The excitement is already at fever pitch at the prospect of catching up about the Geek Girl and Ruby Redfort series, says Muswell Hill Children’s Bookshop’s Kate Agnew.

Ham & High: Lauren Child. Picture: Polly HancockLauren Child. Picture: Polly Hancock (Image: Archant)

We’re looking forward to a flurry of fantastic author visits over the next few weeks at the Children’s Bookshop with some of the big names in children’s fiction coming to meet their fans in Muswell Hill. Amongst our younger teenage audience the excitement is already close to fever pitch at the prospect of a visit from one of the UK’s best-selling YA writers, Holly Smale. Known to millions as the author of the much-loved Geek Girl series, her novels feature an intelligent but appealingly awkward, self-deprecatory teenage heroine who is, initially at least, preoccupied with the everyday world of school but whose life takes an unexpected turn when she is spotted by a modelling agency.

Based, albeit loosely, on the author’s own background (she spent time modelling before going to university), the books take place in a world that moves from being ordinary and familiar to one that is, for many of the novels’ readers, a glamorous day-dream. Meanwhile parents and teachers appreciate the fact that the much-enjoyed series belongs firmly in the “clean teen” category: mild romantic interest there may be but nothing more, meaning parents don’t need to worry when their 10 and 11-year-old daughters reach eagerly for these “teenage” looking books.

Holly Smale is coming to us after school on Friday November 6. Then, later in November, we are lucky enough to have the hugely popular Lauren Child visiting the Children’s Bookshop to mark the publication of not one, but two new books: in the Charlie and Lola series there is the delightful One Thing; and the next installment of her thrilling Ruby Redfort series, Pick Your Poison, will be out on November 19 just two days before Lauren visits the Children’s Bookshop on Saturday November 21.

The latest adventure sees our redoubtable undercover agent heroine having to suppress a clutch of very nasty rumours, not to mention threats from some hideously poisonous creatures, in a breath-taking adventure in which she is tested close to her limit. Lauren, who is a Primrose Hill resident and a much loved favourite in Muswell Hill, is known world-wide for her quirky, entertaining heroines and her sharp, sparky style and her fans are eagerly awaiting the new novel.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Lauren Child and Holly Smale share a perceptive understanding of both the ordinary, everyday world and the extraordinary dreams and aspirations of their young readers for whom it will be a real treat to meet their idols in person this November. We certainly can’t wait!