Teacher achieves five star rating for children’s book

A West Yorkshire school teacher is celebrating five star reviews following the launch of a children’s book dealing with the themes of individuality and diversity.

Bianca Vickers has written and illustrated The Travelling Turtle’s First Adventure which is aimed at three to nine year olds (Early Years, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2) and deals with the twinned themes of spreading kindness and appreciating everyone’s uniqueness.

Bianca, who is based in Leeds explains: “The book follows the journey of a Turtle who meets new characters on his travels. Through each encounter, Turtle learns something new. Though we all have similarities and differences, these are what make us all unique and individual. Turtle travels through the oceans and continents around the world, and celebrates kindness, diversity and individuality on his journey.”

The book was created during the lockdown of 2020 and self-published in November 2020. It is on sale on Amazon and has quickly achieved five-star reviews.

Bianca says: “This project began with a series of sketches, and I created rhymes to accompany my illustrations. Each of these rhymes carries a message about the beauty of the diversity in our world.”

She adds: “They say you should write from what you know. I have a love for nature, adventure and the world, and my artistic flair inspired me to create illustrations, which originally began as ‘doodles’ before becoming digitized ready for my debut children’s book.”

Bianca is currently completing two follow-on stories.

The five-star online feedback from readers includes a range of positive comments: “The book helps not only with the children understanding about the world around them, but it is also written in rhyme which is perfect for their development of language and reading.”

“This book delicately addresses issues of diversity and culture, in a way that children can understand. It’s educational on many levels; geography, nature, culture, diversity and the importance of being kind.”

“This is a short, wonderful read. Children will understand the meanings behind the travel tales - to love, be kind. Whatever creed, race, or belief, we are all the same.”