PRIMARY TEACHER WRITES CHILDREN'S LOCKDOWN STORYBOOK DOWNLOADED OVER 50,000 TIMES

‘How to Not Go to School: Parsley Mimblewood Saves the World!’, a story book originally written by primary school teacher, Mike Forde, to help his year 3/4 class in N. Yorkshire deal with school shutdown, has now been downloaded over 50,000 times, shared by hundreds of schools with children and parents and even translated into Italian. After sharing the story on Facebook, Mike connected first with Sarah Beswick, an early fan and art hobbyist, and then professional illustrator Rebecca Sampson who collaborated to create the illustrations for the story book, now free to download online.

Mike said "I’m overwhelmed and humbled to see how far this little book has gone. I wanted to give the 28  children in my class a fun story that would help them come to terms with this huge upheaval and now thousands of families are reading about Parsley Mimblewood and her adventures. I’m so grateful to all the people who have read, shared and helped make this happen.”

Each chapter explores a different issue children may be experiencing during lockdown, interwoven with Parsley’s adventures with her brother Bo, their nanny goats and an eclectic group of imaginary friends.

Rebecca added “I had been looking for a way to contribute during the crisis and when Mike contacted me and I read the story, I was instantly taken by how well it dealt with the situation in a way that would resonate with children, without making Coronavirus the dominant theme. It was a rich, whimsical world which was a joy to illustrate and working with Mike has been fantastic.”

To make it as widely accessible as possible to families across the country, the book is free to download on its dedicated website where people can also donate to support the NHS.
https://parsleymimblewood.wordpress.com/