New Book! Beyond the Secret Garden: Racially Minoritised People in British Children’s Books. Published by @engmediacentre Written by Professor Karen Sands O’Connor and me. Foreword by @lawrencepatrice . Cover by @lucyfarfort .
The best of our columns for @booksforkeepsuk plus additional essays from the two of us. We trace the representation of racially minoritised people in British children’s literature - from Robinson Crusoe in 1719 to the present day.
Sign up link in bio.
The latest Books for Keeps is out - free online!
Beyond the Secret Garden looks at multilingualism in children's books.
Karen Sands O'Connor interviews me about 'I'm Going to Make a Friend' and how it relates to our critical work with Beyond the Secret Garden.
And an excellent column on tower blocks (and gardens!) from @letterbox_library , in their 44th year of selling diverse, inclusive and social justice books for children!
'Community Conversations'
Tuesday June 2nd 2026.
4:30-6:00pm
CLPE / EMC
44 Webber St, London SE1 8QW
Free to attend.
BOOK HERE
Gita Ralleigh, Claire Linney, Louie Stowell, and JT Williams join Dr Darren Chetty for the second Community Conversation event.
A chance to discuss contemporary speculative fiction for children that engages with colonialism - from historical fantasy and fantasy set in other worlds to speculative writing set in our world in the present day.
The history of British fantasy stories, like that of adventure stories, carries with it the UK'S colonial past and its present echoes. But a growing number of authors are exploring ways to engage with this critically and creatively. What are their approaches? What are the issues in play for writers and readers of these books?
We will be sharing provocations from a number of children's authors, with group discussions on the topic and extracts to explore and dissect.
*Community Conversations is a series of free events that offer the chance for writers, illustrators, teachers, publishers, booksellers, critics and enthusiasts to come together to discuss children’s literature and education. We thank CLPE & EMC for their generous support of the series.
Community Conversations
open access, free to all
turn-taking & care taking
LINK IN BIO
For our next CYAL book group we'll be discussing Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay and So Devin Wore a Skirt by Shireen Lalji and Lucy Thomas. It's an in-person group of adults - free, and open to everyone. We meet at UCL Institute of Education. Just send me a message if you'd like to come along!
Publication day for the paperback of 'I'm Going to Make a Friend'.
I've really enjoyed hearing what children make of the story. Here's what one adult thought:
'A child breaks the fourth wall to look out at us. They are surrounded by the packing boxes of a move to a new home. Hello. I’m new here. I’m NOT scared. But they look scared.'
'We never get a name for our lead character, they speak in first person throughout, and the character design could suggest that they are either a girl or a boy. While some incidental characters in the illustrations are coded male or female, it is notable that the new friend our hero makes is also readable either way. Teachers may enjoy finding out what their pupils think about this – do the children tend to assume that a character has the same gender as them? Or do they tend to assume characters in books are male unless told otherwise? A range of ethnicities are suggested in the book meaning a lot of children will get to see someone a bit like them in it. Perhaps just as importantly, we see the children’s individuality in other ways. Our hero has a penguin T-shirt which I long for and might have to recreate for myself. The friend has glasses and a dinosaur on their dungarees – someone in your class will want to tell you that they like dinosaurs too. We all deserve to see ourselves in a book.'
'This book is colourful, attractive, funny and genuinely thought-provoking. I hope it finds itself into a lot of Reception classes and Key Stage 1 classrooms. I hope it finds itself in a lot of homes too as it will be one of those books where the conversation can go on long past time for lights out.' Ed Finch for Just Imagine
#picturebook #weneeddiversebooks #reflectingrealities #kidlit #childrensbooks #inclusivebooks
Happy pb Publication Day to I'm Going to Make a Friend @rapclassroom@sandhyaprabhat , a fantastically fun and imaginative, thought-provoking and comforting exploration of friend-making. With robots! 🤖🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Everyone says I'll make new friends . . .
But how do I make one?
Do I do it by myself?
Do I need special tools?
Perhaps I need some help. ✨
Moving neighbourhood comes with many challenges, especially making new friends. How long will it take? Will they play how I want to play? Will they hug me when I'm sad, or give me space? So many questions! But in the end, the only thing you can do is dive in and give it a go. 🤖
A heartwarming and original take on the nature of friendship with a gorgeous new paperback cover, I'm Going to Make a Friend by Darren Chetty (@rapclassroom ) and illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat (@sandhyaprabhat ) is out next week! 🎉
#ImGoingtoMakeaFriend
Out in September. The 10th anniversary edition of The Good Immigrant published by @canongatebooks .
This was my first ever publication in a commercial book. Thanks to @nikeshshuklawriter for having faith in me. Such a great list of writers.
A decade on, I’m still talking about the ideas in my essay. Some things have changed, some things have not. I’m writing a piece reflecting on the state of education and children’s publishing then and now. Hope to share it before the anniversary edition is out.
