A brief summary of yourself and your book, Lark the Shark

My name in Natalie, literature has always been my passion as a child and adult too. My son Henry also shares this love and when he had homework about what pollution meant to him. It was the perfect opportunity to write a story together, combining our love for shark conservation and looking after our wonderful planet.

You have a unique story in that Lark the Shark is written by both yourself and your son Henry, how did the two of you decide to write Lark the Shark?

Writing a book with Henry was such a wonderful bonding experience that I will never forget. Back in 2019 when he had his homework about pollution, I said to Henry “shall we write about water pollution?”. I was shocked to learn that he didn’t even know what it was! This was before Seaspiracy and water pollution being on the schools curriculum. I google it and showed him. He was shocked and he said “mummy what can we do to help?” That’s when we came up with a friendly shark that would clean up all the litter from the sea.

We wanted to change the stigma about sharks being scary and bad. While also touching on inspiring children about the importance of water pollution and recycling. I knew we had wrote something special and that Larks journey had begun.

How did Henry and yourself make decisions on the story and share the load of creative decisions?

We both wrote down our ideas on paper about pollution, sharks and then after we wrote our first sentence it all just started to flow.

We also chose to make our story rhyme, which helps children remember our story and also makes it fun.

Is there a message you wish to deliver with Lark the Shark?

Sharks numbers around the world are declining. We want everyone to respect, appreciate, understand what a wonderful fish the shark is and without it our eco system would not survive.

What feedback have you had on your books that you’ve been most proud of?

We are so happy and proud that our book is loved by children around the world. It still makes me tear up when people say they love our book and Lark is their children's favourite character. Knowing this, makes us so happy our message is being understood.

At the moment I am currently going into schools to read our book in interactive book reading sessions to promote these important topics. The children really understand our book and I get lots of amazing feedback from teachers.

Do you have any additional titles in the works and if so, will you be staying within the children’s genre?

Henry and I have wrote five more stories about Lark and his great adventures. Lark will be continuing to clean up all the litter from the sea but he will also be helping his friends along the way.

Do you have any advice for anyone writing their first children’s book?

The best advice I can offer is always write everything done so you do not forget it!! I would also say to always believe in yourself as you are your biggest critic.

Natalie and Henry Newman’s Lark the Shark

is available in Paperback and eBook.

Find out more about Lark the Shark here.

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