Sheila Hoeman

Sheila Hoeman grew up in Rugby and as her father taught at the school of that name she spent many happy hours on the School Close gathering conkers and making up stories.

A childhood rich in language with one Grandmother reciting poetry and another organising wonderful family Christmases full of Victorian parlour games and stories completed an early life full of ideas for a career in writing.

Sheila shares her time between Gloucestershire and Andalucia with husband Mike and has a large and fascinating family of her own. Lots of inspiration there!

Sadly Mike died in December 2019 and I now live in Warwickshire. I try to put my life experiences into my writing especially about the crucial place that our wonderful green environment plays in the healing process.

LEARNING THROUGH STORY.

I write because I love it and to encourage children to enjoy the wonderful world of books. Each of the chapters in all of my books is a complete short story supporting reading levels in primary KS2. (JK to grade 2)

Young readers find it easy to engage with the characters and empathise with their experiences. Many of the main characters are boys as I want to encourage boys to read and Muttley the dog is a firm favourite, girls love them too!

Educators will find lots of subjects to support the primary curriculum and to stimulate discussion on many areas of personal and emotional development. Home schoolers find my books particularly useful.

I thought about writing a book about refugees as I remember Marianne, an 8 year old who came to live with us for a few weeks in 1957. She was a refugee from Lubeck which was destroyed in WW11. She came with two items of clothing in a little case and returned with a huge amount that my mother, Mollie had made for her and her family. The visit had been arranged through church and it broke both their hearts when she had to go back. I often wonder what happened to her.

"Moving On" is a special book that shows how Sam helps his new neighbours from Syria. I hope this will help children understand how they can help those from troubled countries and how important it is to extend the hand of friendship. Some of the proceeds will be donated to the refugees of Syria and many of my books have been donated to International Book Aid.

This book also has a chapter on cyber bullying and how important it is to talk about it and seek advice.

And, of course, I hope my books are fun! Thank you for reading them. www.sheilahoeman.com