We are thrilled to welcome to the blog Tom Palmer, whose newest book Arctic Star is available now.

Read our interview with Tom to find out how this new story stands out from other WW2 themed books, what his research process is like for historical fiction and how he goes about working with Barrington Stoke to making his books super-readable. Then scroll down for the chance to win your own copy...

Review

Book Title: Arctic Star (available here)

Author: Tom Palmer

Illustrator: Tom Clohosy Cole

Publisher: Barrington Stoke

Publication Date: May 2021

Most Suitable for: Years 5-6

Review by: Jane Rew

This book takes its title from the name of the medal presented in 2013 to honour those who served on the Arctic Convoys during World War II and in recognition of the particularly harsh conditions they endured. Tom Palmer has taken facts gathered from the Imperial War Museum, among other sources, to compose a gripping fictional story about three teenage Royal Navy recruits from Plymouth: Frank, Stephen and Joseph. Their resilience, fortitude and courage shine as brightly as the Arctic (North) Star against the surrounding darkness. Their very survival, both physical and mental, is threatened by constant attacks from German U-boats, submarines, planes and, most terrifying of all, the German battleship known as the Scharnhorst – not to mention freezing conditions, fierce storms, shattered dreams and rocky relationships. How will they pull through? Indeed, will they?

The life-and-death struggle is played out until the very last page, but it was no game for those who lived the adventure back in the 1940s – that much is clear. It is also very clear how much the author respects those who served and how determined he is to portray accurately their service to the nation. He has done so with huge success.

This book, with its concluding Author’s Note together with the accompanying online teaching notes available from Tom Palmer’s website, provides an exciting and informative classroom resource for the teaching of WWII as a curriculum topic, besides being a book many children will choose for the sheer enjoyment of reading. A thoroughly recommended read, just like Tom Palmer’s other well-researched and highly readable novels.

Arctic Star is available to purchase online from BookShop.Org or Amazon.

Author Q&A

with Tom Palmer, author of Arctic Star (available here)

Can you tell us a bit about Arctic Star and what inspired it? It’s the story of three young sailors who take part in the Arctic Convoys of the Second World War, culminating with the fierce Battle of North Cape, north of Norway in 1943. My wife used to work onboard HMS Belfast – where some of the book is set – and she pointed out I’d written about the Army and the RAF, but not the Navy. It was something I knew very little about, so thought I should find out. Writers of historical fiction have to walk a fine line between representing real-life events fairly and adding fictional elements to capture the reader into the story. How did you find this balance when you were writing Arctic Star? This is such a good point. It’s difficult not to distort the truth for the purposes of storytelling. I tend to do so much research that I find the stories I need to make it work. As a result very little is made up: it’s all based on the testimony of those who were there. It takes a while, but it’s something I enjoy doing, so it’s okay.

Voyagers on the Arctic Convoys evidently faced their own unique set of challenges, with severe conditions, treacherous waters and adverse conditions. Winston Churchill described it as “the worst journey in the world”. However, the setting provides the story with a lot of tension and excitement, too. What was it like writing this kind of extreme setting and how were you able to research it? Most of it is based on the testimonies of the sailors from the recordings on the Imperial War Museum website, which is why the book is dedicated to them. A hundred hours of gripping interviews. But I have been on a pretty horrific sailing from Newcastle to Norway when we hit a Force 9 gale. It was awful and – even though I wasn’t sick – was utterly terrifying. That helped. That and there are some great Dutch and Norwegian novels about the convoys too, so I gleaned a lot of useful stuff from those.

There is a great wealth of children’s books about World War II, yet your war-themed stories always manage to bring an interesting new angle to learn about. Tell us what first caught your imagination about the stories of the Arctic Convoys? The horror of it, to be honest. How can you stay sane in a ship that is being assailed by storms, ice that could capsize you, submarines, torpedo planes, dive bombers, mines, etc. It’s impossible to imagine. I think that’s why I choose to write about stuff like this: to get my head round it. And to get into the head of the people who did it. And to respect them for that. Arctic Star is published by Barrington Stoke, who specialise in making all of their books super-readable and dyslexia-friendly. How did having this aim in mind affect the way you wrote the story? I’m fascinated to know how this process works – how much of the ‘super-readability’ comes from the author, and how much from the editing and design team? A lot it is to do with design. The research and thought Barrington Stoke put into how they present their books is superb. For me it is the editing that is more involved. I work closely with Ailsa Bathgate from concept to plan to first draft to tenth draft. She challenges me. A lot. And I love that. We bear in mind that we want as many children as possible to enjoy a book. That’s the bottom line. What was it like being a writer during lockdown, and how has it impacted on the writing process for Arctic Star? Worrying. I lost a lot of income from school visits and ended up applying for other jobs I was so panicked. But we came through. Well, so far… The downside for Arctic Star was that I could not visit Plymouth, the Arctic Ocean and Murmansk, the key settings. But I am lucky to have been to the first two before, so I relied on memory and on the wonderful people at Plymouth Libraries who posted me books I needed to read and gave me street directions for my characters. Also, I had a private tour of HMS Belfast while it was shut and that helped enormously. Thanks to IWM for that too!

As well as your very popular historical fiction, your sports-themed books are much-loved in primary schools, particularly for their ability to engage reluctant readers. Why do you think these books have been so popular, and do you have any plans for books or schools’ work around the upcoming Euro 2020? I think football books do well in general. I did my best to research the football books so that they come across as authentic and not fanciful. Maybe it’s that. Or luck. Yes, I am doing a live story for EURO 2020 with the FA and the National Literacy Trust. About two young people who attend the tournament with the help of a ghost. Probably more fanciful than authentic, thinking about it. Finally, if you could hop in a fictional time machine and visit any time or place from your own stories, which would it be and why?

Iron Age Britain. That’s in Pitch Invasion. I would love to see what that looked like. I don’t really trust what the likes of Tacitus had to say about all that.

> Order Arctic Star on BookShop.Org

> Order Arctic Star on Amazon

> Visit Tom Palmer’s Website

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Tom Palmer is originally from Leeds and credits articles about football with getting him into reading as a child. He draws on this experience in his top-selling sports fiction for children, including the series Football Academy and Foul Play. Tom has a background in reader development and today travels all over the UK with his immensely popular rugby and football reading games. Tom lives in Halifax.

*****Book Giveaway!****

Thanks to the publishers at Barrington Stoke, we have a copy of Arctic Star to give away to our followers.

To enter, follow @booksfortopics on Twitter and RT the giveaway tweet.

Giveaway closes 11.59pm 16th May 2021 (UK only)

Where next? >

Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub

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