My Favourite People by Rob Keeley – Book Review
My Favourite People by Rob Keeley – Book Review
My Favourite People
Author – Rob Keeley
Publisher – Troubador
Pages – 20
Released – 28th April 2018
ISBN-13 – 978-1789013313
Format – ebook, paperback
Reviewer – Stacey
Rating – 4 Stars
I received a free copy of this book
Post contains affiliate links.
My favourite people are…
all in this book. And I’m going to tell you all about them. You can meet my Auntie Meg and Uncle Steve, my best friend Alice, my favourite footballer and the band that’s going to save the world. Then I’ll tell you about a brilliant idea I’ve had…
Following his success as a writer of novels and short stories for older children – including the ongoing Spirits series, listed for the Bath Children’s Novel and Independent Author Book Awards – Rob Keeley makes his picture book debut with My Favourite People, a fun illustrated journey through childhood and the friends and family who make it possible.
It’s an amusing and insightful look at the world around its central character, an excellent read-aloud or read-alone. It encourages young people to look at relationships and recognise their importance. It will appeal to girls and boys of lower primary age – and to parents and teachers reading the book aloud.
Author Rob Keeley has written a young children’s picture book about a little boys favourite people. Starting with the child’s Aunt Meg and Uncle Steve, he then moves on to footballer Leroy and best friend Alice, plus many more characters. The Little boy explains why each of the people are his favourite.
The story is very short at only 16 pages long. The perfect length for pre-schoolers, or those just learning to read. Each page is beautifully illustrated with bright, colourful drawings that complement the book and are eye-catching.
At the back of the book, Rob has written four pages of suggested activities to accompany each page. These activities are all manageable whether at home or for a teacher to do with his/her class.
The whole concept of the book has been well thought out and written with engagement in mind. My Favourite People is a lovely book and Rob can certainly be proud of his first ever children’s picture book. It looks to me like the little boy has lots of wonderful people around him.
Reviewed by Stacey
Purchase online from:
Amazon.co.uk – Amazon.com
About the Author
Rob was born in Wirral, Merseyside. Because he was a wheelchair user, the authorities placed him in a special school, aged three. Rob, however, had other ideas. Over the next twenty years he worked his way up to mainstream schooling, college and then university, gained a degree in Law and qualified as a barrister before working for several years in the third sector, including a stint in children’s and family services. He has also worked as a volunteer classroom assistant helping young people with reading and I.T.
Writing his first story aged seven, his first short play aged eleven and first being published at fifteen, Rob wrote for several magazines before his first book for children, The Alien in the Garage and Other Stories, was published in 2011. He has since written two more collections of children’s stories, one of which, The Dinner Club and Other Stories, was longlisted for the International Rubery Book Award.
He has now published the first four novels in his Spirits series for children, the first of which, Childish Spirits, gained him a Distinction for his MA in Creative Writing before being longlisted for the Bath Children’s Novel Award and nominated for the People’s Book Prize in 2015.
Rob also has BBC writing experience with Chain Gang and Newsjack for Radio 4 Extra. He has recently studied Screenwriting and Filmmaking. His books have been used in schools, libraries and at literary festivals and he is in demand for his author workshops, which one teacher even described as “inspirational”!
You can find out more about Rob in his interview – ‘The Writing Life of: Rob Keeley‘
