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Trying and failing to ignore this colossal apostrophe fail at Ladybird. Now blaming them for my generation’s punctuation problems.And now I’m reading this and it’s just stunning. Debut MG by Katya Balen and cover by @laura.f.carlin Out with @bloomsburypublishing in September. Thanks for the proof.Finally got round to reading this beauty. Fabulous take on a fairy tale. Clever and dark and heartbreaking. @usborne_booksAt the illegible even to me frantic planning stage. #amwritingGCSE breakfastBloonTwitter
- And I always thought Linked In was Facebook for boring people. But no, apparently the batshit inhabit it too https://t.co/GDthOCRcAW 8 hours ago
- Ladybird, you disappoint me. https://t.co/C0NO4A2Q9G 9 hours ago
- I just saw a baby mink in the wild and now I’m in a cafe drinking Darjeeling and writing notes for a new thing and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 17 hours ago
- Loving The Society but questions: How do they still have eggs and tomatoes 6 months in? How did someone catch a c… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 day ago
- RT @tracey_thorn: @petepaphides Jesus wept. Blokes in bands. 2 days ago
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Category Archives: middle grade
My BAFTA-Winning Boy
This is how it started. A small boy I’d glimpsed on a street in Peckham, his sleeping bag on his back like a nylon snail. From that came pages of notes about a boy called Tom, who eventually turned into … Continue reading
Posted in creative writing, Fiction, middle grade, Teen, YA
Tagged BAFTA, Beryl Richards, CBBC, Daniel Frogson, Joe All Alone, Liani Samuel, Nadine Marsh-Edwards, Zodiak Kids
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We are BAFTA-nominated… and breathe
A couple of days ago, I found out that the CBBC adaptation of Joe All Alone was shortlisted for the Royal Television Society Awards for Best Children’s Drama. A couple of minutes ago, I found out it’s now nominated for … Continue reading
(Pigeon) seeds of a story
It began with a name, as it so often does for me: The Audacious Birdy Jones. But who she was, what she looked like, what her story was were blurry and inchoate, still lost somewhere in the soup of story … Continue reading
Posted in Blog, creative writing, Fiction, middle grade, Reading
Tagged Billy Bremner, Edinburgh, Leeds, Leeds United, pigeons
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Birdy Jones is all alone
Of all the questions I get asked on school visits, there are several perennials: How old are you, Miss? How much do you earn, Miss? Do you know JK Rowling / Jacqueline Wilson / David Walliams / any other much … Continue reading
Posted in creative writing, Fiction, middle grade, Reading
Tagged Joanna Nadin, Joe All Alone, Leeds United, Liz Kessler, MG, Sean Bean, UKMG
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BAFTA, baby!
On Friday, someone asked me how different my life was a decade ago. And other than the Menace being smaller and markedly more menacing, and my home being two roads away, I said it barely was. ten years ago I … Continue reading
Posted in creative writing, Fiction, middle grade, Teen, YA
Tagged BAFTA, Beryl Richards, CBBC, Daniel Frogson, Joe All Alone, Joe Sims, Liani Samuels, Nadine Marsh-Edwards, Vas Blackwood, Zodiak Kids
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CBBC’s Joe All Alone and the truth about child poverty
Joe All Alone is a book (and, now, BBC TV series) about friendship. It’s a book about family, and what constitutes that today. It’s a book about bullying. It’s a book about difference and acceptance. But beneath all that, it’s … Continue reading
Posted in Blog, Fiction, middle grade, Teen, Uncategorized, YA
Tagged CBBC, child poverty, Daniel Frogson, Home Alone, Joanna Nadin, Joe All Alone, Joe Sims, Vas Blackwood
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Joe in the post
In the run-up to Christmas, opening the post is always accompanied by a little frisson of anticipation, invariably dampened when I find it is only catalogues or credit statements or a card from someone I have never met addressed to … Continue reading
Posted in Blog, middle grade, Reading, Teen, YA
Tagged Banijay, CBBC, Daniel Frogson, Joe All Alone, Joe Sims, tv drama, Vas Blackwood, Zodiak
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