Meet the author

Catherine Bruton.

Writer · United Kingdom

Award-winning author of No Ballet Shoes in Syria — emotionally honest, hopeful stories that hand older primary readers the big subjects with care.

Catherine Bruton is an award-winning British children's author who studied English at Oxford and works as a teacher alongside her writing. Her books tackle big, timely subjects — the refugee crisis, terrorism, celebrity, serious illness — with a blend of heartbreak, humour and unfailing hope. Her debut, No Ballet Shoes in Syria, a tender story of a child refugee building a new life in Britain, won the #BooksAreMyBag Award for Children's Fiction and was nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and she has since written the Dickensian romp Another Twist in the Tale and the gothic adventure Following Frankenstein. Tadpole Summer turns her empathetic eye to sibling love and life-limiting illness over one unforgettable garden summer. Bruton is a reliable name for emotionally honest, empathy-building stories for older primary readers.