Page 7 - Athelstan Argus - July 2021

VIRTUAL AUTHOR VISIT

Students from across The Athelstan Trust have recently had the chance to ‘e-meet’ Alexandra
Sheppard, author of the young adult novel, ‘Oh My Gods’:

Life as a half-mortal teenager should be epic.

But, for Helen Thomas, it's tragic.

She's just moved in with her dorky dad and self-absorbed
older siblings - who happen to be the ancient Greek gods,
living incognito in London!

Between keeping her family's true identities secret, trying to
impress her new friends, and meeting an actually cute boy,
Helen's stress levels are higher than Mount Olympus.

She needs to rein in her chaotic family before they blow their
cover AND her chances at a half-normal social life.

Or is Helen fated for an embarrassment of mythical proportions?

Each school was invited to include students from Year 7 or 8 to benefit from this virtual visit and
through the ‘magic’ of Teams, whole year groups simultaneously experienced a question and
answer session with Alexandra Sheppard, finding out about her journey into becoming a
published writer. Some students also attended a writing workshop with the author.

In their English lessons, all students involved had the chance to look at the opening of the novel
before the author event and they were encouraged to enter
a creative writing competition, writing from the 1 person
st
perspective of a normal teenager who has a God for a
relative or friend or teacher etc. and exploring the (often

comic!) ways in this affects their life. Alexandra Sheppard
selected the winning entry and signed a copy of her novel as
the prize.

She was impressed by the high quality and enjoyed reading

the entries. This was the story, written by a student from
Bradon Forest that she chose as the winner (page 8).