Jenna Rothwell

Jenna Rothwell: www.jennarothwell.com

www.bentheoutisdedog.com

Ben The Outside Dog - **FINALIST of THE WISHING BOOK SHELF AWARDS 214! **

** Reccommended by the National Day Nurseries Association for EYFS. "Ben the Outside Dog has excellent themes of Personal, Social and Emotional

Development through Ben's interactions with the animals on the farm. " **

From performing rudimentary trapeze skills in the Circus, starring as Peter Pan at Blackpool Tower Circus to Practising Pre-School Music Classes with Puppets, from writing Children's Picture Books to Interactive Author School Workshops, to Clowning around on weekends for Birthday Parties as her alter ego, Minnie The Clown and to performing in musicals, it is no surprise that Jenna comes from a family of performers and singers! Originally from Blackpool in Lancashire, England; and after a four year stint in Melbourne, Australia where her partner, Brett is from and where her new book Ben The Outside Dog was inspired, Jenna is now based in London.

Jenna is passionate about all aspects of the Arts industry and an avid believer in developing and encouraging children's imaginations therefore she works a lot within Children's Entertainment. Jenna is a Published Author of 'Ben The Outisde Dog; ' She runs a Children's Entertainment company, Minnie The Clown Parties (www.minnietheclownparties.co.uk); teaches dancing to kids; and is a Pre-School MusicPractitioner and Story-Teller for Juma Arts throughout Nurseries in London

How Ben the Outside Dog came about:

I had been working in children's theatre and children's entertainment for the last 6 years,

portraying clowns to princesses and all sorts of other characters in between in theatres, school tours and for children's parties alongside other acting work and as a result, ideas started to surface. I was also blessed by hanging out with my first nephew, where I would read stories to him, make them up and have just silly non-sensical fun and I realised that I loved anything to do with kids' entertainment the most. Writing children's books then became a next natural step.

Here is a link to me, or should I say Minnie, promoting Ben the Outside Dog

http://youtu.be/zNytdxbBqFk

Ben the Outside Dog is actually based on my partner's family's real life Ben the Outside

Dog! After moving to London from Blackpool, I met an Aussie bloke and was whisked off to

Melbourne, Australia (as you do). It's in Oz, in the beautiful Yarra Valley of Victoria, that Ben the Outside Dog was created, inspired by my new Australian family's gorgeous Farm Dog, Ben. As a Brit, I wasn't really aware of keeping dogs outside and didn't understand this, until I met the wonderfully protective Ben and learned how important his job is. It is really the adventures of our 'Ben the Outside Dog's' true experiences. A working farm dog by day and The Cownley Farm guard dog at night, protecting the family and all the farm animals from indigenous and wild animals.

As I was taking my two year old nephew Oscar around the farm I would say, "say hello mrs

pig," and Oscar would repeat it. "Good morning chooks," etc and I would describe things on

the farm as we went round. 'That's Ben's water so he can drink whenever he gets thirsty' and so I wrote it as I would speak to a child learning to speak and describing things that would interest kids. I wanted to write a book that I knew Oscar would love to read.

I learned so much about farm animals, farm life and so much about dogs and particularly

outside/working dogs that I wanted to write about it. Having never had a dog myself, I loved

how Brett and his family narrated for Ben and Millie (the inside dog). For example when

they Ben would bark to tell Millie that someone had pulled up at the Farm, and Millie would

bark to tell mum. They wouldn't stop barking until they were acknowledged by their mum by

a simple 'thank you Ben, Millie.' I loved learning and watching Ben with his master round

up the pigs, not just sheep! And the amazing relationship between the Master, Brett's dad,

and his dog. Ultimately it was the tireless job Ben did as an outside dog both day and night,

chasing the foxes, possums and other 'threats' to the family that compelled me to write about him and inspired the two books in one and flip book design - a day and a night story of Ben's

adventures.

I asked for lots of animals, birds and insects to be on the pages so that kids can also pick and point out other interesting things in the book too and learn about other Australian animals. On my website: www.bentheoustidedog.com there are some cool and interesting facts about all the animals, birds and insects that are featured in my new book plus games to play along with the book, for example: how many birds can you see? Or can you name the animals? Also, further pictures and fun illustration information can be seen on my website:

www.bentheoutsidedog.com/bens-fun-illustration-facts

Books and reading to kids is extremely important. As an adult, you notice when you don't read how your vocabulary slips somewhat and how it improves the more you read, so it is fundamental for a child to teach them to speak whilst their brains are like sponges. Stories develop language, imagination, sense of fun, intelligence and bring a wealth of entertainment. To repeat myself, I am an avid believer in developing and encouraging children's imaginations, therefore I will continue to work within children's entertainment. I believe if you are passionate about something, this will rub off on to children and become infectious.

I love this quote; it says it all:

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairytales. If you want them to be more

intelligent, read them more fairytales. - Albert Einstein.