MINI cowboys and pint-sized outlaws enjoyed days of wild-west fun when an author who was brought up in Lowestoft returned to the town – to bring her stories alive for children.

Youngsters at Ladybird Day Care and Poplars Primary School enjoyed a variety of games and activities as they helped celebrate the launch of a new range of children's books by Catherine Coe.

Catherine has published a series of eight books entitled Kid Cowboy, which follows the adventures of Casper and his horse Blue the Brave.

She organised the events in Lowestoft because she wanted to give something back to the town after she grew up in the area before moving to London in her early twenties.

Catherine, 31, who attended Dell Primary, Elm Tree Middle and Kirkley High schools before going to university, said: 'I grew up in Lowestoft and my family still lives there.

'I wanted to give something back to the community and my sister worked in the Ladybird Day Care nursery, so we organised a launch collaboration event.

'I am very passionate about children – my Kid Cowboy stories are for five to six-year-olds.

'In my job I try to be in contact with children a lot to find out what they are interested in.

'That inspired me to come back to Lowestoft because there are a lot of children who are not from privileged backgrounds and may not have many books at home.

She added: 'The idea for my books comes from seeing children playing cowboys and cowgirls, and seeing how excited they get about it.'

The author visited the nursery on Kirkley Street, and then dropped in to Poplars Primary on St Margaret's Road two days later.

Speaking about her visit to the nursery, she said: 'I read four stories throughout the course of the day and they all dressed up and did games and activities like musical cowboys.'

Meanwhile, children in the year five class at Poplars were given the chance to come up with their own ideas for stories through writing workshops. ?The Kid Cowboy series is published by Orchard Books and is available online via Amazon. For information, visit www.orchardbooks.co.uk

? Ladybird Day Care is in the Kirkley Children's Centre and is managed by Lowestoft College. For more information, visit www.lowestoft.ac.uk or telephone 01502 532753.