Category Archives: middle grade

BAFTA, baby!

Posted on April 15, 2018 by Joanna Nadin

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 | Leave a comment

CBBC’s Joe All Alone and the truth about child poverty

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Joanna Nadin

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 | Leave a comment

Joe in the post

Posted on December 4, 2017 by Joanna Nadin

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 | Leave a comment

First lines and first chapters

Posted on November 1, 2017 by Joanna Nadin

Find out how writers from David Almond to Frank Cottrell Boyce to Sue Townsend have grabbed their readers from the off, and kept them turning pages long into the night. And have a go at writing your own first page … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog, creative writing, Events, middle grade, Reading | Tagged Bloomsbury, creative writing, Getting published, Joanna Nadin, Writers and Artists Yearbook | Leave a comment

Want to write middle grade?

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Joanna Nadin

Want to know how to write middle grade fiction? Want to know what middle grade fiction is and why the bejaysus we keep stealing words from the Americans? Then join me (and Bloomsbury Publishing’s Writers and Artists Yearbook) in this 2.5 … Continue reading →

Posted in Events, middle grade, Reading, Uncategorized | Tagged Bath Festival of Children's Literature, Bath Kids Lit Festival, Billy Wild, Bloomsbury, creative writing, Joanna Nadin, Joe All Alone, middle grade, Writers and Artists Yearbook, writing workshop | Leave a comment