Helen Haraldsen is a children's author.  She has also been an English teacher and school librarian. Her mission in life is to inspire young people to love reading and writing so that they have the literacy skills they need to access life's opportunities: being Lit Fit for Life!  She loves writing books for and with young people, and introducing children to the book that turns them into a reader is one of the highlights of her job. 
 
Helen ran a Writers and Illustrators club at her school for 14 years and led three groups to plan, write, edit and publish complete novels through a team-writing process. Members ranged in age from 11 to 18.  

Helen was involved with the Kids' Lit Quiz for many years.  Her team came third in the UK National Final in 2017 and won in 2019.  They would have represented the UK in the 2020 World Final in New Zealand, had it not been cancelled due to Covid.
 
When she's not  reading, writing or teaching, she'll be busy at home in Cumbria looking after a variety of horses, dogs, ducks and geese!  She’s a life-long animal lover and often uses her own pets as characters in her books.

Her surname 'Haraldsen' is an old Scandinavian name and she inherited it from her grandfather who came from the Faroe Islands.  ​

The Keswick School team won the 2019 National Kids' Lit Quiz Final. 

Novels created and published by Helen's Writers & Illustrators Club at Keswick School.