A borough author has had his first children’s book published with a focus on diversity and smart phone use.

Mike Hollin, 40, from Whitefield, described the fantasy book, Smart Fiona, as “Alice in Wonderland meets The Matrix".

Smart Fiona is aimed at eight to 12 year-olds and follows the story of a girl who gets sucked inside her smartphone, facing a race to get back to the real world before her time – and phone battery - runs out.

He said: “I’ve always loved writing and reading from a young age.

“These days, children may find it challenging to focus with the distractions of technology and phones creating shorter attention spans.

“I want to help a new generation discover the joy of reading books and unplug for a while.

“It’s mainly about the importance of not using phones too often in a day and using them in the right way, with a subtle moral weaved into the ending to show parents that I am on their side.” 

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The author said that while there was not necessarily a "lightbulb moment" behind the Smart Fiona storyline, he did take inspiration from his time spent travelling in Asia to ensure that the book would appeal to a diverse audience.

Mike taught English to young children in South Korea for more than two years and noticed that many of them enjoyed using the school library to learn the language.  

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He added: “I wanted to emphasise the beauty of our diverse and multicultural world with characters that are not White British.

“In the book, the three girls in my story are British Chinese, British Indian and British African. These groups of people are chronically under-represented.

“I also wanted to highlight the importance of females in our society and the strong role models that they represent.”

The legal professional “dreams of becoming a full-time writer one day” and is currently working on a sequel to the Smart Fiona story in the hope that it could become a series.

Smart Fiona was published by independent Prestwich book publishers i2i and is available to buy online on Amazon, WHSmith, Waterstones, Blackwell’s, Hive, Browns and others.