Waterstones children's books tent Cheltenham Literature Festival

A Thank You to Graeme at the Waterstones Children's Tent

October 01, 2024•2 min read

There is a moment in every reader's life when someone points them towards exactly the right book at exactly the right time. For Gabriel, that person was Graeme.

A Thank You to Graeme at the Waterstones Children's Tent

Graeme has been a familiar face in the Waterstones Children's Tent at the Cheltenham Literature Festival for as long as Kate and Gabriel have been attending. Warm, knowledgeable, and genuinely interested in the children in front of him, he made an impression that stayed.

When Gabriel was around seven or eight, his reading ability was growing quickly. He was ready for longer stories with more text, but he still wanted pictures. He was caught in that tricky transition between picture books and full novels that many children find quietly discouraging. Graeme understood that without it needing to be explained. He made thoughtful suggestions, introduced Gabriel to authors he hadn't encountered who also valued illustrations, and helped him stay connected to stories at an age when it would have been easy to drift away from them.

This year, Kate brought something back to that tent. A signed copy of The Adventures of Gabriel, co-written by Kate and Gabriel himself.

The book has pictures and puzzles and adventures. It was built for children who are ready for more story but still want something visual to hold onto. It was built, in part, because of what Graeme quietly made possible.

These are the people who matter in a child's reading life. Not the grand gestures, but the bookseller who pays attention, who sees a child standing in front of a shelf looking uncertain, and takes the time to ask what they love without making a fuss about it. These moments shape readers. They shaped Gabriel.

The Adventures of Gabriel is now finding its way into children's hands across the UK. Every time it does, Kate and Gabriel carry with them the encouragement they received under that striped canvas canopy, and pass it on.

To every Graeme in every bookshop, library, and festival tent: thank you for seeing children, hearing them, and helping them find their next story.

Kate

Kate Markland is a former award-winning physiotherapist with twenty years of clinical experience, the founder of StoryQuest Global, and the co-author of the international bestselling Adventures of Gabriel children's book series. She developed the StoryQuest methodology from clinical listening principles built across two decades of practice. Taken into schools across the UK, it achieved 100% engagement across 465 children in nine schools with zero behavioural incidents, including children with SEND, EAL learners, and reluctant writers. The research was conducted using Classic Grounded Theory across 318 children, identifying seven self-leadership transformations. It has been presented to the British Psychological Society, accepted by UK Parliament, and submitted to UNICEF. The methodology was built during the hardest period of Kate's life. One hour a week on FaceTime with her son. No desk. No classroom. No permission. What came out of that constraint became an Amazon number one bestseller, a validated research framework, and a movement now reaching schools and families across the UK, India, Pakistan, Canada, the United States, Nigeria, and Australia. Kate has been featured on BBC News, Times Radio, and in international publications across multiple countries. She has submitted evidence to the Justice Committee, the Independent Review of Social Work Regulation, and the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. She was awarded the PhysioTimes Women in Leadership Award. She was told she was the danger. She built the proof that she was the answer.

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