Inspire young readers with our top ten fabulous female characters, handpicked from some of our favourite children’s books. 1) Pippi Longstocking Meet Pippi Longstocking (5+), written by Astrid Lindgren, illustrated by Ingrid Vang Nyman 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the first Pippi Longstocking story (although Pippi herself will always be nine years old of […]
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What word describes the shape of a Vermicious Knid? Which Roald Dahl character stridulates? And what does snozzcumberophagous mean? These are all things that you can learn from delving into the pages of the new Oxford Roald Dahl Thesaurus.
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13th September marks Roald Dahl Day, and, to celebrate, Oxford University Press has released its 13 Words of Bravery. These 13 words reflect the ways children today write about bravery and the context in which they use these words to feel empowered in difficult situations. Read on to find out more or download the full report here . The Oxford […]
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Every year thousands of young people from across the UK pick up their pens to enter BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words competition. As part of ongoing language and lexical research, the Oxford Children’s Dictionaries & Children’s Language Data team at Oxford University Press has analysed almost 113,000 short stories submitted to the competition for the […]
Read moreOn the Bookshelf River Boy by Tim Bowler In perfect tune with our Author Focus we feature on the Bookshelf a stunning new edition of the Carnegie Medal winning novel by Tim Bowler. River Boy also has a heroine, Jess, seemingly more at home in the water. She is another powerful swimmer and there is a mystery inextricably linked […]
Read moreJoy Court shines a spotlight on children’s author Cerrie Burnell. 2019 started off with a really exciting move up to Middle Grade by this popular actress and CBeebies presenter, turned author. Cerrie featured in The Guardian’s 2011 list of the 100 most inspirational women, where she received praise for tackling disability head-on. Having been born […]
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HOT TOPIC Healthy individuals and healthy school communities Joy Court looks at the role that reading can play in children’s mental health. How well a school supports pupils’ personal development is a key feature of the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework that was published in May. There is actually much in this framework that could be used to justify (should […]
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SHARED PRACTICE Don’t let lack of funds stop you! One librarian who knows all about building a society of readers is Nicki Cleveland, celebrated on the Honour List for the 2018 SLA School Librarian of the Year. Joy Court talks to Nicki below. Her citation tells us: ‘Despite having only 3.5 dedicated hours in the […]
Read moreStill looking for ideas for last-minute Christmas gifts? We asked some of our children’s authors to share the best – and worst – Christmas presents they’ve ever received… Ben Davis, Author of The Private Blog of Joe Cowley and Make Me Awesome I’m a big Christmas fan. Especially now I have a three year […]
Read more HOT TOPIC Reflecting Realities in the school library Joy Court discusses the results of CLPE’s first study into ethnic representation in UK children’s literature and how libraries can get involved with the movement for change. “An important report was published at the end of July, after many of you would have finished for the summer break, and […]
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