Workshop and Q&A with Elle McNicoll

Suitable for year groups 5, 6 and 7

Elle McNicoll is an award-winning Scottish children’s author. Her debut novel, A Kind of Spark, won the Blue Peter Book Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and was named one of BBC Culture’s 100 Greatest Children’s Books of All Time. 

Elle worked as a writer and consultant on the BBC Children’s and 9 Story live-action TV adaptation of A Kind of Spark, Season 2 of which was released earlier in 2024. She is the author of three further middle-grade novels; Show Us Who You Are, Like a Charm and Like a Curse. Keedie, a prequel to A Kind of Spark, was published by Knights Of on 4th April 2024. Her debut YA novel Some Like it Cold was published by Macmillan Children’s Books in October 2024. 

Elle is an advocate for better representation of neurodiversity in publishing and founder of The Adrien Prize. She currently lives in London. 

Ramya Knox is only five when she first encounters one of ​‘them’. At a family party, an enigmatic stranger demonstrates the power to command the behaviour of all the unwitting guests around her. Ramya is apparently the only person in the room able to defy the mysterious woman’s seemingly innocuous requests.

Fast forward seven years and the death of Ramya’s beloved grandpa prompts her to discover an incredible truth – that extraordinary beings lurk behind the mundane day-to-day world we all see, disguised by something called Glamour. Her grandfather had been writing a book about them – and it’s now up to Ramya to harness her own magic and continue his mission, entering the dangerous world of the Hidden Folk (tribes of kelpies, trolls and mermaids), armed only with the knowledge that she must ​‘Beware the Sirens’.

This is a magic-infused, middle-grade adventure – brilliantly well-paced and engaging, with drama and twists a‑plenty. Ramya is a bright, determined, sassy and hugely likeable character who happens to be dyspraxic, while her cousin Marley provides a quiet and organised assistant, resulting in a satisfying dynamic. The city of Edinburgh provides the attractive contemporary backdrop with plenty of authentic detail that works brilliantly well alongside the magical realism of the story.

Readers of all ages will fall in love with this neurodivergent, beret-rocking protagonist.