Last week we were delighted to welcome our new Children’s Author/Illustrator Visiting Fellow, Francesca Sanna.
Francesca is an esteemed and award-winning children’s author and illustrator. Her first book, The Journey, has received widespread critical acclaim and was this week shortlisted for The Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2017. The book asks, ‘what is it like to have to leave everything behind and travel many miles to somewhere unfamiliar and strange? A mother and her two children set out on such a journey: one filled with fear of the unknown, but also great hope.’
During her time as Visiting Fellow, Francesca will be working on a range of projects. These will include conducting research for her next book, giving a talk on depicting refugees in children’s literature at a workshop to be held at Birkbeck and undertaking a series of visits to local primary schools. Over the coming weeks, Francesca will also be taking part in a Q&A session providing insight into the research and interviews she conducted while creating The Journey. Further details and information on all these activities will be posted on the project blog.
Welcome to the project team Francesca!