Coming to England: An Inspiring True Story Celebrating the Windrush Generation

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I learnt that the time zones changed as people sailed to England to find work. Floella took every opportunity, tried her best, worked hard and, as she became a politician in the House of Lords, she met the Queen! Floella’s ambition was always to meet the Queen. When she was all grown up, she did. She became Dame Floella, working in the House of Lords to help others. If you began your journey in Ukraine, you do not need to complete a passenger locator form, or take a COVID-19 test before travel to England or on arrival. To avoid any confusion over naming, if a storm is the remnants of a tropical storm or hurricane that has moved across the Atlantic, the name would not be changed and would follow the established method of being referred to as 'ex-hurricane Ophelia' for example. Did you enjoy the book? Explain your answer if it is yes or no.Yes. Moving to England was not easy.

From 4am, Tuesday 7 December all people aged 12 years and over must also take a PCR or LFD COVID-19 test before they travel to England from abroad. Floella’s illustrator, Diane Ewen, shades the differences between Trinidad and London, showing Floella’s inner life and making things visual for her readers. There are lots of new things for everyone to learn about: Trinidad, the House of Lords and the British Empire. As her dad wanted to be a Jazz musician, I learnt about the music side of things too! This book is about her life as a little girl who came to England. She always had a lot of ambition. In the book she says, “I dreamt of meeting the Queen.” She came from a very positive family; as they say in the book, “We have been invited to go to England!” They were among many people who went to work in England.Which of the characters (if any) did you dislike and why?Jacob said he didn’t like Mardie because “she left the children behind.” Coming to England is a picture book about the life of Floella Benjamin. Reading it will tell you about how she achieved her dream.

People who qualify as fully vaccinated must quarantine and take a PCR test before the end of day 2 after they arrive in England. Lateral flow tests will not be accepted. I loved the colourful illustrations showing life in Trinidad and less colourful ones in England. I would recommend this book to everyone: 10 out of 10. Coming to England is such a popular book that it seemed a great idea to make a picture book version so younger children can enjoy it too. People might think it's easy writing a picture book, but it's not, especially when you've got quite a complicated real life story such as Coming to England. You do not need to take any COVID-19 travel tests or self-isolate on arrival in England if you qualify as fully vaccinated. This moving tale not only explores a key part of British history from a child’s perspective, but also highlights the importance of celebrating diversity and welcoming new people into the community. It is an inspirational read for children who may have had similar experiences and is ideal to encourage compassion and tolerance in young people. This edition is accompanied by vibrant watercolour illustrations which help bring the tale to life.

Music Played

Was the plot exciting, thought-provoking, serious or light-hearted (or any mixture of these)?Sad. Floella was bullied. Coming to England – An Inspiring True Story Celebrating the Windrush Generation by Floella Benjamin and illustrated by Diane Ewen is published by Macmillan Children's Books on 8 October.

Owl or Pussycat? How Michael Morpurgo and Polly Dunbar find their inspiration in childhood memories I love the way BookTrust gives books to all children and parents. That is so important. Before a child can read the words, a picture is telling the story and connections are being made - for life. Children are connecting all the time and they are seeing things for the first time, and that's why it's such a responsibility to get things right. They've all seen the Queen, and we had to find an element of how the story can come good, to give people hope. So it was lovely to have the story of me dreaming about meeting the Queen as a young girl, and then eventually meeting her at the end with my Mum and Dad looking on so proudly. I had to go through bad times, but I feel my life is a happy ending so I needed to give the book a happy ending. Those were the stepping stones I used to get through the book, and leave everything else aside. Which of the characters (if any) did you dislike and why? I didn’t like the children who were unkind to Floella. To ensure we are in line with the US National Hurricane Centre naming conventions, we are not going to include names which begin with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z. This will maintain consistency for official storm naming in the North Atlantic. How are storm names chosen?Was the plot exciting, thought-provoking, serious or light-hearted (or any mixture of these)?Exciting. Not only did Floella learnt about England, I did too!! What made the history or the time it was set interesting? Jacob said he liked the book “my teacher sent me this because we are learning about different people.” Which of the characters did you find most interesting and why?Jacob liked Dardie the best because “he could play the saxophone.”

We receive thousands of suggestions throughout the year from the public and this years list hasbeen compiled from these public suggestions, plus suggestions from Met Éireann andKNMI, choosing some of the more popular names and names that reflect the diversity of the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands. What does climate change mean for storms? What made the history or the time it was set in interesting to you?Yes. I live in England but the story was set way before I was born. This book told me how important it is never to give up and always believe in yourself. Floella overcame many problems. She travelled on a floating house to England where people were unfriendly at school. After a while though, she made lots of friends and was happy. In a way, it was the same when I was writing my novel Coming to England for older children, which doesn't have even one racist word in the book. But if I was writing it for adults, then I'd use stronger words to give the real feeling of what it was like. You can't even tell 10 or 11 year olds what it was truly like. I wouldn't want to burden them with it.

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When you arrive in England from abroad you do not need to take any COVID-19 tests or fill in a UK passenger locator form.