WRITING
cologne
London, l960: Renate von Hasselmann, a nineteen-year-old German au pair, arrives at Victoria Station prepared to meet her new charges, Caroline and Maggie Whitaker. Yet she is ill-prepared for their parents: the mother, Helen, knows more about Nazi Germany than Renate does, and the father, Jack, disarms Renate with his quicksilver charm. In Sarah Pleydell's debut novel Cologne (FUZE Publishing; October, 2012), childhood and history collide, blurring the distinctions between victim and victor, ruin and redemption. With delicate humor, Pleydell presents a portrait of a family on the cusp of great social change, while reminding us that the traumas of war revisit the children of the peace. Cologne was featured in the Oxford Literary Festival and as a staff pick at Politics and Prose.
The dramatic difference
In The Dramatic Difference , Victoria Brown and Sarah Pleydell introduce drama as a bridge between children's natural propensity for active learning and the demands of the preschool and kindergarten curriculum.
awards
American Alliance for Theatre in Education Distinguished Book Award