Dimity Powell – författare

Tim loves his collection of dinosaurs—but one thing he’d love even more is a family of his own. Tim’s beloved dinosaur collection travels with him wherever he goes. But Tim travels a lot—he is a foster child and has to move from one family to the next all too often.  Tim is always losing things, so when he moves in with the Lee family he doesn’t bother unpacking his dinosaurs in case they get lost when he has to move again. But one day he realizes he has lost something just as precious as his dinosaurs: his laugh. He doesn’t know where he lost it, but it definitely disappeared.  The kind Lee family help Tim look for his laugh, but no one can find it anywhere. Then one day, some news arrives that might just help Tim find his laugh again. The Boy Who Lost His Laugh takes a sensitive look at foster care from the child’s perspective, and shows how humor and love can help you bounce back and find what you’ve been looking for all along.

This is My Dad celebrates families of all shapes and sizes in a heartfelt, beautifully illustrated story that parents and carers will love sharing with their children.Most of the time, Leo loves Show and Tell at school. But when his teacher announces that next up is Tell Us About Your Dad Day, his tummy ties into knots and he tries to disappear into the corner of the classroom. His classmates can’t wait but all Leo can think is … ‘how can I celebrate someone I’ve never met?’Leo is an only child living with his mother, and has never known a father figure. His mother is his hero: as a children’s author, she spends most of her time battling monsters and creating awesome new worlds! When Tell Us About Your Dad Day comes around, Leo worries that he won’t have anything to present to his class. After fruitlessly searching high and low for clues about his father, he realises that he already knows someone cool, courageous and clever – someone who’s not his dad, but is his everything.This is My Dad is a timely, important and heart-warming look at modern family dynamics. It highlights that families come in all shapes and sizes, and they are all worthy of celebration. With one in four children in the UK living with a single parent, and 90% of those parents being a woman, Leo’s family situation will resonate with millions of children, and will provide a valuable insight for millions more.

Flick is just like any other youngster. She loves to chase butterflies and jump in autumn leaves. But life at the end of Holyrood Lane is often violent and unpredictable due to the constant storms that plague her home, causing her to cringe with dread and flee whenever they strike. Flick tries her best to quell her fears and endure the storms’ persistent wrath until, one day, with nowhere left to hide Flick summons the courage to face her fears by asking for help to overcome them.At the End of Holyrood Lane provides a sensitive glimpse into one aspect of domestic violence and how it can affect young lives. Designed to be visually arresting, emotionally incisive, and ultimately uplifting, it is a tale of anxiety shown through the eyes of a small child with an intense dislike for thunderstorms — a fear shared by many young children. This clever duality of meaning is able to evoke a gentle awareness for young readers who may be suffering their own domestic torment but who are too scared or unsure of how to seek help and shelter from their own storms, whatever their nature.This is the second book by the acclaimed author–illustrator team of Dimity Powell and Nicky Johnston, who specialise in handling difficult subjects with sensitivity and hope.

It's handy having a dad who can fix just about anything. A young girl believes her father is the king of fixing things. But following the death of her mother, she discovers that broken hearts are not as easy to repair as damaged toys and cracked teapots. Together, she and her father find a way to glue back the pieces of her lives. The Fix-It Man is a poignant picture book that explores how a child can cope with the loss of a parent (in this case, the young girl's mother). Repairing damaged emotions is not as straightforward as gluing a broken kite back together or sewing up a torn toy. And grief affects all members of a family, with each responding in their own way to the loss. By sticking with her father, the young girl is able to strengthen her resilience and ability to cope with one of life's harshest experiences. The author was encouraged to seek publication for this story after receiving the endorsement of several grief counsellors who work with children and who recognised the need for a book such as this.