Children's author raises awareness of different families at Brackley book reading

The author, who is a parent to both biological and adopted children, aims to help children understand the different types of families with the use of her Delly Duck character.

Delly Duck was created after a conversation Holly had with her daughter about adopting a younger sibling, after the author realised a young child can find it difficult to manage thoughts about family separation.

Organised by Jenni Collins, the co-chair of Brackley Towcester Library Friends, the library adopted a duck theme for the day with hook-a-duck and adopt-a-duck activities outside and duck-shaped shortbread made by the Brackley Country Market.

Holly said: "I gave an overview of how I became an author, then read "Room in the Nest" and talked about different types of family (the story includes adoptive, foster, and kinship families, single-parent families, and same-sex parent families).

"We also talked about how the priority is for social workers to find the right family for a child, not to find children for families, so it can take a long time. That’s one of the important messages I always want to convey to children, so that they understand that adoption should always be about what is best for the child."

The event was a success, with a number of children turning up, participating in the book reading, and learning about how adoption and fostering work. After the reading, Holly autographed and sold books to guests.