SATA
ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: The Tour at School
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: St. Annes-on-Sea
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY:
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
ADDRESS
CAREER
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist vol. 121 no. 19-20 June, 2025. Miriam Aronin, “The Tour at School.”. p. 92.
Kirkus Reviews Apr. 15, 2025, , “Clapham, Katie: THE TOUR AT SCHOOL.”.
Publishers Weekly vol. 267 no. 1 Jan. 6, 2020, , “The Missing Bookshop.”. p. 45.
ONLINE
Aunty Social, https://www.blackpoolsocial.club (May 12, 2022), review of Three Girls
Rebecca McCormick’s authorial blog, https://www.rebeccamccormick.co.uk (September 5, 2022), review of Three Girls
Katie Clapham
Represented by Louise Lamont
Katie graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London with a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing and an MA in Poetic Practice.
After spending three years working in editorial production for an orthopaedic research journal, Katie left London to do some soul searching on the Isle of Skye in the depths of winter. When she came back she opened a bookshop with her mum in her home town of Lytham St. Annes (Storytellers, Inc., December 2010). Named a Bookseller Rising Star in 2011 and Young Bookseller of the Year in 2012, Storytellers, Inc. has been nominated for Bookseller Industry Awards seven times over four years. Katie sits on the executive committees of the BA Children’s Book Group and for World Book Day, and reviews books every month for Booktrust and BBC Radio Lancashire. Through Storytellers, Inc., Katie produces an annual calendar of picture book illustration, and a companion KS1 project that is delivered to classrooms across the country in collaboration with other bookshops.
She is also a freelance copy-editor and proof-reader and much prefers working on children’s books to research papers about hip replacement surgery.
Author interview: Katie Clapham
by Linda Hampton May 25, 2022
0 views 0
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
1
Shares
St Anne’s bookseller and author Katie Clapham chatted to Linda Hampton about her latest YA book, Three Girls.
As I walk into Storytellers Inc., the delightful independent bookshop on The Crescent in St Annes, co-owner and author Katie Clapham is happily sorting new books to display. The bookshop, opened with her mother in 2010, was named Vintage Independent Bookshop of the Year in 2013 amongst other industry awards, while Katie has won several awards for her own bookselling achievements.
But Katie is also a writer. I’m here to interview her about her latest novel for young adults entitled Three Girls. While Katie chats with a customer, I browse the inviting shelves, mentally adding titles to my wish list.
“I’ve been a writer since I was probably old enough to realise that I had an affinity for it,” she tells me once her customer leaves. “I have work from junior school where my teachers pointed out that I was doing quite well and it was something that I was quite good at. But with most things I will procrastinate and avoid doing it.”
Katie busied herself with writing adjacent undertakings instead. Her bookshop, of course, but before that she studied creative writing at university, gaining a masters in contemporary poetry theory and practice. “All very much a tactic to make sure I was still writing myself because I know if I’m left to my own devices I will stop.”
Three months time out on the Isle of Skye – a writer’s dream – after university found her writing every day. “There was nothing else to do – I was in isolation. That was a great way of making that happen,” she says.
But on her return to St Annes she next realised another dream and opened her bookshop, the demands of which swallowed up her time. The tinkling sound of the traditional bell makes us both look up as the shop door opens. As customers browse the shelves.
Once the bookshop was established, Katie acquired a dog and, more importantly, a beautiful baby daughter. When her baby was a year old she realised that Three Girls – “a celebration of finding happiness and being ok with not quite knowing your whole life plan” – was a story she wanted to tell. With characters drawn from her own teens, the story is about girls’ everyday lives and mutual love of running.
“All three characters are telling various parts of my adolescent feelings and then there’s some embroidery and other people’s worries on top of that. It was the idea that I had and the story that I wanted to tell.”
“I had just started reclaiming my fitness and running again after I had my daughter. Things like this have to be taught and I felt a bit resentful that I hadn’t been encouraged to learn those things and wished I’d done it as a teenager. I wish someone had suggested to me that things like going for a run or exercise can be just for yourself and not just for some competitive situation at school. I wished that I had known these things when I was around 14 so I decided that it was a good place to set the story.”
The story emphasises the importance of finding new friends as life progresses. Katie explains the book’s celebration of joyful experiences for teenagers, as an escape from a culture that suggests that you have to have major issues to be story-worthy. It’s a novel about teenagers overcoming their own problems but not great adversities.
“There was a trend a few years ago in YA fiction towards very tragic stories, often doomed romance and things like that… I was interested in promoting healthy relationships, there’s a long-term boyfriend and girlfriend who don’t cheat on one another – it’s ok to just be happy. There’s no ‘bad boy’ characters who behave terribly but we’re still expected to forgive them.
“It was a challenge to myself – can I write an interesting and funny book about normal, everyday teenagers going about thier lives and not relying on throwing huge spanners in the works just to make it a novel? I like domestic stories about normal people going about their lives. I like stories about people like me that made me feel inspired and I hoped that the three girls could inspire readers to try a new hobby and not expect it to be life changing or be brilliant at it but just some small ways to make themselves happier.”
She was determined that there was no showdown or climax of a race in the book. “There isn’t a sports day or a public race, no one has to perform or compete. It’s just about what’s going to make you feel good for yourself. It’s quite dramatic and stressful being 15 and I didn’t want to write a book about dealing with that as well as doing something like saving the world.
“I’m not pretending that girls don’t know this message – I mean it’s not ground-breaking,” she adds. “I just know that it’s not that often talked about or suggested that it can just be for yourself… You can just do it at your own level, your own pace and that can be the end result.”
Three Girls was picked up by a German publisher, followed by an offer from UCLan Publishing in Preston. This innovative publishing department gives students real experience of the industry. Three Girls’ cover was also designed by a UCLan student, so the novel has been an inspiration for young people in more than one way.
Katie’s first love was poetry and by writing a book for young adults she’s now landed on a form that borrows from both for her next project – picture books.
“Short forms are interesting to me,” she says. “I always wanted to write picture books but I didn’t know enough about how they worked. Now that I have read a million of them, in my role as a bookseller, I’ve started writing them with a lot more understanding of how they work and I’m really enjoying it.”
As I take my leave the shop bell tinkles. It’s time for Katie to close up and start dreaming up her next story.
The Missing Bookshop: An interview with Katie Clapham
Milly loves going to story time at her local bookshop. Mrs Minty is an encyclopedia of books and knows the perfect story for every occasion … tales of mischievous children and faraway lands, magical beasts and daring adventures. But the bookshop is old and creaky, just like Mrs Minty herself. And then one day Milly arrives to find the shop gone. What has happened to Mrs Minty and her irreplaceable bookshop?
Here, Katie Clapham talks about her new book The Missing Bookshop and celebrating Independent Bookshop Week…
Without giving too much away, can you tell us a bit about your new book, which is illustrated by Kirsti Beautyman and called The Missing Bookshop?
The Missing Bookshop is a story about a little girl who believes it’s up to her to save her beloved local bookshop from closing down forever, but it’s also about getting old and creaky, and how we’re shaped by the stories we read, and how special bookshops are to the people who love them.
kc1.jpg
You can buy the book here!
The book will be published on 13th June 2019, to celebrate Independent Bookshop Week. Can you tell us what this week is about and what it aims to do?
Independent Bookshop week is a real celebration of bookshops. Bookshops always have plenty of things going on, but during IBW they might have some extra special events going on to really spoil their customers – each bookshop celebrates in a different way. There might be extra offers on or special books on sale that aren’t available at other times; there might be author events or activity sessions. It’s really all about highlighting how magical bookshops are in one week of fun and excitement, as a reminder to the world that bookshops are truly brilliant and should be supported and cherished.
What do you think is leading to the closure of so many independent book shops and what can we do about this?
It’s really hard to keep an independent bookshop going. I opened my bookshop nearly nine years ago now and we’re very lucky to still be going. As an independent we can’t offer huge discounts like online retailers, big brand chain stores and supermarkets, so we have to rely on loyal customers who love what we do and want to support us by buying from us regularly. It’s a big ask but having a bookshop is a great asset to any town, it can bring colour and culture and it can cultivate a new generation of readers. We have to offer a service that is better than a big discount and taking the time to talk to readers, helping them discover something new or tracking down old favourites are just some of the ways we can do that. Browsing in a bookshop is one of my absolute favourite things to do and a world without bookshops sounds like a very sad place to me – but I would say that, wouldn’t I?
It was wonderful to hear about the launch of Round Table, a new bookshop by the publishers Knights Of! Will you be visiting?
Oh it is surely on the never-ending-list of bookshops I intend to visit at some point. I always seek out a bookshop in any new place I visit, and even though I have my own bookshop, I love buying books in other people’s shops. It’s my way of making memories too – I have trouble remembering lots of things but I can pick up any book off my shelf at home and tell you were I was when I bought it and where I read it too. It’s my top tip to you to have a good Google before you go on holiday to find out if there is a bookshop you can visit during your trip. You never know what treasure you’ll find!
Katie LBA pic close[585].jpg
You can follow Katie Clapham on Twitter! @storytellersinc
Mrs Minty, the bookshop owner, is a wonderful character and inspires Milly to love reading. Who was your reading role-model when you were young?
I didn’t have a Mrs Minty as such (I like to think that I am Mrs Minty to some children now, though!) but my parents took me to bookshops regularly and I was lucky enough to have lots of books of my own. Perhaps the characters I loved were my main reading inspiration because I just wanted to spend more time with them. So thank you Matilda, and Cassandra Mortmain and The Little Vampire and Elsa from The Bed and Breakfast Star, and Winnie-the-Pooh, and Georgia Nicholson and this list could go on and on…
The story is a real celebration of the power of books to transform lives. Which books would you say mean the most to you and why?
Where to begin? I don’t re-read books very often because there are just too many new ones I want to get stuck into, but there are some writers who were there throughout my childhood; Jacqueline Wilson, Dick King-Smith, Melvin Burgess, Meg Rosoff, Anne Fine and Louise Rennison are all still very important to me. Other books I really treasured were gifts that my parents brought back from holidays or gave me for Christmases and Birthdays.
“I have always loved to pore over beautiful books and the illustrations from those are imprinted in my mind forever.”
What was it like seeing your words transformed into such beautiful artwork and illustrations by Kirsti Beautyman?
SO EXCITING!!! Didn’t she do such a beautiful job? I am so thrilled with how The Missing Bookshop looks; it’s just the sort of book I would pick up in a bookshop!
Finally, what do you think Mrs Minty and Milly are doing right now?
Reading a good book, of course!
The Tour at School. By Katie Clapham. Illus. by Nadia Shireen. July 2025. 40p. Candlewick, $18.99 (9781536242980). PreS-Gr. 2.
In Clapham's sweet picture book, the spirited young narrator gives instructions for showing a "New Person" around the school, her own wide-eyed New Person firmly in tow. There is useful advice for being welcoming and enthusiastic, as well as for showing everything important (the bathroom, the playground). Still, the narrator's voice feels authentically and amusingly childlike as she points out things like the strawberry-scented hand soap and various lost gloves. Along the way, her New Person gets a bit lost and has to meet the narrator at their designated "Emergency Meet-Up Place," where the narrator reveals that last year she was a lost New Person herself. In the end, she expresses the hope that she and the latest New Person can become real friends and that the new student will eventually be giving tours too. Shireen's jaunty and often funny illustrations, which have a slight South Park vibe, perfectly capture the narrator's energy and the new student's hesitancy, as well as the school setting. An endearing, humorous study in empathy and welcoming newcomers.--Miriam Aronin
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Aronin, Miriam. "The Tour at School." Booklist, vol. 121, no. 19-20, June 2025, p. 92. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A847198147/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d0c428fa. Accessed 1 Nov. 2025.
Clapham, Katie THE TOUR AT SCHOOL Candlewick (Children's None) $18.99 7, 1 ISBN: 9781536242980
A child leads a new student around school.
"When you show a New Person around, it's called giving them The Tour," says a bespectacled child with black hair in two braids who's doing the "really important job" of helping a recent arrival feel welcome. The protagonist starts on an appropriately high-energy note ("You have to sound really excited so they feel like it's going to be an INCREDIBLE tour"). Our narrator knows what truly matters and begins with the most important place: the bathroom. Of course, the two stop by all the best spots, like the playground and the library. Our gentle, sensitive guide takes care to introduce the other child to friends while also intervening when the newcomer feels overwhelmed. Readers, too, will feel like they're a part of things as the narrator shares funny asides, like how the bathroom is a great place to sing ("the echo is AMAZING-ZING-ZING!"), and reminisces about the time a lost dog appeared on the playground. The appealing, colorful illustrations feature children with rounded, oversize heads, simple features, and expressive eyes; many of the places and objects will be familiar to school-age readers. This wonderfully multifaceted story will be meaningful both to kids starting at a new school and to teachers looking for a way to help welcome a new student. The two main characters are brown-skinned; their community is diverse.
An empathetic, child-friendly approach to conquering new-school jitters.(Picture book. 4-7)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Clapham, Katie: THE TOUR AT SCHOOL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2025. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A835106450/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=38f5c221. Accessed 1 Nov. 2025.
The Missing Bookshop
Katie Clapham, illus. by Kirsti Beautyman. Kane Miller, $9.99 (96p) ISBN 978-1-61067-901-5
Milly never misses story time at Mrs. Minty's bookshop, where one day she notices that the paint is peeling, the cushions are worn, and the curtains are faded. But the girl is mote dismayed that the elderly bookseller, like her story time rocking chair, is "getting a bit creaky," and Milly (quite theatrically) frets that Mrs. Minty, "a walking encyclopedia when it came to books," will soon be unable to tun her store. Milly's fears are realized when the shop suddenly closes due to "unforeseen circumstances," and she assuages her sadness by painting a picture of the exterior as she imagines it was in its heyday, with colorful window displays and flower-packed window boxes. After she tapes her artwork to the storefront and other patrons add their own tributes and appeals ("Save Our Book Shop"), a cheering turn of events that entwines the past and present launches a new chapter for the store. Folksy illustrations by Beautyman similarly evoke both a traditional and contemporary sensibility, reinforcing the story's message of the importance of family, community, and reading. Ages 5-7. (Mar.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"The Missing Bookshop." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 1, 6 Jan. 2020, p. 45. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A611171809/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=943df63c. Accessed 1 Nov. 2025.
Review: Three Girls by Katie Clapham – a novel of friendship, changing lives and running
by David Simper May 12, 2022
0 views 0
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
1
Shares
In Katie Clapham’s first young adult novel, the three girls of the title are thrown together in a school brochure photo shoot and at that time are not actually friends.
This changes as events develop, presenting a realistic picture of how lives alter as we approach adulthood. The characters’ ages are not mentioned but they appear to be year 11 and around 16 by the time of the book’s events.
Clapham is an independent bookseller at Storytellers Inc in St Annes. Her three main characters are: Minnie, ace netballer and general athlete; Lena, ace runner but feels overshadowed by Minnie; and Alice, academic and artistic who decides that she wants to be able to run as well. There is a significant supporting cast, including Minnie’s devoted swain, Daniel, and Jacob, Alice’s gay confidante. Diversity is built in in a natural and refreshing way.
Minnie is involved in a road traffic collision and, with a broken shoulder, is out of the netball action for a while, which turns out to be a pivotal event sparking an increased interest in her mother’s Francophilia and giving her time to reappraise her life. Returning to the scene she sparks some rather nasty comments from Lena’s best and childhood friend, which leads the former to review that relationship. Minnie and Lena begin to converge. Lena runs into Alice running, an activity that’s meant to be a secret. Gradually a little triumvirate begins to form; the years’-long rivalry between Minnie and Lena dissipates and becomes a virtual misunderstanding.
The story reflects the nature of changing priorities and relationshis as we approach and enter adulthood. It’s good on first romance; will Australian Daniel last to the end of Minnie’s French exchange – will she even come back? Lena begins to find childhood friend Aimee’s aggressively sour behaviour tiresome and to wonder what she is getting out of being so relentlessely nasty. It’s hard to escape that this is a mask for intense self hatred and having ‘no real friends’.
Sometimes complicated school politics is well reflected, particularly as the end of year ball approaches. What to wear? Who to go with? Exams never seem to be mentioned, although lessons go on, apparently with more talking than studying in some cases. The school is not presented as a bear pit, as they might be; Alice clearly enjoys going there, Minnie has enjoyed her sports icon status. But there is a constant juggling of status and shifting allegiances. The three girls seem to rise above this, particularly as their initially unlikely alliance forms.
Clapham has put together a novel that so many young people will relate to. The prose is direct and easy to read without being condescending. The short chapter structure breaks things down nicely and leads the reader on. Characters are well drawn and the story presents them as well-rounded, intelligent people, avoiding the ‘yob’ or ‘snowflake’ caricatures that parts of the media seem so fond of.
My only criticism is that all the running makes me feel tired. Three Girls is a finely written and observed book that I would recommend readers, well beyond its target age group, to pick up.
Three Girls by Katie Clapham - Review
Monday, September 5, 2022
Where did I get it? I bought it at Northern YA Lit Fest and had it signed by Katie after I had listened to her panel.
What's it about? It's about three girls - not surprisingly - called Lena, Minnie, and Alice. At the beginning of the book they're photographed for some publicity shots at their college, posed together as if they're friends, but in actuality they aren't.
Alice has a couple of friends but no one she's very close to. She's very tall and decides to take up running. She uses an app which is a bit like Couch to 5k, and doesn't tell anyone about it. She has a crush on a boy in her art class and she loves her aunt and her baby sister.
Lena is very sporty - her dad is a personal trainer and runs a running club - but she always seems to come in second place to Minnie. She is friends with three girls, the main one of whom is kind of a bitch and always trying to bring the others down. She calls Alice "Big Alice" and polices the others' food intake and stuff like that. Lena realises she has to move apart from these girls throughout the book.
Minnie is on the netball team and while she's friendly enough with the other girls on it, she doesn't exactly have a best friend. She's got her boyfriend, Daniel, so she spends a lot of time with him. She may get scouted to play netball at the county level, but then she breaks her shoulder and is out of the game for a while. This makes her reflect on her life and what she really finds important.
The three girls end up bonding over something which is both trivial and profound. The ending of the book is absolutely joyful and I really liked it. I liked all three girls and loved their character developments throughout the book
What age range is it for? Thirteen plus, probably, there's really nothing salacious in it
Are any main characters LGBTQ+? No
Are any main characters people of colour? Yes, Lena (and her dad I think?).
Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? Minnie gets injured but it's not told in a graphic way
Is there any sex stuff? No
Are drugs mentioned or used? No
Is there any talk of death? No
Are there swear words? No
What criticisms do I have? Almost none - it's a really cute book!
Would I recommend the book? Yes definitely
Why did I choose to read it at this point in life? I'm still determined to get through all the books I bought at the festival!
What do I think of the cover? It's really cute, I love it. I also got a bookmark from Katie which is very cute too!
What other books is it like? It reminded me of stuff by Sara Barnard, only aimed a tiny bit younger
How many stars? Four out of five
Where is the book going now? I'll definitely keep it!