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Latest Cones book launched on the 18th May

Childrens author launches book number 5 ‘Cones on Site’ on the 18th May at Headingley Stadium 10 for 1030am. This is sponsored by Caddick Construction Ltd.

INTRODUCING: THE CONES AND THEIR AUTHOR, CHRIS MADELEY

Chris has always enjoyed words, books and writing for as long as she can remember. Having been brought up in a family which did not possess a television, she was well used to making her own entertainment and with a very fertile imagination and a preference for her own company, she immersed herself in the world of make-believe and fantasy. Throughout Chris’ school life she developed a great love and respect for the written word and reading and writing featured right at the top of her favourites list.

It is hardly surprising that her career took her into working with English and led her to some very interesting Executive P.A. posts in several major well-known companies.

Chris spent many a long hour on the M1 motorway with her husband Keith as they travelled from their main office in Bradford to their company’s branch office and guess what happened? Yes, they sat in road works surrounded by miles and miles of CONES! Let’s turn this negative into a positive! Thus, the conecept (no, not a typo!) of Cones coming alive and having adventures was born. The first book introduces readers to the “conecept” that our beloved, Big-foot Traffic Cones really do have a life of their own – something we all suspected, but we now know how and why!

The young Cones are fascinated by human behaviour and this often gets them into some rather sticky situations, rather like young children, but they are on a learning curve to becoming good Cones, so every little lesson helps.

All the stories are carefully researched with the assistance of personnel from any related industry and adhere to the Health & Safety issues and Compliance of same. Many industries and companies are now purchasing The Cones stories for distribution to help keep children safe as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programmes.

The Cones stories were written not only for children, but also to encourage their ‘significant adults’ to engage in ‘adventures’ in the great outdoors with them: to take some time out of the home to make fun and exciting times today and memories of happy times which will stay with them for ever. The principle behind the design of the stories is to provide children with a moral and ethical framework. They learn friendship, who they can trust, care of each other, loyalty, truthfulness, good manners, interaction, respect in all aspects of life such as differences in characteristics, appearance, authority, the environment. All these lessons are learned through having fun with the overriding mantra: Keep Safe.

So Meet the Cones : There had to be a beginning, so the magic was introduced. There HAS to be a baddie, so meet Cone Collector (Cones don’t like to be stacked because they can’t go off and have fun!). Meet their three guardians, the good guys : Wise Owl, who is best friends and works with Police Car and lastly the helpful, though rather mischievous, New Moon. The Cones have Cone names and there is a Cone “language.” The first two Cones, Conerad and Conestance, just like children, are never satisfied and want to explore and have adventures.

Book 2 The Cones Make New Friends, introduces Cone-Vera, who is quite knowledgeable, observant and always on a quest to learn more. The three Cones woggle off up the motorway and meet Signboard, a cheery chappy who teaches them about the different coloured cats’ eyes and what junctions are for. It is not long after this they encounter Cone Collector which in turn brings them into “conetact” with Cone number 4 : Conen. He is the wild card of the group with a short “conecentration” span, always looking for new thrills and spills, often careless of others and their feelings but has a great respect for Cone-Vera who sorts him out. If there is trouble, Conen is not far behind!

Now you have met the four friends, each story now stands alone and they learn road and many other safety issues. They learn why Cones are needed and are a force for good, how to have adventures without malice, good manners, the importance of friendship and respecting others but above all, how to behave like good Cones and keep children safe.

So, our four friends are now together ready to go out into the big wide world and have adventures. The stories are to help children to learn to live and play within parameters based on moral and ethical values with safety as a central point. Road safety, safe speed, safety around water, electricity, wet floors, railways, road-building and building sites etc. are all the order of the day for Cones.

Book 3 Cones on the Rails - Award Winner Passenger Safety Category at the 2017 UK Rail Industry Awards. Always looking for something new, Conerad, Conestance, Cone-Vera and Conen find themselves in a Railway Station where they meet “Conecourse” Conetroller (CC to his friends!). (Conecourse Controller is now featured on a Grand Central Railway engine and can be seen on the Sunderland to London route as well as making local trips.) Wow! Look at the space, hear the noise and smell the trains! But, all is not fun and games as the Cones learn to respect platforms, learn on-board and track-side safety, to say nothing of what happens at an unmanned level crossing! They learn new words and meet new friends as they have an incredible adventure which helps them to be much wiser Cones.

Book 4 Cones and Electricity - There is much said and written about being safe around electricity in the home but our cone-ical friends live outside so need some help dealing with electricity in their environment. They meet Vic Voltage (© Northern Powergrid) who helps them to get to grips with the dangers of pylons, sub-stations, live cables etc. “Remember the rules: stay away, stay alive and before you play, look up, there may be power lines overhead.”

Book 5 Cones on Site - The four friends find themselves inside a building site where a huge new shopping mall is being conestructed. They learn all about the importance of wearing hard hats and high visibility clothing so that they can be seen at all times, they see a wonderful variety of machinery: cherry-pickers, all-terrain fork lift trucks, cranes etc. They are guided round the site by Conetractor and learn how important it is to do as you are told to keep safe, and the conesequences of disobedience. They come to the sensible coneclusion that, although building sites look to be good fun, they really are somewhere they should NOT play.

Book 6 Cones in the Water - Based around a flood defence scheme, Conestance, Cone-Vera, Conerad and Conen learn that they should be careful where they shelter in a rain storm, and find what the humans are doing to stop their towns being flooded. They meet Conefluence who teaches them to be safe near water, visit a coffer dam and see the conestruction of a weir. The Cones learn about the ecology issues of a river/canal system, otters, eels, salmon, swans etc. They learn that it is dangerous to wildlife and conestruction to throw rubbish into the system, the dangers of Giant Hogweed and how grass grows over the edge of canals. Water is fun, but be careful.

They live by strict rules, the most important of which is : when a human eye looks at a Cone, they are just Cones: no eyes, no hands, no faces, no voices – just Cones. It is only when the human eye looks away that adventures can happen … and they do – and to prove it there are many many more stories in the series. Wherever there is somewhere interesting with safety issues, there is a story.

As you will see from the precis above, there is a “cone language! This is designed to help young writers and readers learn the ever-difficult concept of where do we put the “magic” ‘e’ in a word and how does it affect the previous vowel? So, the Cones are called Conestance, Conerad, Conen and Cone-Vera. Conecept, conetact, conecentration, Conecourse as above, are just a few examples of Cone words. These are explained to children as “our” spelling and “Cone” spelling with a definition of the word.

Chris would really enjoy a “coneference“ to discuss the conecept in more depth and hopes that you will come to the coneclusion that the four friends are worthy of further conesideration! Please follow @FunWithTheCones on Twitter.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Fun with the Cones .