Look back at the Year 6 to Year 7 Transition Read 2025 – Quiet Storm.  

This is the 6th year of Manchester’s city-wide Transition Read programme and is delivered by Manchester City Council and Read Manchester in partnership with local schools.  Reading the same book and taking part in lessons and activities themed around Quiet Storm offers pupils a shared experience when they start high school, irrespective of which primary school they attend.

The story resonated with students during this important, and sometimes difficult step from primary to secondary school life, with its themes of fitting in, friendships, and older high performing siblings being especially powerful.  Set in Manchester with voices and situations young people could connect with, it made the perfect choice.  

Quiet Storm is Kimberly Whittam’s debut novel. Kimberly says:

“I wrote Quiet Storm for children who struggle with shyness; children who don’t speak up, no matter how much they want to. It’s also a celebration of the chaotic yet joyous tribulations that occur every day in classrooms across the country.”   

In July, thousands of copies of Quiet Storm were distributed to high schools across Manchester.  These books were to be gifted to each year 6 student attending their year 7 transition day, so that they would all have a book in common to read during the summer holidays.  To support schools, as well as specially made resources, we made visits to Levenshulme High School, Manchester Academy, Loretto High School, St Matthew’s RC High School, and CO-OP Academy North on their transition days, with Kimberly presenting to almost 1000 students over 2 days.  

When asked if they thought the session made the young people connect with books one teacher from CO-OP Academy North said: 

“The pupils in on the day of the author visit had the more valuable and enjoyable day and left at the end of it buzzing about their day” 

The activity didn’t stop there, over the summer Kimberly held special Quiet Storm workshops at Gorton, Didsbury, Chorlton, Beswick, Abraham Moss libraries, and at Z-arts Children’s library, chatting to young people about the book and about how they were feeling about going to high school, whilst decorating cakes or designing t-shirts all with the aim of building confidence and learning to value themselves and their skills.  

In September we visited more schools. Holding smaller workshops at MEA Wythenshawe and Co-Op Academy Belle Vue, as well as whole year assemblies at Dixons Brooklands and St Peter’s RC high schools, and an online session for The East Manchester Academy. Over 650 students met Kimberly and learnt why she chose to write about a young person starting high school. They also learnt why joining in is important, how to make good friend choices and how to be themselves in school.   

One student from CO-OP Academy Belle Vue said  

“Meeting Kimberly helped me find out that I have lots of reasons to smile and be confident, it also helped me meet my classmates and talk about us writing a story together” 

A member of staff from MEA Wythenshawe said: 

“Our students were thrilled to meet a real-life author especially as they had read Kimberly’s book and were able to ask lots of questions. They explored the themes of friendships, confidence and change in the book and were able to discuss any personal worries through this discussion in a safe and supportive setting” 

Kimberly’s next book, Always Angel is out in February 2026 and we look forward to more young people reading both books and being inspired by a local author.

Thanks to publishers Usborne for their support of Read Manchester’s Transition Read 2025 and to System C for their generous financial contribution.