I'm really excited that Emmy Levels Up has been acquired by Oxford University Press and will be published in April 2021. I’m so thrilled to be working with OUP, who have understood the story from the very beginning.
Emmy Levels Up is a book about a girl who beats her bullies with the power of videogames. Online, Emmy is a star gamer with fans who love to watch her videos. At school, Emmy is a weirdo with bad handwriting and horrible fashion sense and no dad. Can Emmy level up, join forces with some new friends, and beat the bullies? In Emmy Levels Up I want to show that videogames aren’t a waste of time. They can be empowering, creative and give children a place to belong when the "real" world is telling them they don’t fit in.
I also wanted to show what verbal bullying looks like. My experience of verbal bullying was that it was hard to tell anyone about because it was hard to explain exactly what was happening. I want kids in the same situation to be able to point to this book and say, "It's like that! That's what's happening to me!"
This book started in a workshop on the Bath Spa Writing for Young People MA in the autumn of 2016. I'm so excited that everyone will finally get to read it!
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