Girl, 11, wants fourth book to inspire others to develop ‘love for writing’

An 11-year-old who has written her fourth book said she has enjoyed seeing her sketches “come to life” and hopes to inspire others to develop a “love for writing”.

Sarah Kittoe’s book called Ama And The Lost Key follows main character Ama, who finds a glowing key in Ghana and sets out to uncover the secrets it holds.

“The book contains mystery and adventure, and also those key values of family, friendship and following your dreams,” the student at The Laurels School, who lives in Croydon, south London, told the PA news agency.

Conscious Dreams Publishing – the book’s publisher – has given the young author the freedom to shape her ideas into reality, which Sarah said is a “really nice feeling”.

“I have been mentored by Danni (Daniella Blechner), the founder of Conscious Dreams Publishing since August 2023.

“The good thing is that she’s worked with lots of other young authors – even some that are younger than me – and you can tell she knows how to connect with young authors.

“She really helped me to understand my book thoroughly and allowed me to choose the font and where all the images go.

“I sketched out most of the images and the illustrator (Jason Lee) would sketch it out in his interpretation and animate it, and I really enjoyed seeing my sketches come to life.”

The youngster said she developed an interest in writing when she was seven, with Alesha Dixon’s Lightning Girl book series inspiring her to become an author, since “the main character actually looked like me”.

“I have always had a love for writing, but those books made me want to write stories which would inspire future generations,” she added.

Despite her age, this will be her fourth published book with the company, with previous work including Linsey And The Blue Fox, Sarah Kittoe’s Stories Colouring Book, and The Friendship Club And Other Stories.

She said all three books were launched on the same day (August 13 2022), and she started working on The Friendship Club at the age of seven.

“I had to plan how to approach my dad (Albert Kittoe, 41) to show him my stories because knowing and seeing how he plans everything as a project manager, I wanted to get it right,” she added.

The author has earned roughly £2,000 from all her books, which she has donated to various charities over the years.

This year, proceeds from her latest book will be given to Centrepoint and West Croydon Methodist Church Wednesday Club, which support vulnerable people in Croydon, as well as a library refurbishment project at St Paul Methodist Basic School in Tema, Ghana, where her father attended school.

Sarah’s charitable nature began from the age of six, when she would spend every Christmas creating packs of food and essentials, including socks and toiletries, to give to homeless people in Croydon.

“I really liked that feeling, so I try to raise and give money to different charities when I make a new book,” she said.

“I am helping to refurbish a library in Ghana for a school and I really enjoy seeing the before and after photos.

“It should be ready by the end of summer and work was started on it not even a year ago, which I am really proud about.”

Last April, she visited Ghana to see the work and donate some books to the library.

“After the donation, I was taken to the school library, which made my heart sink because of the state of the library,” she said.

“I told my parents I want to do something about it and that birthed the library project in Ghana.

“I made it my mission to make the library look better and now it has nice seating areas, different types of books and computers.”

The book launch takes place on Saturday at Croydon Library.