trouble. They lose him his girlfriend, and bizarrely, his hearing as his ears begin to react in a very strange way every time he is less than truthful. Giving honest opinions isn’t enough. Deep truth is called for. But finding that isn’t easy. Some truths are very hard to face. Then numbers become interesting, too.

Fibbin Archie, is, however, more than the story of disenchanted young man. It is also a writing experiment based on a fascinating number series.

Fibbin Archie

Kaleem has given up the love of his life in order to protect her. He now lives and works on Zandra. 
A sudden landquake, not known on the planet for many years, destroys many of the forests his father has planted to bring life back to the planet. The new relationship Kaleem has helped to establish between the Terrestrans and the Zandrians is also under threat.  
A third party gets involved and Kaleem has to use all of his diplomatic skills to keep everything on track. Mistakes cost him dearly and he looks set to lose Rozia for a second time.  
The Babel Tower mystery, others mysteries and sadness plague him.  
Can he find a way through to fulfill his role as the Peace Child?

The Tower

Amanda is the love of Tom’s life. After an argument, Tom crashes his car and wakes up in an unfamiliar place. Amanda is out of reach. Then he meets Marcus, who has more experience in the areas that now matter. Tom accepts his help, but Marcus has his own concerns, and eventually Tom is alone again. How can Tom let Amanda known how much he loves her? Does she feel the same way? Spooking is a romantic paranormal Young Adult novella.

Nick is dying. Barney spends much of his time keeping him company, helping him to lead an almost normal life and sharing his carefully guarded secret. The two boys often go down to the old harbour, to look at the boats and take photographs.

Barney finds it hard watching his friend getting weaker and weaker. And then there are the other problems. He worries about his relationship with his first real girlfriend. He worries about his schoolwork.. He is under pressure to perform well as a county swimming champion. And he needs a part time job.

Everything seems to be working out - just - when what he has most been dreading happens. All the other things which could also go wrong do so spectacularly. Then there is a strange shaped room, some ham and mustard sandwiches and a few conversations with a wise old sailor

A gallery for Nick

Amanda is the love of Tom’s life. After an argument, Tom crashes his car and wakes up in an unfamiliar place. Amanda is out of reach. Then he meets Marcus, who has more experience in the areas that now matter. Tom accepts his help, but Marcus has his own concerns, and eventually Tom is alone again.

How can Tom let Amanda known how much he loves her? Does she feel the same way?

Spooking is a romantic paranormal Young Adult novella.

The Build a Book Workshop is a step-by step guide for teachers and writers, that shows you how to organise creative writing workshops with a difference and with a very tangible end product. Your students can see their work turned into a book that has a spine and can sit on a shelf, raising money for charity at the same time.
This photocopiable resource makes conducting the Build a Book Workshop even easier. It contains:
•	Checklists for the organisers
•	Planning sheets 
•	Prompt sheets for students 
•	Templates for marketing materials
•	Templates for permission slips 
•	Templates for letters

Build a Book Photocopiable Resource

Inspire your students and enable them to build their own book. 
This step-by step guide for teachers and writers, and the photocopiable resource that goes with it, show you how to organise creative writing workshops with a difference and with a very tangible end product. Your students can see their work turned into a book that has a spine and can sit on a shelf, raising money for charity at the same time.
Students can:
•	Improve their writing
•	Write with a purpose
•	Learn about commerce and enterprise
•	Engage with the local and wider community
Teachers and writers learn how to:
•	Plan and organise your workshops
•	Get the best writing out of your students 
•	Maximise the impact of your book
•	Build a book with little or no financial outlay

Build a Book Workshop

Robbie is a little disappointed when he gets a home-made kite for his birthday. He would really have liked a computer. 
But then he gets more than he bargained for with his new kite. Can it help him, though, to find out what is killing the fish and the seabirds and making the sea lose its sparkle? Will Osman, the sleeping giant who lies beneath the Gull Cliff, be able to help? And what about the seagulls who are always hanging around when Robbie and best friend Jace fly their kites? Or the strange old fisherman who seems to be dumping something nasty-looking into the sea?         
Robbie and Jace are swept into a world of danger, threat and magic as they try to find out what is spoiling their beautiful Gull Cliff Bay.

Kiters

This is an anthology of short stories that I have editied and in whihc I aslo ahev a story. The cover is designed by chidlren's laureate, Anthony Browne nad there is a foreword by Michael Morpurgo.

Hipp-O-Dee-Doo-Dah

Julia falls for the new boy at school Peter Groves. He breaks her heart and she sees him as a real scum bag. However, jsut as he begisn to like her, she gets over hsim and sees him for what he really is: just an ordinary nice but not spectacular guy.

The Scum Bag

Gift Child in Lines in the Sand

Feisty fifteen-year-old Christina’s parents don’t like her biker boyfriend. They think he’s too old and his hair is too long. She doesn’t like her epilepsy but has to deal with it. An accident leaves her in a coma for several weeks. Whilst in the coma she visits another world where she starts to understand her own awakening sexuality and her illness. She also becomes more tolerant of other people, in particular of those who wear a hijab or burka. But Jan is still waiting for her at home and her new world is getting more real by the minute. Problems abound and she feels alone. She is still in love with Jan, but can she still reach him?

Veiled Dreams

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