15 June 2009

SHOWCASE: Shen Roddie

Shen Roddie was born in Singapore but she now lives in Oxford. She is the author of over 30 picture books including Sandbear, Toes are to Tickle and Please Don't chat to the Bus Driver. Several of her stories have been shown on children's television programmes in the UK and Australia.

She began her career as a graduate journalist and fondly remembers interviewing the crew of Apollo 17 — the last men to walk on the moon! "The moon wasn't particularly interesting. What was staggering was seeing the earth for the first time, all blue and precious and fragile and knowing it was being ripped apart by man's hostility to man. That changed their lives forever," she recalled.

Shen has also worked as head of media for a large oil company, before becoming a copywriter, radio presenter and for the last 15 years, a children’s writer. When not writing, she throws herself into the many study courses Oxford offers, runs occasional reading and creative thinking sessions for kids as well as looking after the coffers of the Writers in Oxford.

She loves travel and has lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, London and Holland before settling in Oxford with a husband, two children and a rather obese cat called Bubbles.

Name : Shen Roddie
Location : Oxford, UK
Web : www.bloomsbury.com, www.Answers.Com
Contact: shen@roddie.co.uk


Bibliography - a selection:
Henry's Box
Simon Says
Whoever's Heard of A Hibernating Pig!
Chicken Pox
Mrs Wolf
Mini-Beasty's Itch
Don't Be Silly, Mrs. Nellie!
Helpful Henry
Best of Friends (Too Close Friends - USA)
Goodbye, Hello!
The Great Egg Race
Shipwreck!
Goatee's Pumpkin
From This to That
The House that Pig Built
The Gossipy Parrot (Bloomsbury, illustrator Michael Terry)
Sandbear
Please Don't Chat To The Bus Driver
The Selfish Crocodile and Other Animals