The Titanic Detective Agency

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This week I am collecting selfies to make another video – feel free to send some pictures across which show what you have been up to! I can’t wait to see you all! The foreshadowing of the inevitable tragedy is peppered throughout the book, but my favourite is the tea-leaf reading scene early on and not only because my nan’s surname is Toomey. Having read Lindsay’s 2018 middle grade historical fiction A Pattern of Secrets I’ve been sure that The Titanic Detective Agency is going to be as good as well. Lindsay hasn’t let me down! She astonishes me with every little detail of the Titanic blended into her outstanding storytelling! The Titanic Detective Agency feels like the Titanic itself – strong, majestic, powerful, exciting, glorious and classic, minus the tragedy. It is indeed a marvel!

Thank you so much for all of your hard work – I love hearing from you and seeing the work you are producing! This week I will be 'Live' on our blog during the times below - please come and say hello! I will be uploading another emoji quiz to challenge you - you can all join in and we can see whoever has the most correct answers! My European adventure was followed by Unicorn Weekend at Stirling Castle, which was tremendous fun. I did four creative writing workshops and four readings in the Great Hall over the weekend, all themed around wild unicorns. Simon Schama – an excerpt of a conversation about the way in which Historical Documentaries are produced Related Content In March, I did my first international author visit, and spent a wonderful three days doing workshops at the European School in Luxembourg, plus a lovely afternoon exploring the city. So grateful to the organisers for making it such an enjoyable visit.Inverclyde’s Meliora Festival in mid-June was tremendous fun. My first event in a massive inflatable structure! It was followed by a relaxing week’s holiday in Sorrento and an author visit to the Scottish Game Fair. Our topic and science work are carrying on with the topics we have been studying since Easter, investigating the claim that the Titanic was unsinkable, and building an understanding of solids, liquids and gases in our science work. I will be online this week between 10am & 12pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and through the day on Thursday and Friday around meetings etc. By buying your books directly from Cranachan you are helping support a small Scottish business and our authors – thank you! In 2015 her WW1 novel Shell Hole was shortlisted for the Dundee Great War Children’s Book Prize and she enjoyed engaging in research so much that she was inspired to write another historical novel, A Pattern of Secrets, this time focusing on her local area.

A historical story based on the story of the Titanic. We are told about the unsinkable ship and how it is built for luxury not speed. In 2014 she began writing for children and won the Kelpies Prize for her first children’s novel The Mixed Up Summer of Lily McLean. The sequel, The Awkward Autumn of Lily McLean, was published by Floris Books in March this year.Can they help Johan find the hidden treasure and unmask the identity of the enigmatic Mr Hoffman before time runs out on the ‘unsinkable’ ship?

Littleson has done her research, and although the narrative is fiction, all the characters are based on true-life passengers aboard the doomed Ocean liner with some of the more out there twists and turns being based on fact – truth is often stranger than fiction after all. It’s well written, engaging and doesn’t talk down to younger readers. More than that it brings a hundred and seven year old tragedy to life. And just look at that cover – it’s beautiful! https://hebrideanreader.com/ In June, I made a delightful trip to Mull to meet the staff and pupils of Dervaig Primary. Getting to do an event in their gorgeous Community Orchard was a real privilege. I also learned a lot about the local wildlife. When one wee lad told me he was missing his hens, I asked if they’d been taken by a fox. He gave me a look. “There are no foxes on Mull, Lindsay. The otters came down the hill and killed all my hens.” And there was me, thinking otters were cute.

The Titanic Detective Agency is a really great piece of historical fiction. I loved the interweaving of fact and fiction. Bertha, Madge, Johan and some of the other characters in the book were actual passengers on the Titanic. At the end of the book there are photographs and small biographies of some of the passengers, letting you know more about the lives of those that survived. I also really loved Bertha’s realisation that she had completely underestimated her mother’s bravery and strength. The scene where Bertha recognises that bravery isn’t necessarily about daring deeds and intrepid adventures but that it can be something quite understated is really powerful and very moving. The exciting storyline, short chapters and young leads make The Titanic Detective Agency a hugely appealing book for a middle grade audience. Rating: https://getkidsintobooks.wordpress.com/ skilfully woven together to create a meaningful and moving account of events aboard RMS Titanic. Ideal to tie in with the most popular Social Studies topic in Scottish primary schools: The Unsinkable Ship. In ‘The Titanic Detective Agency’, Lindsay Littleson breathes life into real-life historical characters with an enthralling story of three young people who survive the maiden voyage of the doomed passenger liner, Titanic.

Having said that, the main reason I choose to write for primary school children is that the books which still mean the most to me are the ones I read as a child. When anyone asks me to name my favourite books, I mention The Secret Island, The Borrowers, Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh and The Family from One End Street before any novels I’ve read as an adult. As a child, I was an avid reader, and those books kept me company, built empathy and helped me to determine the sort of person I wanted to be. I loved my childhood favourites deeply and hope very much that my own stories are ones which children will remember fondly years from now. Though the story does come with a well-known ending, The Titanic Detective Agency explores the story of the Titanic from a different angle. As a primary teacher, I am confident about working with primary aged children and am happy to do upper school assemblies lasting three-quarters of an hour to an hour. My goals during these talks are to encourage and inspire primary aged pupils to write their own stories, by telling them about my own journey to publication and by talking about my inspirations in writing my books and the importance of creating an interesting setting and characters with distinctive voices. I’ll read an extract from one or two of my novels, depending on teacher/organiser preferences, and will finish with a question and answer session. If preferred or as an add-on to the assembly, I can organise creative writing workshops with individual classes. This week I will be online at the times below. I am still teaching Year Six at the moment too, so I will be replying, but it may be a little slower than normal!

I will be online every day this week, and will be hosting ‘Live’ sessions on the class blog during the following times. Bertha is a feisty girl with a vivid imagination, whose insatiable curiosity focuses on both passengers and crew. Together with fellow traveller Madge, she becomes interested in the mysterious of Mr. Hoffman, who is travelling alone with his two small children. But very soon, her investigations are interrupted by the appearance of Johan, a Swedish teenager on his way to join his father in South Dakota. Despite the fact that Johan speaks no English and is a third-class passenger, strictly segregated from the rest of those on board, he and Bertha work together to decipher what seems to be a map leading to a treasure hidden somewhere on the ship. When the iceberg hits, the fun and games of the investigations stop, but the drama, tension, and heartbreak ramp up. But the investigations aren't completely left behind, and this most familiar of stories has an unexpected conclusion to the case. I have many plans! My retirement from teaching in the summer will hopefully mean I have more time and energy to focus on writing. My seldom-used dining room is about to be transformed into a magnificent writer’s room, probably with help from Ikea. I’ll have time to start work on redrafting my YA novel, The Reader of Caledon, a dark fantasy with echoes of The Hunger Games, set in an alternative Glasgow, and on redrafting The Superpower Switch Off, a MG adventure about four young superheroes who lose their superpowers after a misuse of powers incident in school, and have to continue to battle a Supervillain without them.