Coming to England: An Inspiring True Story Celebrating the Windrush Generation

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The illustrations and descriptions are really memorable. My recommendation would be for all infants and juniors. KS3 might enjoy it too! Wrigglers, wanderers, stampers and shy children... reading different stories to different listeners Was the plot exciting, thought provoking, serious or light hearted?It was a serious, interesting book about Floella going to England. It was important to have someone who has gone through some aspect of what I was writing. When you have that personal experience, it's great to get an opportunity to share it with society through a book and make a difference.

Floella Benjamin on turning Coming to England into a picture book

In a way, it was the same when I was writing my novel Coming to England for older children, which doesn't have even one racist word in the book. But if I was writing it for adults, then I'd use stronger words to give the real feeling of what it was like. You can't even tell 10 or 11 year olds what it was truly like. I wouldn't want to burden them with it. Baroness Floella Benjamin is an actress, author, businesswoman, politician, writer of children’s books, TV presenter and singer. She was born in Trinidad but moved to the United Kingdom when she was 10 years old. She has talked about the racism that she experienced while growing up in the UK and how she found it hard to fit in. She is well-known as a presenter of children's TV programmes, such as Play School , Play Away and Fast Forward . I learnt that the time zones changed as people sailed to England to find work. Floella took every opportunity, tried her best, worked hard and, as she became a politician in the House of Lords, she met the Queen! Do you know how many days it took in 1960 to travel to grey, dark England from vibrant, warm Trinidad?

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Teenage rebels": Cane Warriors author Alex Wheatle on writing about young people living through incredible events Coming to England – An Inspiring True Story Celebrating the Windrush Generation by Floella Benjamin and illustrated by Diane Ewen is published by Macmillan Children's Books on 8 October. Did you learn any new words or facts as a result of the story?No because I think it is a book for beginners. Was the plot exciting, thought-provoking, serious or light-hearted (or any mixture of these)?Sad. Floella was bullied. Even though Floella was discriminated against as a child, she kept her ambition, “I still dreamt of meeting the Queen.” She never let things get her down. I think Floella is happy that she migrated to England: otherwise, she would not be a Dame, a politician working in the House of Lords. And, she yes, did meet the Queen!

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The story of a young girl who did not lose hope fills me with admiration. She found a way to achieve her ambition. Her ambition led her to the House of Lords and the Queen! I would like to know more, I hope there’s a more detailed autobiography. I was very much involved in finding Diane. My publishers Macmillan Children's Books showed me work from at least a dozen illustrators. We wanted a very specific look for the book, something that is really warm and engaging and captured my story exactly right. In 1995 Floella wrote a book all about herself called Coming to England . It describes her journey as a child from Trinidad in the Caribbean all the way to England in the UK. It's a story about what it's like to arrive somewhere new and feel very different from everyone else.

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Her story really has power. The young Floella wants to meet the Queen, little does she know, she will grow up to meet the Queen! I love the way BookTrust gives books to all children and parents. That is so important. Before a child can read the words, a picture is telling the story and connections are being made - for life. Children are connecting all the time and they are seeing things for the first time, and that's why it's such a responsibility to get things right.