Financier writes children’s book with message to follow dreams

AN American financier gave a reading of her debut children’s book at Valley Road Primary School in Henley.

Jordan Cracknell, 39, who lives in Henley with her husband, James, a double Olympic rowing champion, visited the school on Tuesday last week.

The book, You Can Count on Penny, was published independently on Amazon in August to inspire children to have a love of maths and to pursue their dream jobs.

It follows a white Arctic fox called Penny who lives in a village called Frostbrook. In the village, the foxes perform specific jobs passed down through generations but Penny’s passion is maths.

Mrs Cracknell read the story to Year 1 and 2 children before taking questions and then signing copies of the book.

She said: “If their entire family worked as doctors but they didn’t want to be doctors and wanted to be accountants, then it’s okay not to do what your parents did.

“My husband James also very strongly agrees with me on that because he went off on his own to do rowing, and his dad’s an accountant, but he said ‘No, I really want to do rowing’. That was a very brave decision.

“I just want people to feel confident and comfortable making decisions and be confident in numbers and maths.”

Mrs Cracknell began writing the book while her husband was campaigning in Colchester to be its next MP ahead of the general election in July.

She said: “The initial thought was that I’d like to do something creative. It was originally supposed to be Penny the polar bear but I remember going to the zoo and liking Arctic foxes because they looked really cute and they look like cats — I love cats.

“I wrote the story out and had my mum review it and she gave me some really good feedback and then it was polished up by a professional who went through it for grammar. I was then put in touch with an illustrator who came up with all the fox designs.

“It was really fun going back and forth, picking out should Penny have a backpack, should Penny have a little bow and what colour should Penny be.”

Prior to writing the book, Mrs Cracknell did research into women in finance and maths and found that families didn’t really talk to young children, especially young girls, about working in a mathematical field. She said: “There are these subconscious ideas that people who work in maths and accountants are men. That is not true, women can do that as well and they should be able to do that, and it should be totally normal.”

Mrs Cracknell majored in film production before transferring to an investment team and went on to work in sales and trading at Deutsche Bank. After earning a master’s in finance and an MBA from Cambridge, she opened her own financing company.

All proceedings from the book are donated to Education & Employers, a UK-based charity with the vision of providing children and young people with inspiration, motivation, knowledge, skills and opportunities. It is available on Amazon for £6.99.