Lynne Ellison

About

I wrote this book when I was 14, when I was a dreamy, bookish adolescent who could listen to the teacher with half an ear and write the book at the back of the class. My main reading at the time was novels set in Roman, Greek or medieval times. A weekend trip to Anglesey with my Mum gave the backdrop for the starting point, and travelling back in time was always a favourite fantasy. I believed my main character, Karen, was fictional, but with hindsight I realise she was me. Once started, the ideas flowed thick and fast and before the end of one chapter, the next would suggest itself. I did some additional research but even so slipped up on a couple of things that the editor later spotted, for instance the Romans had no tomatoes: they were brought to Europe from America centuries later.

I was thrilled when a publisher accepted it, and of course a huge fuss was made about such a young author.
However, I spent the rest of my teen years trying to live it down. Boys didn't go for clever girls and if anyone mentioned it at a party I knew my chances were snookered. The book has been gathering dust in my memory for decades, so I was frankly astonished to be contacted by a private publisher last year, wanting to re-issue it. However, when I look at it again, I'm surprised how good it is, and friends of mine are now begging for copies and reading it themselves.

These days I'm a Speech and Language Therapist, but I've had a variety of jobs, including teaching English to foreigners, working in a bookshop, leading pony treks in the Welsh Mountains and running riding holidays in the Scottish Borders. I'm an outdoor person at heart, love animals, wild places and wine. I have two sons who are the best thing in my life, even though when I was younger I thought I didn't want children.

If you want to write, just sit down and get on with it. Then go over what you've written, reduce and condense by at least a third, delete the word "I" wherever possible, and don't stick to a strictly chronological order of events.

Influences/Inspirations:
Wild places, adventure and the unknown, life lived close to nature.

Favorite Writers and Artists:
Rosemary Sutcliff (The Eagle of the Ninth and other books.) Dostoevsky, A S Byatt, some science fiction writers.

Current Projects:
No writing projects until I have more time - after retirement.

Interests:
Long-distance walks, horses, blues music.

Family:
Divorced, two sons.

University Affiliations:
Russian and German at London University, Teaching qualificzation in EFL, Masters in Human Communication.

Contact Information:
silvergoddess1950@hotmail.com

Charities/Causes:
Amnesty, Wateraid, Brooke Hospital for Horses.

David's ADHD

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Description

Does your child have ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)?Meet David, one of award-winning author Sherrill S. Cannon's "Classroom of Kids," who manages his ADHD with the help of classmates.David discovers ways to cope with his hyperactive brain, while learning how to calm and soothe his ADHD. Solutions include setting daily schedules and following simple rules that regulate behavior. His teachers and therapists encourage using the computer for academic advancement, and to establish a pattern for study as well as for occasional recreation. David not only learns self-control and communication skills, but is able to fit into the classroom and make friends.Once again social values are emphasized in the author's latest illustrated children's story, and classroom friends from previous books are featured. In fact, David has been part of the class for a long time!"David's ADHD is a timely topic for parents and children. A story in rhyme that demystifies ADHD. It explains a youngster's behavior in terms of his inattentiveness and impulsivity and how it impacts those around him. A sensitive way of creating understanding for children with ADHD and their families." - Dr. Valerie Allen, licensed school psychologistAuthor Bio: Former teacher Sherrill S. Cannon has won 76 awards for her previous 11 rhyming books. She is also the author of seven published and internationally performed plays for elementary school children. The author has been called "an absolute master of rhyming" and "a modern-day Dr. Seuss."

Story Behind The Book

wrote this book when I was 14, when I was a dreamy, bookish adolescent who could listen to the teacher with half an ear and write the book at the back of the class. My main reading at the time was novels set in Roman, Greek or medieval times. A weekend trip to Anglesey with my Mum gave the backdrop for the starting point, and travelling back in time was always a favourite fantasy. I believed my main character, Karen, was fictional, but with hindsight I realise she was me. Once started, the ideas flowed thick and fast and before the end of one chapter, the next would suggest itself. I did some additional research but even so slipped up on a couple of things that the editor later spotted, for instance the Romans had no tomatoes: they were brought to Europe from America centuries later.

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Reviews

<div>Leading Author Naomi Lewis selected this book for Hamish Hamilton's The Best Children's Books of 1966, and made the following comment therein:- "A schoolgirl's able novel of a schoolgirl who looks into an old bronze mirror and finds herself a slave in Nero's Rome. The author has done her homework well on Roman mores: affairs of boudoir and kitchen; a gruesome afternoon out at the Amphitheatre... All presented with cheerfully youthful insouciance."</div>

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