A princess who wants to do battle with swords? A knight who wants to knit sweaters? YES! In the new children’s book by UK author Nicholas Portwood, this is exactly the scenario! This writer wants to encourage kids to be who they are and go for their dreams despite what anyone else thinks they can or should do! I really enjoyed creating the pen & ink and watercolor illustrations for this poetic and fun children’s book so I asked Nicholas to be my latest guest blogger to discuss his story…
“Nicholas Portwood is an independent author from the UK. He has a Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of Sunderland and has been volunteering as a temporary teaching assistant
in schools for three years now. He has published several books so far aimed at children of varying ages and a number of books for older audiences as well. In addition to creative writing, his hobbies include composing, painting and game design. He also does private tutoring in his spare time.
Having spent much time in schools, he soon developed a fondness for reading stories to children and encouraging them to read along with him. He was motivated to write his latest book after discovering that there is a multitude of reception-age children’s stories that support the acceptance of girls with boyish traits, but hardly any that promote the acceptance of boys who tend to behave like girls. It is inspired by the works of fearless storytellers like Anna Kemp and the hilarious rhyming styles of Roald Dahl.
His book The Knitting Knight is a classic fairy-tale subversion that challenges the preconceptions about acceptable behaviour for girls and boys and encourages gender equality in schools and among friends. It addresses the problems of stereotyping not only girls, but boys as well. By combining a whimsical rhyming style with colourful, hand-painted images by talented artist Lauren Curtis, this story teaches an important lesson in a playful, humorous way that will have young readers splitting their sides up until the very last page.”
For a LIMITED TIME, the author is offering FREE reads of his book on Amazon, but if you want to buy a copy….or copies….here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/Knitting-Knight-Nicholas-Portwood-ebook/dp/B08FGFHN6W
Any child…and adults…will enjoy this whimsical, fun tale with a great message for your kids to be proud of who they are! Enjoy!
Lauren's Creative Corner 
This sounds so great, I’m sending this email along to Leah for her little bean… She’s 4 to 6 weeks pregnant!
Bravo!
On Tue, Jun 15, 2021, 5:55 PM Lauren’s Creative Corner wrote:
> laurencurtis posted: ” A princess who wants to do battle with swords? A > knight who wants to knit sweaters? YES! In the new children’s book by UK > author Nicholas Portwood, this is exactly the scenario! This writer wants > to encourage kids to be who they are and go for their ” >
Thanks so much!! The author is starting his free offer tomorrow I think (6/17) 🙂