books – Hannah Moffatt, word wrangler

If you liked Small!, you’ll love…Grumpfort!

I know I’m slow to the Grumpfort praise party (It’s already been a Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month) but it’s such a joyful book that I couldn’t resist shouting about it too. Out of all the children’s books I’ve read in the last couple of years, I think this is the book fans of Small! would enjoy most.

Harvey and Mo would make great friends

While my main character Harvey struggles to master the basics of being a giant, poor old Mo is an equally hopeless Warden (a monster hunter who is expected to step up and protect the village of Bogfoss). Both start their stories with low self esteem and an equally low ability to swing axes, maces or bashing clubs. I was rooting for poor old Mo the moment I met him.

It’s got monsters galore

If you had fun meeting the giants, swamp goblins and skelephant in Small!, you’ll have a great time getting to know the monsters living in the forest around Bogfoss. But don’t believe everything you read in A Beginner’s Guide to Monsterology. Just as my giants had the wrong idea about (some) humans, the humans in Bogfoss have got monsters all wrong, too!

The Grumpfort cast of characters are utterly loveable (especially the sausage-roll-loving Snotwoggle, Bork whose keeness to make Mo his best friend gives me the same fuzzy feeling I get from writing about Harvey’s friendship with Walloping Toenail). And the book’s message about not believing everything you read, or judging every monster by the size of its teeth is deftly done all the way through.

Jamie’s illustrations are fabulous

Jamie’s writing is so immersive that everything is easy to picture. But his illustrations inject even more life into each page. In fact, they capture the action so well (especially the graphic novel-style panels and full-page spreads) that you can feel how exciting the story’s going to be before you’ve read a single page.

If you’re looking for a fast, funny, heartwarming story of friendship, bravery and sausage rolls, I definitely recommend giving Grumpfort a go!

Pile of Grumpfort copies on a table at Waterstones Piccadilly

I’m a 2025 GLL-supported author! Here’s what that means…

1. If you live in Greenwich, you’ll find Small! and Small Bites Back in your local library

This is a huuuge win for me. (I was always a little sad not to have any books in the libraries closest to home, but I get that shelf space and budgets are limited, so there are no guarantees you’ll find your book on a shelf…)

As the foundation covers libraries in Wandsworth, Bromley, Lincolnshire and Dudley, you could find extra copies there too. Look out for the GLL Literary Foundation sticker to spot all this year’s supported authors.

Look out for copies of my books with the GLL sticker!

2. I’ll be running more local events

I’ve only lived in Greenwich for the last two years and I’d been looking for ways to get closer to the local community. Being a GLL author is perfect for helping me do that. The libraries near me often invite whole classes in for creative sessions with authors. I ran my first one for Year 2s at Invicta Primary on World Book Week. I have a few more school events in the diary and one public arts and crafts session, too.

If you fancy creating some Stinking Sinking Swamp-inspired book gobbler bookmarks with your little ones over half term come along to:

Greenwich Centre Library
28th May
2pm

Here’s a book gobbler I made earlier

3. I’m part of a brilliant support group of authors and librarians

There are 20 GLL supported authors this year and five of us are from Greenwich. We recently had the chance to meet at a very fancy do in Battersea Library. Authors, councillors, and our local library champions (librarians who’ll be helping us run events and spread the word about our stories) all gathered to celebrate the new foundation.

As this is the foundation’s first year, we still don’t know exactly what’s in store. But we’re already being invited to awards dos and getting the chance to write articles for bookish magazines. And as well as picking up a nice little bursary to pay for events, we’ve got the chance to go on free virtual training sessions on handy things like managing author finances. Thank you GLL!

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings. You can read more about the GLL Literary Foundation here. #GLF25

Here we are at the launch event – photo courtesy of GLL