Pooja Puri
Pooja has loved writing stories since she was a child. She first tasted publishing success with her short story, ‘Chess’, and later graduated from King’s College London with a degree in English anguage and literature. Whilst at university she read for a publishing house and has since worked in the education sector. In 2014, she was chosen as a winner of the Ideas Tap Writers’ Centre Norwich Inspires competition. In 2017, she successfully completed an MA in writing for young people at Bath Spa University. Her debut novel, The Jungle, was released in 2017 and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2018.
She is currently working on her second book, a historical novel set in the Elizabethan era. Pooja is interested in exploring the idea of boundaries and experimenting with different voices. Based in London, she is represented by Lauren Gardner at the Bell Lomax Moreton Agency.
Books
A Robot Squashed My Teacher
Author: Pooja Puri Illustrator: Allen Fatimaharan
Publisher: Macmillan
Interest age: 9-11
Reading age: 8+
The story races along at a furious pace, and is packed full of laughs, hilarious antics and imaginative inventions. The short chapters are bursting with black-and-white illustrations, helping readers to visualise the many weird and wonderful gadgets which feature throughout the wacky tale.
The Jungle
Author: Pooja Puri
Publisher: Ink Road
Interest age: 12-16
Reading age: 12+
Mico is a young African boy who's lost his family and livelihood, and is trying to get to safety in England. Stuck in the notorious, makeshift refugee camp at Calais that became known as the Jungle, Mico never has enough to eat, and like many refugees, has no money either. Hunger and difficult circumstances make the lure of joining the gangs and turning to c…