FOR CBN & YLG MEMBERS ONLY

We are massively excited to announce that the Youth Libraries Group will be  partnering with Children’s Books North for a virtual conference for members from Scotland, North East, Yorkshire and Humber and the North West.  This will give authors, illustrators, publishing professionals and librarians a chance to network, share ideas and enjoy a few exclusives in a packed morning of events.

We hope you can all join us for this special event which will include a keynote speech from Scottish Book Trust and an exclusive virtual tour of the new Manchester Poetry Library.

The virtual conference will take place on Zoom Webinar on Saturday 15th May, 10am to 1pm, and is open to all Children's Books North members, along with YLG North West, North East, Yorkshire and Humberside and Scotland members.

FOR CBN & YLG MEMBERS ONLY

Full Programme

Welcome to the Conference: Jake Hope (YLG), Emma, Tilda and Liz (CBN)

Keynote Speech: Scottish Book Trust

Learn about Scottish Book Trust’s latest programmes, prizes and initiatives.

5-minute inspiration: Tony Walsh, performance poet

Top tips for children’s poets.

YLG Panel: Libraries Fact and Fiction

Angela Foster (Stockton Libraries), Anne Burns (Bolton School Library Service), William Plain (School librarian, Scotland and CKG Judge)

Chair: Amy McKay (Co-ordinator of the CKG Medals)

Festivals, events and awards – the many book promotion opportunities in libraries.

5-minute Inspiration: Phil Earle, author and publishing professional

Top tips for children’s authors.

Coffee Break: Networking by region

Special Guest Tour: Manchester Poetry Library

Exclusive behind the scenes tour and introduction to the new children's collection and events plans.

5-minute Inspiration: Alison Brumwell, YLG Chair & Kirklees Libraries

Top tips for children’s librarians.

Children’s Books North panel: Poetry for Children - chapter and verse

Ruth Awolola, Dom Conlon, Rachel Plummer and Louisa Reid

Chair: Becky Swain, Manchester Poetry Library

Poetry in all its forms - anthologies, collections, picture books and verse novels.

5-minute Inspiration: Helen Stephens, illustrator

Top tips for children’s illustrators.

Closing Speech

We hope you're as excited as we are about the stellar conference line-up and look forward to seeing you there.

 Please RSVP by Friday 23rd April, if you are a member of YLG North East, Scotland, Yorkshire and Humber or North West, please click here to book

N M Browne was born in Burnley, Lancashire where she lived not far from the shadow of Pendle Hill.  She worked as a teacher briefly before teaching creative writing to all age groups and abilities from children in schools to BA, MA and MFA students.  N M Browne recently completed a PhD in creative writing.  To discover more about N M Browne, visit her website here.  We are delighted to welcome N M Browne to the blog to talk about her tenth novel Bad Water.

Bad Water is my tenth novel and is very much of a piece with my other stories.

My two Carnegie nominated books: Shadow Web and Basilisk are about crossing from one world to another, about injustice and revolution set in alternate or distorted versions of our own world. My historical fiction is always set in times of change when one civilisation is under threat and a new world order threatens everything: I have written about the Roman invasion of Britain, the sixth century Saxon incursions and the ninth century tribulations of Alfred of Wessex. I like a good clash of values, ideological as well as physical conflict. I am intrigued by the complexity of political power, the significance of belief. Don’t be misled though, above all else I love a good story.

Bad Water takes place after ‘The Chaos.’ Our civilisation has largely been destroyed by climate change, disease, collapsing infrastructure and civil disobedience. What is left is the Isles of Britain, small communities clinging to islands of habitable, farmable land when most of what we know is underwater. The City of London is a crumbling network of high towers swathed in greenery from vertical farms and linked by swaying rope bridges covered in vegetation. There, the murky waters of the Thames, the Great River, are rumoured to be rife with pollution and disease. The people themselves are brutal and violent locked in an endless cycle of gang warfare. This is ‘Bad Water’ and it is best avoided.

In this world almost all the technologies which link our world are gone. ipads and phones are displayed as wealth signifiers, but very little actually works: all networks are down and the world has shrunk. Few people leave the settlement of their birth. 

Ollu, my heroine, is a barger, part of a clan who make a living trading. They recycle and repair old technology, pass messages and gossip  among the largely illiterate villages and settlements of  a drowned England. Ollu’s craft, the Ark, a matriarch boat, was built before the Chaos and has a measure of ‘preeker’ ( pre chaos) technology. Ollu can read and write and the Ark has an ancient ‘aye eye’, a computer hidden beneath its boards. Like everything else it is barely functioning, and the bargers have resorted to old messaging systems: notes written on scraps of paper,  hidden in old waterproof plastic, marked with the warning colour ‘red’ to signify danger.

When Ollu’s mother become sick after giving birth to twins, Ollu negotiates with one of their trading partners: her care in return for a terrible trade.  She has to find a cache of Preeker weapons rumoured to be stashed in Bad Water.

Like all my books, this is primarily an adventure story. Until Ollu teams up with two boys, Buzz and Ratter, she is alone as few young people today are alone. She has no peers, no friends as such. As a little child she had seen films and heard recorded music, they had a radio, but all of that is now gone . She has to make her own decisions and the stakes are high. Just as for the children of today, her present is unlike her mother’s past. What happens in the future is up to her.

The first draft of this book was written long ago when neither the reality of climate change nor the potential damage of plague was quite so prominent in the national consciousness.

My rewrites improved the plot, but never altered the world: that has always been  vivid to me. When I close my eyes I can see the rotting spires of the Old Parley ( The Palace of Westminster) emerging from the Great River, a monument to a whole history lost.

Bad Water is another story about revolution and the power of young people to change their world. Ollu’s  post Chaos drowned Britain looks broken, but to her it is a place of hope and fresh potential. She forges new trading partnerships, mends broken connections, sows the seeds of civilisation.

I didn’t write this book for a pandemic, but it is curiously apt. Post-pandemic or Post-Chaos new relationships can be forged, new connections made.

All our young people have travelled alone through Bad Water, and just as with Ollu, what happens in the future is up to them.

We are delighted to welcome Nansubuga Isdahl and Nicole Miles, author and illustrator of First Names: Nelson Mandela published by David Fickling Books to the blog to talk about the book, Nelson Mandela and their work and research!

1) Please can you introduce yourselves and tell us a little about your background and interests in children’s books?

Nansubuga Isdahl, author: Thanks! I’m Nansu. In short, I was born in the US and am of Ugandan heritage. My family and I currently live in Tanzania, but I’m typing this from Florida (US), where we’ve been taking cover for the past year. I write for international NGOs and UN agencies during the day, and I work on children’s books by night. I’ve always loved books, but became particularly interested in children’s books when I had my daughter and realized that the range of voices telling stories was severely limited and the industry was skewed towards certain perspectives.

Nicole Miles, illustrator: My name is Nicole and I’m from The Bahamas. I came to the UK for university and lived here since then. I find it difficult to explain my interest in children’s books because it’s so hard to imagine why anyone wouldn’t love children’s books! Haha I actually find the category to just be really engaging and accessible and there is a sincerity in kids’ books that can often get replaced by a cooler cynicism in books for older readers and, although that’s sometimes what I’m in the mood for, that sincerity in books for younger readers is just really lovely to me.

(2) How did the commission come about?

NI: My agent brought it to me after DFB had seen a travel series manuscript of mine. I had a call with the editor and they introduced the series. Serendipitously, I had been living in South Africa for years and the opportunity to write about Nelson Mandela fit perfectly with my interests.

NM:This story is maybe not so exciting, but David Fickling Books contacted me and asked if I would be interested in working with them on the series and I was available and interested.

(3) What kind of research was involved in planning the book?

NI: On my end, I read widely. This included Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, The Long Walk to Freedom, and other texts. I also did extensive on-line research, watched many movies, listened to the freedom songs from that time period, etc. I had already visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, so felt I had a grasp of that. Also, simply by living in Johannesburg, I was afforded a considerable amount of perspective about Nelson Mandela because his legacy is reflected throughout the city.

NM: On my part, there was a lot of visual research and, because photos of Black South Africans and their living and working spaces and so on at that time are likely very rare, there was a fair bit of sleuthing involved too. For anyone mentioned in the book I obviously would have to look up as many photos of them as I could find to draw them, but if Nelson is ever driving a car, for example, and the make and model are not named, I was looking up which cars of the time were popular and accessible, whether he would have had the newest model or a car that had been in circulation for a few years, which side of the road they drive on in South Africa and which side is the steering wheel on, and so on. I looked up police uniforms versus other official authorities’ uniforms and the political parties’ flags but made sure I got the emblems from the right era, and what kinds of casual clothing Nelson would have worn at university when he wasn’t in traditional dress or a suit. Basically a lot of time was spent searching online historical photo archives!

(4) What did you learn about Nelson Mandela that you didn’t previously know?

NI: I didn’t know that he had such a tremendous sense of humour. He was very charming, it seems, and I think his sense of humour was part of that charm.

NM:Maybe I should be embarrassed to admit it but, prior to reading Nansu’s manuscript, for me it was as though Nelson Mandela’s life started in middle age when he was sent to Robben Island in 1964, then there was another big gap in my knowledge spanning 27 years, after which he simply existed as a hero because of some vague ideas about fighting apartheid here and there. I respected him before coming to this book and understood that he was an important person, but it is truly an understatement to say I learned a lot working on this project.

5. How important do you feel biographies are for children and young people, and what can we learn from them?
   
   NI: I think biographies, especially those about people who are lesser known or who live in different parts of the world, are particularly important. Historical texts, including biographies, shape how we view the past and the present. I think biographies can help expand young people’s worldview and hopefully allow them to realize that not everything we’re taught reflects the totality of an experience or event. Rather, what we're taught often reflects an interpretation or one side of a story. I think it’s very important for children to learn that distinction early and to gain those critical analysis skills. Biographies are a great way to do this. Biographies can also put a personal face to historical events, which I think makes them far more engaging for children. Learning about apartheid in history class is one thing. Learning about it from Nelson’s life, and the impact it had on him and the people around him, adds a richness that is invaluable. It also helps children to develop empathy – another critically important life skill.
    

   NM:I am not someone who is disinterested in history or global civil rights movements and yet here was a huge oversight on my part about a man who made big waves globally and was the face of a massive movement. I imagine many people, especially anyone (like me) who was too young to have been aware of the events surrounding Mandela as “current affairs” as it was all unfolding, are similarly ignorant (or even less aware) than I was about him (and others in the movement who are also mentioned in the book). That ignorance is an important thing to correct because, as the saying goes “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” and a past with so much avoidable cruelty and discrimination and pain for so many people would be a horrible thing to senselessly repeat. Biographies for young people are not simply a warning though. Historical biographies can serve as a source of inspiration to children to see that, even with so much against you, it is possible to overcome and that is not just pretty words; it happens. People do great things and overcome great difficulty. I think that’s important.

    

   
   (6) It feels as though schooling was a very important point in Nelson Mandela’s life, how formative do you think being educated in a British-style school was for him and what changes did he have to make because of this?
   
   NI: I think Nelson’s formal education helped to widen his perspective about the world. It also gave him access to jobs (i.e., being a lawyer) that would have been unlikely otherwise. I think given that he was a country boy, as he put it, he certainly had to acclimate to a more formal environment during his schooling. He also learned through his formal education that what was being taught in school differed greatly from what he was learning at home (e.g., about South African history). That tension was formative in helping develop his views about equality and justice.  So, Nelson essentially gained the skill of living in two worlds--the Western one through his schooling and the South African one. His ability to “cross over” worlds, if you will, was critically important in building bridges when he came President.

    

   NM: This is a fantastic and complex question. My understanding is that, while it benefitted him and made certain opportunities available to him that may not have been otherwise, the colonial school system also took from him his culture, his history and even his name — one could fairly say much of his sense of identity… There’s a part in the book where this confusion is expressed as he compares what he is learning in formal lessons with what he is learning from elders in his village. It’s interesting because, as someone who grew up and was educated in an ex-British colony (The Bahamas), I found this particularly interesting. It speaks a lot to colonisation and whether the benefits outweigh the many damages and how those subjected to the system can use it to their advantage (and, I would hope, to help those who didn’t benefit from it as Nelson did). When talking about the ills of colonisation, there is often a knee-jerk reaction from descendants of colonisers (and the pro-establishment colonised) that the meagre benefits (roads, education, etc.) were worth it in exchange for subjugation and being second-class citizens. I personally disagree, but I don’t think it’s a topic around which anyone need feel defensive. It will always be of huge benefit to be able to conform to the established norms (whether those established norms set by colonial powers, class expectations, gender expectations, etc), but I think it’s vital that people keep hold of who they are as well because no one story is more valid than another. I guess that’s what “code-switching” is essentially.
   
   (7)  How easy was it showing the growth and maturation of Nelson through the book?
   
   NI: I was working from an outline that I had developed before I started writing and so once I charted the decisive moments at each stage of his life, this became easier.
   
   NM: I think around middle age was the trickiest and I started to sneak a little greying in his hair to show that but I didn’t want him to read as being suddenly quite a lot older, especially since elderly-Nelson was narrating the book and that might get confusing towards the end. It was very helpful having my Art Director Katie pointing to when he needed to be older or younger in certain illustrations.
   
   (8)  Did you use any photos or source materials as background for characters and indeed for the village of Qunu and the Xhosa people?
   
   NI: I’m quite sure that Nicole did as I remember sending through some images that I thought might help.
   
   NM: Definitely! As many photos as I could find haha! In some instances, it was just hard to find examples that seemed to match up to time, place and description, but I was always looking up images before I started sketching anything.
   
   (9) The book could easily feel very serious but the illustrations play a wonderful role in infusing warmth and humour, how did the collaboration work?
   
   NI: Working with Nicole (via the series editor) was lovely. I’m not sure how many rounds of the illustrations she did before they got to me, but the editor would send through roughs and final versions at various stages and I could provide my feedback or comments, based on what I understood of the context and Nelson’s life. I felt very fortunate to have been able to contribute in some small way to Nicole’s really brilliant interpretation of the book.
   
   NM: When I first started the project I was initially a little nervous that it needed to be serious, almost a little distant in tone. So, even though I probably enjoy being playful and humorous in my work more often, when I submitted my first samples they were all pretty stiff and serious. The feedback was that the team wasn’t keen on that direction and actually wanted the lighter tone that I preferred. After a conversation with Katie to talk things over and her pointing to some things in my portfolio that she felt had a closer tone to the one they were going for, I was much clearer on (and happier with) the direction and sent over a sample that employed more of the humour you see in the book now. I was very relieved that we were actually on the same page. I feel it’s much more engaging than a more classically “educational” approach would be, without being disrespectful where a more sombre tone is required.

   
   
   (10)  What is next for you both?
   
   NI: I’m currently working on (writing, drafting, brainstorming) more middle grade novels than anyone should be at one time!
   
   NM: I’ve got a few books coming out this year including Walking for Waterby Susan Hughes which is based on the true story of a little boy in Malawi who realises the world is quite different for him and his twin sister and that is coming out 1 June. Then in autumn of this year the first book in Joel Ross’ funny Alley & Rex middle grade series is coming out. I’m illustrating Viviane Elbee’s I Want My Book Back about a dinosaur-obsessed kid who wants his library book about dinosaurs back, which is out in spring 2022. Then autumn of that year sees Groundhog Gets It Wrong hitting shelves.

   
   It’s a real joy for me to be able to work on so many great book projects and I’ve got a few exciting non-publishing projects popping up this year too. My Instagram is probably the best place to keep up with what I’m up to.

A big thank you to Nansubuga and Nicole for the interview and to David Fickling Books for the opportunity.

Ifeoma Onyefulu has written over twenty children’s books including the seminal A is for Africa.  Many of Ifeoma’s books are published by Frances Lincoln Ltd.  Here Comes Our Bride and Ikenna Goes to Nigeria won the Children's Africana Book Award in the United States.  Ifeoma’s play No Water in the Jungle was performed in London. Ifeoma loves telling stories to school children and comes from a family of storytellers.  Here Ifeoma introduces us to her new poetry collection  Sing Me a Song Ma.

If anyone had told me I would be writing poems in 2020, I would have laughed at them. But in January last year something strange happened, I began to get requests from schools to do poetry workshops, and no sooner had I said no to one school another one would pop up like a jack-in-box toy. I had never written a poem in my life, and that was the strangest thing. Then, two days before I was due to travel to Scotland to do a writing workshop for a school, I was asked again.

I would gladly have done a workshop on writing plays, if such a thing exists in schools, because of No Water in The Jungle, one of my plays, staged in London in 2019.

Anyway, I had a decision to make pretty fast, and it was not going to be easy to say no to the school, with two days to go. What’s more, we, the school, and I had spent months corresponding, and setting up the timetable, and I was to do the assembly, too.

Finally, I rang a friend for some moral support, and she chuckled, ‘But when I read your books, I think of poetry… it is the way you write,’ she said breezily.

Poetry - that word again.

I decided to stick with the timetable and do the workshop as initially planned.

So, as I was wondering how I was going to compose an upbeat email to the school about my decision, my eyes somehow wandered off and settled on a photograph on the far end of the wall. It was a picture of a Fulani woman I took years ago in northern Nigeria; she was dressed in bright clothes and had beads on her hair. After staring at it for what seemed like hours but was only a few seconds, I heard a voice in my head about a girl who liked many colours but would only wear blue when she went to see her grandma. Why? Was it because she liked blue or because her grandma liked blue?

I grabbed a pencil and paper and began writing. I didn’t know if it was going to be a short story or not, but I remember reading it back, and it felt like a poem with sprinkles of intensity and imagery, which surprised me a lot.

So, I wrote and wrote, I was very thankful I had something to do during the first Lockdown, and that was how I came to write my first poem titled What are Colours to Adaora!

Then, I wanted to write more poems children would enjoy, as much as I enjoyed the stories our mother and sometimes our grandfather told my siblings and me when we were children in Nigeria.

In December 2020, I published some of the poems online, as a collection, titled Sing Me a Song, Ma.

Two of the poems, especially Grandma’s Tree, are about nature, and the way we treat our trees. It was inspired by a conversation I had with our late mother about her favourite avocado tree, which didn’t produce any fruits for a long time.

Another poem, Rain, is about water shortage, people in low-income countries often struggle to get enough water. During the dry season, when rainfall was rare, we bought water from a well, but in the rainy season, we saved enough rainwater for cooking and washing, which lasted for several days.

However, some of the poems are lighthearted, for example, Sing Me a Song, Ma, is about a child who doesn’t want to go to sleep, so she comes up with a brilliant way of staying awake by getting her mother to sing her song, “A song that will make my eyes wake up and…. A song that will make me dance.”

Finally, I hope Sing Me a Song, Ma, will be an e-book for children and their families to read aloud together.


A big thank you to Ifeoma Onyefulu for writing this blog and introducing us to Sing Me a Song, Ma which is available via Smashwords

The month of February is Black History Month in the United States of America.  The month was chosen to coincide with National Freedom Day (February 1^st), the anniversary of the 13^th Amendment which saw the abolition of slavery and with the birthday of abolitionist and writer, Frederick Douglass.  The month offers an opportunity to celebrate the contributions African Americans have made to society and a point to reflect upon the continuing need and struggle for racial justice.  We are delighted to welcome Lauren Burke to the blog.  Lauren is a writer and editor from Chicago, Illinois. Her work focuses on women’s history, travel, and classic literature.  Lauren’s book It’s Her Story: Rosa Parks is a graphic novel exploring the life and achievements of Rosa Parks, courageous thinker, leader and social justice activist.  We are delighted to feature a preview on the blog exploring some of Lauren’s influences and thoughts on writing an incredibly important book which deserves a place on every bookshelf, whether in homes or libraries…


I remember learning about Rosa Parks in elementary school. It was Black History Month, and I could feel my cheeks burning in response to our lesson on Jim Crow laws and segregation. It’s not easy being one of the few students of colour in class, especially when your teacher wants to make an example of you. That day, she needed volunteers to reenact that infamous moment in 1955 when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white passenger. Her gaze was pointed when she asked who would play Rosa.

The scene was brief. No more than three minutes. The lecture following was even shorter. Our teacher explained that this simple act of defiance inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which kicked off a movement to end segregation in the United States. No time for reflection or questions, we then moved on to maths. Black literature and history were not integrated into the regular curriculum. Instead, we hurdled through the key figures and moments at breakneck speed during the month of February. At school, I received a disjointed and broad view of African American history, with a focus on moments of inspiration rather than struggle. At home, I received a very different sort of education.

“They won’t tell you this in school…” is how my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles began a lot of sentences. What usually followed was an uncomfortable truth, a painful memory, or lesson. In my experience, Black history is mostly an oral history passed down in the community via elders. Once, at a National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) event, my father instructed me to pay close attention to a speaker who began their talk by saying, “They won’t tell you this in school, but Rosa Parks was a radical.”


Twelve years before arrest, Rosa Parks became the Montgomery branch secretary of the NAACP. Amongst many other things, Parks was in charge of documenting and investigating acts of violence committed against Black women. She painstakingly collected statements and evidence to put pressure on law enforcement, who in turn, dismissed her. Parks campaigned for anti-lynching laws, and created the NAACP Youth Council, which she ran out of her own home.  She was also the Stacey Abrams of her day. Parks was passionate about battling voter suppression and ran multiple campaigns to register as many new voters as possible. The hours were long and unpaid. She worked nights and weekends, received death threats, and saw very little success. Rosa Parks had many low moments, she was often discouraged and overwhelmed. And yet, she persisted.

Two years ago, I began writing a graphic novel for children about the life of Rosa Parks. At first, I struggled. It was a daunting task to reduce a life to 44 pages. For every line you write, there are 10,000 left unsaid. To tell the story of Rosa Parks, you have to tell the story of America’s dark and complex relationship with racial inequality and that story is bigger than one book. It’s larger than one lesson plan. And it deserves more than one month. Early on, I decided that It’s Her Story: Rosa Parks would celebrate a lifetime of activism verses a single moment. And that we would depict late nights, setbacks, and moments of doubt so that children like my daughter learn that while change is possible, it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to put in the work.

On inauguration day, I found myself thinking about Rosa Parks while Amanda Gorman recited her poem The Hill We Climb. I was particularly moved by the line, “Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.” For me, it serves as a reminder that we are not honoring the legacy of people like Rosa Parks, unless we step in to finish what they started. I sincerely hope that it means the same for President Biden, who had a bust of Rosa Parks placed in his office on his first day of work.

The book is illustrated by Shane Clester and publishes with Sunbird Books on 7 May 2021.  For further information visit www.sunbirdkidsbooks.com   ISBN 978-1-5037-5294-8

A big thank you to Lauren Burke for the blog piece and to Sunbird Books and Nicky Potter for the opportunity.