A former regional daily journalist has written a book about a lost llama which aims to help reassure children starting school for the first time.

Colette Warbrook, who worked for Stoke-on-Trent daily The Sentinel between August 2006 and March this year, was inspired to pen a story by her eight-year-old son Ewan’s experience with starting school.

She has now self-published the resulting book ‘Help! I’ve Lost My Llama’, which is aimed at children aged three to six.

Colette, pictured, specialised in nostalgia and history writing while at The Sentinel, and also previously worked on the Bath Chronicle.

She told The Sentinel: “I loved writing stories as a child; dreaming up worlds and characters. And although I went on to become a journalist, my dream to write fiction never went away, so a few years ago I joined a creative writing group at my local library in Nantwich.

“The tale was inspired by a homework task set by the group’s leaders. One of the librarians then put me in touch with [illustrator] Mark Wilcox, known as ‘Wilf’, who has already written and illustrated his own books.”

Colette added: “Help! I’ve Lost My Llama tells the story of a boy, Tim, and his pet llama, Lottie. Tim, who lives on a farm, is nervous about starting school, so he comes up with a clever plan to bring his pet with him.

But when Lottie goes missing, Tim seeks help from his parents – and the farm animals – as he searches for her, and, along the way, discovers that school isn’t so bad after all.

“As a mum, I know what a big deal starting school is, so I hope my book goes a little way to reassuring children – and their parents – about this milestone.”

Mark said: “When I read it, I fell in love with the story. It has a wonderfully nostalgic sense of innocence and adventure that I’d loved as a child, so I jumped at the chance to illustrate it.