Children become best-sellers

A GROUP of primary schoolchildren who created their own book have become best-sellers in the book charts.

Sixty-one Year 5 and 6 pupils at Anston Greenlands compiled a war anthology after studying conflict through the ages and titled it Shadows of War, which they have now released as an online book — which reached number seven in the young adult historical fiction chart

Teacher Kate Roberts said the youngsters had been learning about how children are affected by conflict, from World War One up to today.

As part of the school’s ongoing support for the charity War Child, the classes decided to release a book to raise money for the charity.

Kate said: “In the book it’s mainly writing to do with World War Two with lots of stories going back in time, or letters written by the pupils imagining they were in the trenches, and there is poetry, too.”

Pupils and staff held a launch event to encourage people to download the book at the same time, so they could climb up the best seller rankings.

Pupils also held readings and sold badges and T-shirts with the book’s front cover on.

Shadows of War, Anston Greenlands’ first ever eBook, made it to number one in a range of different charts overnight, including children’s eBooks, short stories and children’s historical fiction and Military and Wars.

Kate added: “Shadows of War reached an impressive number 18 in the overall children’s fiction chart.

“In the young adult historical fiction chart, we got to number seven, just above Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful, John Boyne’s The Boy in Striped Pyjamas and Jacqueline Wilson’s Hetty Feather.

“In just a few hours, our ranking amongst all Kindle books sold in the UK climbed an astonishing 127,128 places from number 128,086 to number 958.

“We are so proud of our enterprising pupils and their first ever book launch.”

The school has previously raised £1,000 for War Child, which gives on-site support for children affected by conflict, by releasing a charity single which reached the top 40.

Kate added: “We try to do things that are a bit different and find these exciting events for the children to get involved in.”

All profits from downloading the £1.99 book from Amazon’s Kindle store go to War Child.

The pupils are now busy organising their next fundraiser, The Big Bash In Aid Of War Child, which will be held next Thursday (March 26) and feature comedy, music and magic, and is open to everyone.