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Did you know?
My first book was a craft book about making collectable bears? I have  designed and made hundreds of bears!

Making Character Bears, by Val Tyler

I was thrilled to  write a short story,  Grandad’s Slippers, for Wow 366, a charity book published by Scholastic in support of Childline.







Books

Shadows BeyondShadows Beyond, by Val Tyler

Shadows Beyond - for Young Adults and all fans of fantasy and dystopian epics.

Tagg is a thief and the last person Emtani would turn to for help, but she has no choice if she is to save her enslaved sister from the death-factories of the City. When Tagg and his uncompromising brother, Zeff, defy the ruthless Judge, Emtani is drawn into a web of half-truths and treachery. Their only hope lies in the uncertain world of shadows.

The Greenwich Chronicles

The Time Wreccas (2005)

The Time WreccasHumans always rush around claiming that they do not have enough time, but no one thinks of guarding it. This is the job of the Guardians. When the Wreccas (troublesome beings that live in the Underneath) send young Snot to Topside to steal the Tick from the Guardians, little do they know that they threaten to stop time forever, and little does Snot know that Topside is full of possibilities and second chances...

The Time Wreccas is the first book of the Greenwich Chronicles and was nominated for the inaugural Ottakar's Book Prize.

The Time Apprentice (2006)

The Time ApprenticeThe second book of the Greenwich Chronicles, The Time Apprentice continues the adventures of Sofi, Tid and Old Father Tim as they race against time to save the Earth.

Read reviews of the Greenwich Chronicles below.


Translated into thirteen languages and published in many countries, The Greenwich Chronicles have fans all over the world.
Val's books in nine languages

Reviews

If you like your books stuffed full of heart-stopping excitement, fantastical worlds and weird and wonderful characters, you should get yourself a copy of Val Tyler’s brilliant new novel The Time Wreccas so that you can read all about their unbelievable adventures.
-Chingford Guardian

I bought The Time Wreccas to read to my primary school class. I have not known a book to so take their imagination since I read a previous class The Philosopher’s Stone. The children love the characters, especially Tid and Sofi. There is always a sigh of regret when I have to stop reading to them. Quite a few of the children have now bought their own copies as I am obviously not reading it fast enough.
-Literacy teacher from Northampton

This is the perfect fantasy for the grunge generation and the very promising start of a trilogy.
-Pitshanger Books

I fear I may be beaten to death by rampaging muggles for saying it, but I think Harry Potter is hugely overrated. Give me Philip Pullman or Val Tyler any day – if I ate sausages I’d try and buy the ones without the cereal because I’d be after the meat rather than the rubbish that pads it out. Anyway, that aside, this is a rollickingly good read for eight to twelve year olds, or indeed anyone who appreciates the idea of a parallel world. The Guardians look after time for all people. Humans always rush around claiming that they don’t have enough time (sound familiar?) but no one thinks to try and guard it. In every region of the world there is one person in charge of time – in Greenwich it is Old Father Tim. The Wreccas populate the Underneath (below ground) and want to disrupt the orderly lives of the Guardians. They send Snot Topside (above ground) to wreak havoc, but little do they know that she will feel more at home with the Guardians than she does with the Wreccas and she’ll make a firm friend in Tid, Old Father Tim’s grandson. Nor do they know that Snot’s actions could cause time to stop for ever. A clever book that will keep kids riveted to every page. Stand back Master Potter.
-Evening News (Norwich)

This is the first in an exhilarating new series ‘The Greenwich Chronicles’Primary Times in Northamptonshire (*Star read)

Fantasy books set in an imaginary version of a real place are always fun, and offer an extra dimension if the reader knows the location. Even if they are not intimately acquainted with Greenwich Park, the Meridian Line, the Cutty Sark (the 'Great Ship' of the story) or Blackheath, readers will probably heard of some of them, maybe even seen pictures. If you actually know it, it's an amazing bonus. For all readers, however, the use of a real place in a familiar world somehow adds to the fantasy, making it more tangible, frightening and possible rather than distancing it in a fictional and unrecognizable location.
Val Tyler's book, ostensibly concerned with the desperate race to recover and return the stolen Tick, which keeps time going, to its master clock at the Observatory in time for the new Millennium, provides an exciting adventure in painstakingly described Underneath and Topside worlds.
At a deeper level, however, The Time Wreccas examines some far more serious subjects: abuse, bullying, compassion, ethnicity, and family relationships, particularly the nature of belonging and responsibility. The Guardians are all that is noble and right, the Wreccas all that is evil and wrong.
Yet from each come those who break the norms: young Tid, who is hoodwinked by Snot into revealing Old Father Tim's workshop; Sheldon, the Guardian boy from a dysfunctional family, who wants to join the Wreccas; Snot, the Wrecca who hates the casual cruelty of her Underneath existence, and longs for the love and justice she experiences when she ventures Topside as Sofi; and Snivel, who hates his Wrecca existence but cannot yet accept the compassionate Guardian life.
-Review by Bridget Carrington

The Time Wreccas is an exciting fantasy adventure that is absorbing right from the start… there’s a surprise around every corner.
-Poppi

Fantastic read and my tip for children’s book of 2005
-eBay

A romping good read – more please!
-Ottakars

A fascinating fantasy.
-Kid’s Zone, Yorkshire Evening Post

Vividly imagined. Fun to read.
-Japan Times

A clock-stopping new adventure that will capture the hearts of all fantasy fans.
-Puffin

The comfortable narrative voice gently nudges the reader through a delightfully inventive series of adventures.
-The Bookseller

Brilliantly written fantasy from the first time author, Val Tyler.
-York Evening Press

Brilliant new novel
-Wanstead and Woodford Guardian

Brilliantly written fantasy. Grubby fun!
-hoppersonline.com