About Me

My name is Tanya Kharina and I was born in Russia. I moved to England 15 years ago, at the age of 15. I didn’t speak a word of English and my written word has been completely self-taught.  I now consider English as my first language, although I speak fluent Russian and my story influences fuse the two distinct parts of my life so far.

After becoming a mum, reading children’s books has become part of my everyday routine. I love it! I have two boys, aged 4 and 3 years of age and we love anything that rhymes and is a fun adventure.

Our eldest boy Alfie, 4 is autistic and it is this that has inspired me to write this book. After the initial shock and digestion of what this means for Alfie, our approach has been to see his difference as an advantage rather than the other way around. I wanted to portray this to other children, to teach them to embrace ‘being different’.

I would love to spread the message to children whether they are the ones with a disability or perhaps one of their siblings, after reading this story they can hopefully relate and feel they have something special in them or can understand more that it’s ok to be different and they should be proud to know someone who isn’t quite like them.