You probably need this book, either for yourself, or for a dear friend. The hilarious, empathetic and sweary Emily Writes has followed up her first essay collection Rants in the Dark with a second collection, Is It Bedtime Yet? This time, with typical generosity, and an eye to telling more people’s stories than just […]
As part of our ongoing occasional series on helping kids grow into world-changers, check this out! Here’s the kind of book I want every kid in the world to have a copy of. Here’s what it’s all about, and a bit from one of the creators, Kirsten Liepmann. Enjoy! Hello! We are Karen Ng and Kirsten […]
Advent is on its way! In 2017 it begins on Sunday 3 December (though lots of Advent resources will begin on 1 December as they do every year, regardless of the calendar). Most of my Advent resources – pretty much everything you could possibly need! – are in this post full of links and ideas. […]
No one is too young to make the world a better place! Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize when she was only seventeen. She began her public life as an activist for girls’ education in Pakistan when she was just eleven years old, blogging about life under the Taliban. She’s proof that ordinary young people can have genuine influence […]
One of the biggest joys in my life right now is a Facebook group called BRILLIANT + AMAZING + WRITERS + MOTHERS. It is what it says on the tin. We’re all people juggling motherhood with writing, and being brilliant and amazing while we do it. Today I wanted to introduce you to one of […]
I keep reading this baseless crap about how boys won’t read stories about girls, so we should just stop writing and publishing them. It’s nonsense. Worse, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because how will boys read about girls if everyone’s been warned not to offer them those books? I recently wrote a round-up of 12 notable New […]
At Christmas, bookshops stock a lot of stories about Santa, and at Easter, you can’t avoid bunnies and chocolate. If you’re looking to balance that with picture books telling the original Easter story of Jesus’ last weeks on earth, here are my top recommendations. Joy Cowley’s The Easter Story [A version of this review first […]
Have you ever noticed that all the animals in the popular children’s lift-the-flap book Dear Zoo are male? Every single one. It’s not an isolated example. Looking at almost 6,000 children’s books published between 1900 and 2000, the study, led by Janice McCabe, a professor of sociology at Florida State University, found that males are central characters […]
Well, I love a good book list challenge. Danyl from Dimpost has written a list of 50-odd must-read novels to recommend to people. The difference with his list is that he omits anything too long or ‘hard’ that might turn out to put people off: A few weeks ago I was arguing about lists of […]
Wow. I asked around to see what people are planning for Advent this year, and look what I got! Lego! Candles! Chocolate coins in shoes! I have spent the evening wrangling a non-sleeping baby (very smiley and cheeky, playing with toys on the bed beside me and blowing raspberries non-stop for half an hour) and […]