Letterbox Library

I know that in the battle to get kids to read, seeing their heroes promoting books really helps … but why is it only ever football?

Why only ever footballers surprising a class of primary school kids, or an event in an antiseptic conference room at the Emirates Stadium? 1/3

+ we know through a wealth of research that a key encourager of reading for pleasure is for children to see ppl like them reflected in the books they read and in the ppl promoting those books. A celeb endorsement is just as likely to leave a child thinking “I’m nothing like them/this isn’t for me”!

2/2… actually an anti-poverty strategy, is undermining the power of reading for pleasure.”

On the pressures of #WorldBookDay dress ups- Jonathan Douglas @literacy-trust.bsky.social

Schools in England sidelining dressing-up for World Book Day, MPs hear Literacy experts say move comes over cost concerns and fears costumes can detract from reading for pleasure

1/2

“The whole point of this is that reading for pleasure is a driver of social mobility…Therefore anything that takes away from it, as not simply a driver of social mobility but …
#KidLitUK

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Previously in The Big Rebels Series…

“In my experience life is richer &more joyful when we are able to give voice and space to all, whatever their lived experience”

New accessibility hub at this year’s London Book Fair from @alexstrick.bsky.social & Beth Cox (1 of our reviewers!)
#KidLitUK
#LondonBookFair
booksforkeeps.co.uk/59124-2/

Discover how the findings of @theclpe.bsky.social ‘s annual #ReflectingRealities survey can inform and enrich your classroom book stock.
18th May
3-3.45pm
For primary staff, esp. English Leaders & Librarians.
@neunion.bsky.social
#KidLitUK

“You see, when inclusion is done well, and books naturally include the diversity of people, they encourage a love of reading, a sense of belonging or feeling seen.”

Superb comment piece by (we’re proud to say) one of our reviewers, Beth Cox
#ReflectingDisability
#KidLitUK

Very proud 😊 to have this STEM expert as one of our book reviewers. Here’s @alomshaha.bsky.social doing his 🌈🌈🌈magic⬇️

To meet the rest of the Letterbox Library Review Team: www.letterboxlibrary.com/how-we-selec...
#KidLitUK

We’re so excited that Jake Hope will be on this year’s CLiPPA judging panel! A champion of children’s books, Jake brings huge expertise from his work with the Carnegie Medals. Register your school for the shadowing scheme: https://r1.dotdigital-pages.com/p/1RW5-1LFF/clippa26

Also a good time to mention that many of our #LittleRebelsAward shortlistees/winners are available for school visits.

To see our roll call of authors/illustrators in all of their rad glory: littlerebels.org/previous-sho...
#KidLitUK
#RadicalBooks
#PoliticalBooks

We love seeing our #LittleRebelsAward Shortlistees & Winners living out their activism both in and beyond book pages.

@gill-lewis.bsky.social is a previous Shortlistees (2014, 2016, 2018, 2020) and winner (2015).

#KidLitUK
#RadicalBooks
#PoliticalBooks

2/ EveryLibrary executive director John Chrastka says bill is “an effort to ‘legislate discrimination in the form of book bans’ …an especially pernicious kind of election year legislation that is designed to engineer social unrest.”
#bookbans

‘Same Ingredients, Different Recipe’ in Proposed U.S. Book Ban House Resolution 7661, introduced on February 24, would withhold federal funds from public classrooms and school libraries alleged to have “sexually oriented material” on their shelves.

More N America #bookbans news:
Nationwide Book Ban Bill is being proposed to House of Representatives. Dubbed the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act”, Freedom to Read advocates are clear it threatens any lgbtq+ content by terming it “sexually orientated”
www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Opinion: How Book Bans Led to the Postponement of the Diversity Baseline Survey Jason Low, publisher and co-owner of Lee & Low Books, issues a call to action to fellow members of the industry to focus their efforts on fighting book bans.

“As far as books for children go, the diversity movement is by and large in limbo.” Jason Low @leeandlow.bsky.social

How book bans are draining the energy and threatening the work of ppl across the creative industries (North America).
#bookbans

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Brand new award to “recognise young people who have overcome challenge to discover the joy of reading.”

Fine-looking initiative from @barringtonstoke.bsky.social & @sla.org.uk (& fabulous bookish prizes!)

#KidLitUK

Scope of Oak National Academy judicial review to widen after High Court bid succeeds The High Court has granted an application brought by the Publishers Association (PA), the Society of Authors (SoA) and the British Educational Suppliers Association to expand the scope of the judicial...

“Over the past 3 years the government has diverted more than £53 million away from frontline teaching&resources to increase staffing and investment in its quango, Oak”Dan Conway @publishersassoc.bsky.social

Scope of Oak National Academy judicial review widens.
www.thebookseller.com/news/scope-o...

Introducing Children's Chatter...✍️✨

Your one stop digest for children’s writers, illustrators, librarians, publishers and readers.

Sign up! 👉 www.thebookseller.com/maili...

“We must help children become critical thinkers and doers…Is there any better way to do this than through stories? Is there any better way to empower them to prepare for their role in this era or any era than through books?”

⚡️Flashback to 2018! @andreabeatyauthor.bsky.social & David Roberts…

White hand in fingerless dark green glove holds book against white textured wall. The Dad Trap book title appears in big yellow font tumbled in to a net. This is on a pulley device pulled by two white children both with red hair. Subtitle bottom left reads “Let the sabotage begin!” Top left has a quote from author Andy Shepherd in a dark blue circle: “wonderfully funny” Book background is light blue with several cog/machinery icons.

“A fun, bounce-along, narrative full of Eagleton’s trademark lightness of touch which nevertheless bundles up content-rich ideas around belonging and identity”

Our review of @ianeagletonauthor.bsky.social The Dad Trap:
www.letterboxlibrary.com/product-page...

@scholasticuk.bsky.social
#KidLitUK

3 days left to buy books and feel properly 💞good💞 and purposeful about your book buying choices😄

@bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social
#ReadItForward

Catching up on last year’s #LittleRebelsAward Shortlistees:

@sflayzell.bsky.social Cottonopolis rubbing spines with those plain old bad heroines and the like in @ruebaldry.bsky.social ‘s “10 Lesbian Novels” recs for #LGBTHistory 2026

@northodoxpress.bsky.social
@schoolsoutuk.bsky.social
#KidLitUK

White hand in fingerless dark green glove holds book against white textured wall. The Dad Trap book title appears in big yellow font tumbled in to a net. This is on a pulley device pulled by two white children both with red hair. Subtitle bottom left reads “Let the sabotage begin!” Top left has a quote from author Andy Shepherd in a dark blue circle: “wonderfully funny” Book background is light blue with several cog/machinery icons.

“A fun, bounce-along, narrative full of Eagleton’s trademark lightness of touch which nevertheless bundles up content-rich ideas around belonging and identity”

Our review of @ianeagletonauthor.bsky.social The Dad Trap:
www.letterboxlibrary.com/product-page...

@scholasticuk.bsky.social
#KidLitUK

Visual asset for book pack. Square with yellow and orange split on the diagonal. Top left reads “LGBTQ+ Book Pack” Underneath “26 Books”. Top left “Key stage 1 & 2” In centre four book covers: Picture books, When Will My Woodlouse Wake Up? and Covered in Adventures Chapter books Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow and Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths. Left bottom the Letterbox Library logo.

📣Teachers:

We’ve just updated our LGBTQ+ Book Packs for KS1, KS2 and combined.

Bringing you our reviewers’ recent top choices for #lgbtq+ representation in contemporary #KidLitUK

➡️Peek here: www.letterboxlibrary.com/product-page...

➡️And see our Insta reel for a little preview of the contents.

A large brown box taped up with brown tape on a wooden floor.

To You: a taped up blocky brown box.

To Us: a Gender Equality, Black History and LGBTQ+ Book Pack off to a special school in Wales.

#KidLitUK

Esp. enjoyed descriptions of author studying emotional landscapes- keeping notebooks and maps of neurotypical people's responses at school: "Emotion is not mysterious to me, because I am a student of it".

"Contemporary novelists including Helen Hoang, Corinne Duyvis and Elle McNicoll have demonstrated that emotionally powerful storytelling and neurodivergence are not opposites but companions. And a commercially successful formula."

Fab Comment by author @greensolitaire.bsky.social
..

“Celebrating the diverse voices in poetry for children is important because..all children can find a voice that speaks to them&..discover that poetry is their personal gateway into the power of their own words” ( #CLiPPA Judge Nicola Davies)

Phoebe Demeger @theclpe.bsky.social ‘s Poetry Award Prize

A wonderful win.

Dean Atta’s verse transformed in to a cinematic treasure-

And you can catch it on @channel4news.bsky.social

Pets & Tigers! Nikhil and Jay are back!

Lovely. @otterbarrybooks.bsky.social have signed two more in Chitra Soundar’s Nikhil and Jay early reader series. Illustrated by @soofiya.bsky.social

#KidLitUK
www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/article...