Christina Gabbitas

Awards

• Libraries Patron for Children and Young People
• Best Publisher Award - People's Book Prize
• WINNER of Best Achievement Award - People's Book Prize 2019
• WINNER of Dame Beryl Bainbridge First Time Author Award 2015 - Peoples Book Prize
• Great British Entrepreneur Awards
• WINNER of Yorkshire Women of Achievement in Education 2016 - Sue Ryder
• Peoples Book Prize Finalist 2017
• Peoples Book Prize Finalist 2014
• 2016
• 2015

Organisations

• Society Of Authors
• Honorary Member of NSPCC Council

Details

Christina Gabbitas :

Christina is a children's author who always loved to read rhyming books and poetry in her early years. She penned some stories that she stored away in a box file for many years, thinking that one day she would do something with them. Welcome the the World of Felicity Fly was born on 2012. The series teaches children about the world around them with fun. The topics include: Pollination, Healthy Food, Teamwork and Fears. 

Christina's work continues to be successful and has since added ten more titles to her collection. All books have educational elements, from plastic pollution, adoption to drugs and knife crime. A selection of titles have been commissioned by organisations, listed below.

Born in Blackburn Lancashire she spent the first twenty two years of her life, before moving to various parts of Yorkshire, where she now lives. (passports for both)

Christina is also Founder of Children's Literature Festivals charity, her patrons include: Actress Jenny Agutter OBE and Michael Bradley of the Undertones band.

Partnerships/Book Commissions

North Yorkshire Police & North Yorkshire Police Fire & Crime Commissioners Office

Christina has been delivering sessions to children from Year 6 to Year 10 with North Yorkshire Police using her story and animation No More Knives or County Lines. 

Humberside Police North East Lincolnshire

Delivering sessions with Humberside Police to work within schools from Year 5, using her story No more Knives or County Lines.

York Castle Museum - Book Commission and Workshops  

Book commission with York Castle Museum. Christina was set the task of writing a story that could incorporate some of the exhibits in the museum to help engage children, staging read aloud interactive sessions in the workhouse of the museum.

Police & Crime Commissioners Office of Humberside 

Working partnership to produce an online resource story, addressing knife crime, gangs and county lines (aged 10-16) Christina also be engaged with these age groups with a poetry initiative. www.nomoreknifecrime.com 

Ribble Rivers Trust - Partnership with Save Us Story (addressing plastic pollution)

Held sessions with the Ribble Rivers Trust with the story Save Us. This is a rescue story about a seal, sea turtle and whale that also boasts a poem that the children can recite. 

Blackburn BID (Business Improvement District)

Christina was commissioned by Blackburn BID to help bring magic back into their town. The story received an accolade from actress Jenny Agutter, likening her writing to E.Nesbit and Lewis Carroll with a bit of Narnia thrown in.

Initiatives 

Poems and Pictures National Initiative - An Invitation To Capture The Primary School Nation. www.poemsandpictures.co.uk/competition

This initiative was first set up in Jan 2013, gaining support from the then Education Secretary.

Children are invited to write an eight line rhyme on chosen topics, the 2018 topic was 'The Sea' and the inspiration for this was the BBC Blue Planet 2. The competition will opens from Jan to end April each year.

Judges included, Dr Stephen Fear, Ambassador in Residence at The British Library, The Poetry Society, The Victoria and Albert Museum Of Childhood and Michael Bradley, bassist with The Undertones to name a few.

BBC Breakfast

BBC Breakfast at the end of April 2019 with added interviews on BBC 5 Live, and numerous BBC radio stations (12)

BBC Radio - Christina has been interviewed live and read excerpts from the stories on air. on BBC Radio Leeds, BBC Radio Sheffield , BBC Radio Lancashire , BBC Radio Newcastle, BBC Radio Humberside and BBC Radio York. 

Book Signing and Reading Events

I have and regularly stage book signing/reading events, at a number of bookshops.

Literature Festival & Festivals

Previous Events

York Castle Museum 

Selby Children's Literature Festival 

Blackburn Children's Literature Festival 

Speaking  - Early Years Conference, Euston Road, London with Share Some Secrets

NSPCC AGM - Invitation to be Honorary Member of NSPCC Council 4th October

Book launch and book signing WHSmith, Sheffield Meadowhall. 27th October 2018

University of Central Lancashire: Science Festival 

Bradford Safeguarding Week - Share Some Secrets

Keighley Literature Festival

Reach Out, Speak Out - Abuse of Power in a Position of Trust , St Pauls House Leeds

Previous Literature Festivals:

Sheffield Children's Literature Festival

Helmsley Literature Festival

Doncaster Literature Festival

Sharjah Children's Reading Festival 2015, 2016 and 2017 - United Arab Emirates

I have been invited to encourage children reading with storytelling and writing with my national initiative in Sharjah for three consecutive years. Hind Abdullah Lenaid, the head of the festival, assisted in the overall judging panel of the poetry initiative for these years.

Mrs Sunderland Music, Drama & Speech Festival in 2014

Christina spent a whole day at the Huddersfield Mrs Sunderland Festival working mainly with Key Stage 2 children, but also with some adults. The children benefitted from her enthusiasm and were inspired to write poems during their one hour session. The adults had a good discussion led by Christina and were also encouraged to freely express their feelings in words and poems. Everyone went away having learnt something new and having enjoyed their time at the Festival.

Best wishes

Andrea Hampshire

School Visits

Bankside Primary School, Leeds

Thank you so much Christina for an absolutely amazing 2 days. The children loved your stories about Felicity Fly and were mesmerised by your different accents. They were enthralled with the stories and some wished that you could have stayed with them longer. A very busy afternoon with year 6 produced some fantastic starts to budding poets.

Thank you again for visiting - Sam Coolican, Bankside Primary School. 

Wakefield Girls School

The purpose of Christina’s visit was in fact two fold as a number of poems written by our girls won a national competition which meant that they were entered in to one of her books.

The Upper Juniors wrote rhyming couplet poetry about their favourite food for the Mrs Sunderland Music and Poetry Writing Festival. The poems were entered into the National Poems and Pictures, Eight Line Rhyme Competition judged by Christina, with Ella Shaw in 5JC being placed second and sixteen Year 5 and 6 girls' poems chosen to be published in the national poetry book, volume 2, ‘An Invitation that Captured the Primary School Nation’.

The book has now been published and these girls, some of whom are now in Year 7, posed for a picture on their lunch break for the Wakefield Express with Christina and a copy of the book.

In the afternoon Year 3 sat in a circle to listen to Christina read her highly popular ‘Felicity Fly’ books, where they sat captivated as she used numerous accents for the characters in her books, helping to demonstrate that people pronounce words differently. Christina is a big believer in writing in rhyme and reading in an animated way, using accents and tone, to encourage children to want to listen to books.

Thank you very much for visiting school yesterday to help us celebrate National Poetry Day.  The poetry workshops were very successful as you inspired Year 5 to write some very good rhyming poetry and the girls were extremely proud to share their work with you. Year 3 had fun listening to your 'Felicity Fly' stories and liked your voices that brought the characters alive. They loved participating in the stories too.

The Y6 and Y7 girls whose poetry is featured in your book 'An Invitation that Captured the Primary School Nation' were very excited to meet you and you gave them encouragement to continue to write.

Angela Wimbush - Deputy Head, Wakefield Girls School

http://www.wgsf.org.uk/wghs-junior/news/view/christina-gabbitas-inspires-poetry-writing-

Silcoates School, Wakefield

The highlight of the day, was taking part in a workshop led by the visiting author Christina Gabbitas.  The children were transported into the wonderful world of Felicity Fly and her friends as we were privileged to listen to Christina read her stories.  All of the children went to great lengths (along with the staff!) to dress suitably for the occasion and an army of colourful bugs could be seen around school!

Louise Leach - Silcoates Primary

Monk Fryston Primary School

'The children had a fantastic morning listening to Christina's Felicity Fly stories. They were enchanted by the fantastic accents that Christina adopted for each of the characters and they thoroughly enjoyed learning the Felicity Fly song. The children have been inspired by Christina's visit with many of them now wanting to become authors themselves!' 

Thanks again for your visit. - Laura Otter

Peasdowne Primary, Bath 

On Friday 7^th March Christina Gabbitas will visited YR, Y1 and Y2 children in our school. She read her stories to the children, sung songs and answered questions. During the whole school assembly, she also publicised her poetry competition. Here are some pictures and comments of the afternoon. 

"I loved the accents that she used - they sounded funny!" (Darcie Y2) 

"I liked the Dragon fly who spoke Jamaican" - from Felicity Fly in the Garden (Josh Y2) 

"My favourite part was when the animals were in the bathroom and they saved the spider because they all worked together to help him" - from Felicity Fly meets Veronica Vac (Leah Y2)

 Mrs Trueman, Library and Information Manager

 St James Primary,Skelmersdale

Hurlingham School Putney, London

Southroyd Primary School, Leeds

Christina came into our school to work with our Foundation stage and KS1. She engaged the children with the Felicity Fly song which we put a few actions to and delighted them whilst reading them some of her books, in many different fabulous accents which the children found very funny! Thank you Christina. 

Highfields Academy - Doncaster

 It was wonderful that you came to Highfields. We felt really honoured! .I wish you lots of success with the Felicity Fly stories……we all enjoyed the characters and will use them in future class discussions about the themes you suggested. 

Once again, many thanks!! Caroline Bean - Principal

Hessle Mount School - Hull

Thank you so much Christina for a thoroughly entertaining afternoon.The children here at Hessle Mount loved your stories about Felicity Fly and her friends; having the stories read aloud with her amazing accents had the children enthralled. We enjoyed hearing about how your ideas to write materialised and learnt about your determination and dedication to getting your ideas published. The children have been inspired to put pencil to paper and are presently writing their own poems about friendship and teamwork.

Many thanks once again for a lovely afternoon and good luck with your next story. We look forward to reading it.

Sarah Cutting - Hessle Mount School , Hull

Storytelling - I love to read the stories to children, in all the different character accents, which makes it quite entertaining and engaging for the them. The second book also boasts a 'sing along song', which can also be fun and interactive.

Poetry Workshop's I held a number of these workshops at the Mrs Sunderland Dance, Music and Drama Festival, which proved very successful. I encourage all children, to 'have a go' at writing. Each child is individual and I feel they all have capabilities.

I am happy to talk about any requests you may have. I live in Yorkshire, but I'm willing to travel. 

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