Category Archives: YA

Head in all the books

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Joanna Nadin

I read a lot. A LOT. About sixty so far this year though it feels more like eleventy billion. Some for work, some for pleasure, some for both. Some I’ve put down after two pages because CLUNKY. Some because the … Continue reading →

Posted in 1970s, 1980s, Blog, creative writing, Fiction, women's fiction, YA | Tagged Cormoran Strike, Eimear McBride, Emma Glass, Jess Kidd, Sarah Crossan, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Tracey Thorn, William Sutcliffe | Leave a comment

My BAFTA-Winning Boy

Posted on November 26, 2018 by Joanna Nadin

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 | Leave a comment

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

The Carnegie Feeling

Posted on November 6, 2017 by Joanna Nadin

I have never been one of life’s winners when it comes to sport, barely even scraping third in the 1979 St Mary’s Primary sports day yoghurt-pot-and-umbrella race (actual race, involving running wildly around the field with an empty Ski pot … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog, YA | Tagged Anthony McGowan, Atom Books, Carnegie Medal, Everybody Hurts, Hachette, Joanna Nadin, Leeds, Little Brown, love, teen romance, YA | 2 Comments