Teacher Sandra introduces ‘Carla Kitten’

Last weekend, she was at Nigel Khan’s Bookstore, Ellerslie Plaza, Maraval, reading her book — Carla Kitten and the Custard Cream Pies — to a group of enthusiastic children.

Swanston, began writing, according to her, at age 12. She writes poems and plays for her school. Swanston, a teacher at Arouca Anglican Primary School, got interested in writing books of wisdom for children after realising that society lacked the positive values it so needed. She has written 13 books, including —

The Disappearing Sister, Chester’s Nightmare, Couch Potato — and two waiting to be published. She believes her books have messages that could bring positive values to children.

In all her books there is a main character called “Mr Wise,” he allows the children to come to him with their problems. He is there to help the children realise whatever they did was wrong and to come to terms with it. She believes that some people in society like “Mr Wise” could dedicate their time to children. Her books are a learning experience for children, each book deals with a different problem that they would have to overcome sometime in their life.

When asked if she would ever consider writing books for adults, she said she wrote one book for adults, a book of poems called The Reality Is. She thought it would be a great idea to give a poetic line, something that would last a lifetime, for Valentines instead of the usual chocolates and flowers.

Ms Swanston has one wish, to get her books to all children so that it could foster positive change in the country. Her advise to persons interested in becoming authors: “Inside of every person there is a dream, write from your experiences. When it’s real, it could touch inside, we need that in our society.”