A FORMER primary school teacher is putting his skills to good use in his bid to become a top children's author.

The Children Are Revolting, the debut novel by Kidderminster author Jon Turley, is set to hit the shelves in bookshops next month.

But while he readily admits he expects his book - which has already been released in the US and is based around a rebellion in a top English private school - to capitalise on current trends, he has not even dreamt of replicating JK Rowling's route to fame and fortune.

Jon says the phenomenal global success story enjoyed by the woman who gave the world a certain Harry Potter is "a complete one-off."

But he believes she has paved the way for people like himself to get their work into the public arena.

"JK Rowling has put the love of reading back into kids," he said.

The 31-year-old, who lives in Bernie Crossland Walk, Kidderminster, with his wife Helen, has taught in many primary schools as a supply teacher, forming the crucial base for what he hopes will be a new full-time career.

"I helped children build up their English and, teaching them to write, I saw the kinds of things they like to read," said Jon, who writes under the catchy pseudonym JT McQueen and currently works training teachers.

He encouraged children to use their imaginations and come up with ideas to share with others, using an "anything goes" philosophy.

Following a spell working in Dubai in 1999 Jon refined ideas for stories and upon returning to Kidderminster in 2000 he put pen to paper and started bashing out novels.

Although he has written several, including a trilogy, The Children Are Revolting is the first novel he felt confident enough to submit to publishers after it met with unanimous approval from a test audience of both adults and children.

He said: "Writing has now taken over my life - it's almost as if I have found my 'calling'.

"I love writing and I love creating. I love sharing ideas and the joy of writing with others, and I'm looking forward to doing assemblies and creative writing workshops with schools all over the country in the next academic year."

Jon approached publishers in America who liked the concept - due largely, he believes, to the fashionable "English Factor" - and the novel, aimed at the 10 to 14 age bracket, but designed to appeal to all ages, is being released in England next month.

"There is a large market in America but I'm very excited about it being in bookshops in this country and children getting it and reading it," he said.

He added possible film or television adaptation of his novel is also in the pipeline, which would fulfil another ambition.

"Everyone wants to see a screen adaptation of what they've created."

And Jon has also drawn on his experiences in Dubai for the book's follow-up, Art Fox and the Doomed Prince of Al Za'abeel.

More information is available on his website www.jtmcqueen.com.