Amy has lived in the city all her life, so is not at all happy to be leaving her friends and moving to a remote island because her parents have decided to go and live with Amy’s great aunt to help her run a tea room. That is until Amy’s great-aunt gives her a present, a secret necklace that turns out to give Amy a unique and special power – the ability to talk to animals. So, welcome to Clamerkin Island, home of Amy Wild and her clan of furry and feathery friends. Meet Hilton the pooch, Einstein the cat and Plato the squawking parrot. Amy soon realises that life on Clamerkin Island is not so bad after all and new friends – animal and human are there for her.
Amy Wild, Animal Talker: The Secret Necklace Synopsis
Welcome to the world of Amy Wild, where dogs tell their secrets, cats perform rescue missions, and an entire island is squeaking and squawking with animal magic! When Amy Wild goes to live at her great-aunt's tea room on the island of Clamerkin, Granty, her great aunt, welcomes her with a very special necklace - a necklace that gives Amy the power to talk to animals. Granty's terrier, Hilton, immediately introduces Amy to the Clan - a group of animals whose job is to protect the island and keep it a happy place to live. But the Clan cats are suspicious about their prospective new member, and Amy must prove herself to win their trust. Ever wondered what your pet is really thinking? Animal lovers everywhere will be instantly enchanted by this Dr. Doolittle for a new generation.
Diana Kimpton has written more than forty books for children, including her Pony-Mad Princess series, other novels, picture books and non-fiction. She has always loved horses and finds that writing about them gives her the perfect excuse to spend time at the stables when she should be working. Diana says " I've always made up stories. When I was a child, I did it in my head using characters from my favourite TV programmes or the horses I dreamed of owning. But I never saw writing as a possible career, especially as I didn't like English at secondary school. Perhaps I was already too much a writer at heart to enjoy dissecting other people's books. So I left school and became a maths teacher which I didn't like. Then I left teaching and became a mother which I loved. Finally, in the time left over from parenting, I became a writer which is such fun that I don't ever want to stop."
Here's Diana talking about her writing...
A Q&A with Diana about her new novel, There Must Be Horses
What led you to write There Must Be Horses? I wanted to write a longer book for readers who had grown out of my Pony-Mad Princess books. But I was keen not to write a story about winning red rosettes, so I started investigating horse whispering and horse behaviour. While I was doing that I became fascinated with the similarity in the way both horses and humans lose trust in people if they have bad experiences and that became the trigger for the plot.
Did you do much research for the book? Masses. I even bought a horse of my own to try out all the methods I had read about. That was my excuse anyway. I'd always wanted a pony, and Kubus is far more than just a research project - he's a friend. He's also triggered an idea for another book that's just starting to brew in my head.
How long did it take you to write the book? Ages - I've never spent so long on any book. I wrote the first chapter five years ago, just to see if Sasha worked as a character. Then I stopped writing while I worked on the Amy Wild - Animal Talker books, but I kept on with the research and let the story grow on my head. Once I settled down to work on the book again, I spent about a year finalising the plot and actually writing it down.
