LITERATURE
Charley Supermog supercat, super read
V
al starts her on-line interview by asking....”WHY do so many youngsters stay for hours in their bedrooms staring at small screens instead of escaping those four walls to enjoy fresh air and all that nature and the outside world has to offer? It’s so unhealthy - both physically and mentally” Val Anne Lee, poet and author, has lived in and around New Alresford for fifteen years. Her popular and much-loved children’s books ‘On the Banks of Hatchet Pond’ and ‘Podge goes Splodge at Hatchet Pond’ feature Podge, an ugly old frog who wishes he could fly, and Dizzy a beautiful little dragonfly who flits around Hatchet Pond in the New Forest. Humour figures largely in most of Val’s work although she says “To be honest, I didn’t have much to laugh about in those early days but my crazy sense of humour kept me sane”. Her new full-length story CHARLEY*SUPERMOG is for older kids but Val says “It will resonate with those adults who enjoyed ‘normal childhood adventures before computers overtook the world”. Dedicated ‘For Cat Lovers Everywhere’ this crazy adventure story features a once-scrawny tatty-eared farm cat who by chance taps a boring old stone and gains magical powers, becoming totally humanised and taking his young owner and her family and friends on amazing and hair-raising adventures which vastly improve many lives.....even those of two nasty young village bullies! Many of Val’s words touch on current topics...for example she speaks boldly for the ‘Gingers’ of this world in her description of their “lovely richlycoloured hair which shines in the sunlight like burnished gold”, Val says her mother and two of her sister were auburn-haired - hence these words. The book also has its young characters enjoying the outdoor life....swinging on ropes dangling over rivers, collecting conkers, daring to skate on frozen ponds and borrowing a metal
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detector to dig for treasure and more.. At the time of writing, CHARLEY has yet to be released - having been kept in lockdown for the duration of Covid. However, subject to on-going negotiation with Anthony Oxley the owner of New Alresford’s prestigious bookshop Laurence Oxley’s, CHARLEY is soon to be launched.. In addition to her published and so-farunpublished portfolio of more than a dozen children’s stories, Val also writes for adults... mostly humorous poems based on everyday ‘gripes’. She says “My family think I’m slightly eccentric because I have a poem for every occasion and can give a recitation from memory ‘at the drop of a hat’.....such titles as ‘Stinky Old Billy’ the old goat once in her reluctant ownership with other animals - horses, bantams, pigs, fluffy white rabbits which often escaped their hutches to breed with the wild ones in the fields beyond. In addition, when left to singly support her family of three kids, an added responsibility was the young calf which had been left tied to a plum tree! More of ‘Val’s Verses’ have been narrated monthly at a charity-fund-raising Breakfast Club for ladies including ‘The Rogue’ (the wonky shopping trolley), ‘It’s a Drag’ (“Smoking’s a disgusting bore” ) and many more. Val’s three books were published by her talented illustrator, Simon Chadwick (CeratopiaBooks.co.uk) for ‘On the Banks of Hatchet Pond’, its sequel ‘Podge Goes Splodge at Hatchet Pond’ both priced at £4.99 plus P&P and ‘The Monkey Who Wouldn’t Eat Nuts’ at £6.00 plus P&P. Charley Supermog is priced at £8.00 plus P&P if ordered directly from Val who has sole ownership and limited stock (email val@valsimbooks). Val has an extensive portfolio of unpublished rhyming and humorous stories for youngsters and has commissioned Guy Tomlinson of themarketingdirectors.co.uk to approach agents/ publishers on her behalf.....to hopefully gain sufficient interest to back her. For more information or to purchase any of Val's books email: val@valsimbooks.com
