Lockdown Looms: Reggie's Birthday Party (One)

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Graduate of Appalachian State University with a major in Communication, Journalism BS with a minor in Sociology. This story is perfect for all the family as it is covering themes of, hope, families, pandemics and mental health. Alexander says, “I think more personally to me for what I've taken away from writing the book is that anything is possible because writing this book has changed my life completely.

Children were one of the more heavily impacted groups when looking at the effects of the pandemic on day-to-day life. Thrown into this mix was all the parts of our lives that we desperately didn’t want to lose within the pandemic, such as celebrating birthdays. The Lockdown Looms: Reggie’s Birthday Party helps to give tweens insight into life in the pandemic and the thoughts and feelings of someone of a similar age.

The first book in a series, Lockdown Looms is emphatic, engaging, and an emotive experience for all. This book was like therapy to me because some of the themes in the story are hope, determination, adapting to change, kindness, and these were skills and qualities that I wanted my pupils to gain, but they were also qualities I had to remind myself that I was capable of tuning into during that very difficult time for myself and my family. I am currently editing my first YA novel which I hope to be able to share with you all in the future. A second lockdown was set in motion for November 5th – Roo’s birthday and would continue through to the beginning of December.

I have been a blogger for a few years now and I love to be able to read and review books for you all to look at. He wrote his book “Lockdown Looms: Reggie’s Birthday Party” for the thirty students Alexander was in charge of when lockdown was enacted in 2020.K. School Library Association’s School Librarian Award, said, “Lockdown Looms: Reggie’s Birthday Party will support and educate children about what they have been through throughout the pandemic. whilst we now had a first-hand account of what it was like to celebrate a milestone in lockdown it was still difficult for the children to understand. There was also those who were going to celebrate birthday’s anniversaries and milestones whilst we were to be locked away from the world.

Alexander says, “Children were looking at things online and not being happy with themselves because they're comparing themselves to the sort of forced reality that they're seeing online. According to a study done by the Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, 71% of parents said the pandemic negatively affected their child’s mental health. With the book tour he is on, he gets to share the positive messages from his book with over 2,000 people every week. He says everyone can do amazing things, but it is just that people don’t lean into that side as much as they should. The COVID-19 pandemic has given children a window into a world they had never seen before or been exposed to.With over 5 million deaths from COVID-19 by the end of 2021, it did not seem like there was not much positivity in the air. I think that for children to reach their full potential within education, it's important that there is a diverse pool of educators who are creating and leading the curriculum and who also understand the social-economical situation in which their learners are coming from,” Alexander says. Even when he wasn’t in school, he spent much of his free time reading rather than getting in trouble.

A former teacher within higher education, and primary school practitioner, Alexander knows his audience well. I felt that it was not just a thank you to me, but it was a thank you to the whole teaching profession,” Alexander says. My son loved the way he could relate to Reggie’s experiences and was engrossed in the book from start to finish.Some of the main themes within the story are kindness, resilience, adapting to change, and patience. The lockdown was one of those uncertain times for us all, with both adults and children having to attempt to make sense of the changing world around them. An International Politics BSc graduate and University College London/Institute of Education trained/qualified teacher, his arrival into the world of literature promises to be one full of adventure, laughter, and linguistic prowess.