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Spark! Kingston and Richmond 
Book Awards
  • Home
  • About the awards
  • More info & resources
  • Get involved
  • Key dates
  • Media
  • Ages 4-7
  • Ages 7-9
  • Ages 9-11
  • Get in touch

About the book

Suki is a 14-year-old girl in 16th century Japan who wants to become a samurai warrior like her father and brother. Despite her disastrous training, when a party of bandits threaten her village whilst the men are away at war, Suki has to defeat them. Will she prove herself a legendary samurai, or will it all end in disaster?


‘Get Real’ fact boxes feature throughout, providing historical context and further information, as well as a timeline, historical biographies and a glossary in the end matter.

About the Author / IIllustrator

Tim Collins

Tim Collins has written over a hundred books that have been translated into forty languages.


His children’s titles include Diary of a Wimpy Vampire, Cosmic Colin, Dorkius Maximus and Monstrous Maud.


His current series of historical diaries began with The Long-Lost Secret Diary of the World’s Worst Pirate in 2017, and has since covered knights, dinosaur hunters, Hollywood directors, astronauts, Olympic athletes, tomb hunters, Shakespearean actors, Vikings, engineers, gladiators and samurai.


He has also written extensively for reluctant teenage readers, creating stories with a high interest age and a low reading age.


He has won awards such as Manchester Fiction City, the Lincolnshire Young People's Book Award, and the Kalbacher Klapperschlange in Germany. The Long-Lost Secret Diary of the World’s Worst Astronaut was chosen for the 2019 Summer Reading Challenge. 

Isobel Lundie graduated from Kingston University in 2015 where she studied Illustration and Animation. She has always been interested in how to make books interactive so children can lose themselves in the narrative . Having worked as an illustrator, she is particularly interested in how exciting, colourful and distinctive artwork can transform stories for children.

The publisher has given schools permission for live and/or recorded readings of this book, which can be hosted on your digital platforms, although this must only be extracts and not the whole book. 


We kindly ask all participating schools to review this information and ensure you are providing content in line with these terms. 

These awards are led by an independent group of people working in education in Kingston & Richmond Schools. Spark! is working closely with AfC and is supported by the Education Leads of the two councils. 


WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR THE SUPPORT OF THE REGENCY BOOKSHOP IN SURBITON AND for CLARE SPENcER DESIGN, WHO PROVIDED our Spark! logo.  

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