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Posted By Jacob Hope,
01 September 2025
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We are delighted to welcome Nicola Garrard, author of the unmissable On the Edge, to the blog for a powerful and urgent piece discussing the experiences of rural working class children in school, and how librarians are creating an inclusive space that transforms life opportunities.
‘Teachers do not know what to do with a boy like Rhys’ On the Edge
There’s no doubt that working-class children are disadvantaged and stigmatised. In my new novel, On the Edge, I’ve tried to show what that feels like. Rhys, the hero, is excluded from school, drops out of college and can only find low-paid seasonal work. With traditional career paths eroded and second homes driving up rents, Rhys’s family faces homelessness – and he becomes dangerously radicalised.
Working-class boys like Rhys are more likely to be excluded and sanctioned, achieve lower grades and are less likely to access higher education. Amid debates on masculinity, we must acknowledge that disaffection – leading to nearly one million NEETs nationally and growing antisocial behaviour, far-right extremism and flashpoints of rioting – is seeded by the very education system that congratulates itself as the solution.
‘At school, boys like Rhys are always either too big or too small; too big when they move and too small when they open their mouths.’ On the Edge
For the 31% of UK children living in poverty, school punishments are a fact of life, in particular for uniform code breaches, like wearing trainers when school shoes no longer fit. A Year 8 I taught on an exclusion project chose detentions over the shame of wearing uniform he’d outgrown. When the education charity I work for replaced his trousers, he was back in the classroom.
Middle-class advantage is baked into the school system – in values, rewards, punishments and the curriculum. Seeking to raise aspiration, degree-educated teachers present manual and semi-skilled work as the measure of failure. I have heard colleagues utter variations of ‘You don’t want to be a cleaner or work in Tesco’s for the rest of your life’ to children whose parents do exactly that.
“The education system is designed to reward those who are already privileged, while punishing those who have the least.” David Gillborn
Children from wealthier families avoid clashing with school rules simply by being affluent; their parents wash and dry PE kit the same day, replace the third lost scientific calculator that year with a
next-day delivery, and top up lunch accounts at the ping of a text. Compare school reward data to weekend library use and you’ll see how achievement and praise correlates to having access to books,
computers, printers and paper.
Over 150,000 children in the UK are homeless. They lack a place to study, can’t own or keep books, have no quiet space; there is no incentive to join the local library or youth clubs. As a teacher, I gave
after-school detentions to a Year 7 boy for lateness – only to discover that he and his mum were living in emergency hostels and women’s shelters. At 11, he deserved an award for making it to school at all.
Participation in wider school life is also closed to rural working class young people. Unlike Scotland, there’s no free public transport for under-22s in England and Wales, so sports fixtures, after-school
clubs and staying to do homework in libraries are often impossible. Many don’t consider sixth form because transport costs over £600 a year, while affluent peers are bought cars that open doors to part-
time work – and the volunteering opportunities needed for university applications.
‘Beware of spoiling young men’s futures; ‘they will become a flapping, snapping moray on the deck, electrics firing long after they’ve been clubbed on the head.’ On the Edge
On the Edge has a white hot seam of anger running through it. It explores the world of work, housing, relationships, education, transport and tourism through the eyes of rural working class boys who are much misunderstood, often demonised and undervalued. It shows the traps that caught young people I grew up with – depression, self-medicating with drugs, risky and self-harming behaviours – and warns of tipping points into civil disobedience (see Dame De Souza’s report) when basic needs for housing, work and a sense of agency are ignored.
Fortunately, school libraries offer a vital counterbalance to increasingly ubiquitous zero-tolerance academy-chain corporate schooling. Over the course of dozens of state school author visits, I’ve met many librarians who reflect deeply on their collections, analyse the demographics of their library users and volunteers, and curate books by working-class authors. They go out of their way to create
welcoming and inclusive spaces, perhaps in part inspired by CLPE’s Reflecting Realities reports
which have given educators a framework for thinking about difference. A similar report on representations of class in YA and Children’s literature would be very welcome.
Here’s some ways school libraries are welcoming working-class and lower-income children:
1. Quirky clubs and events:
○ “Speed Dating” with books!
○ “Library Lock-in” with pizza and games for PP students
○ “Book Food” events (menus/cooking inspired by stories)
○ “Escape Room” book hunts with riddles and challenges.
○ Creative Writing/Fan Fiction clubs: NLT recently found that working class children
are more engaged in creative writing than their affluent peers.
○ Open Mic Club for budding poets and rappers, with poetry collections for them to
browse.
○ “Charge Up with a Book” Club: swap 10 minutes of device charging for 10 minutes of reading (with quick, readable titles such as Barrington Stoke and Oxford Rollercoasters)
○ “Artists in the Library” Club, make book-inspired art using paint, air-drying clay, lego, collage
○ UNO/Jigsaw Club: to get them through the door!
2. Stock:
○ Promote working class authors: Alex Wheatle, Anthony McGowan, Brian Conaghan, Natasha Carthew, Margaret McDonald, Malorie Blackman.
○ Stock comics, magazines, audio books, song lyrics, blogs, wordless books, verse novels and graphic novels.
○ Encourage ‘reading young’ by stocking picture books in secondary libraries (ostensibly to read to young siblings) to consolidate literacy without pressure.
○ Challenge students to shape the collection by finding a title to propose for their school or public library.
○ Issue post-it notes to readers to leave a message/score to the next reader.
○ Run student-led diversity and inclusion audits to check their library reflects the community
○ Partner with public libraries for family sign-up events.
○ Run a public library trip for a tour – invite parents/carers.
○ Promote the local library in school newsletters/website.
These initiatives create a real sense of belonging in schools where working-class culture and achievement is undervalued or ignored. No wonder Dav, in On the Edge, heads to his school library when he needs some answers. He knows the librarian will help him.
References:
1. Working-class pupils let down by decades of neglect:
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/203/education-
committee/news/156024/forgotten-white-workingclass-pupils-let-down-by-decades-of-
neglect-mps-
say/#:~:text=GCSE%20performance%3A%20In%202019%20just,not%20achieve%20two%2
0strong%20passes.
2. School exclusions and masculine, working-class identities: Jean Kane,
www.docs.hss.ed.ac.uk/education/creid/NewsEvents/03v_BERASeminar_Paper_jk.pdf
3. Professor S Agarwal et al, Disadvantage in English seaside resorts: A typology of deprived
neighbourhoods, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261517718301237
4. https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/children-and-young-peoples-
writing-in-2025/
5. Children’s involvement in the 2024 riots, Dame R de Souza,
www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/childrens-involvement-in-the-2024-riots/
A big thank you to Nicola Garrard for the blog and to Old Barn Books for the opportunity.

Tags:
Disandvataged communities
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reading
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
03 July 2025
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We are
delighted to welcome George Kirk to the blog to discuss her exciting debut
picture book Bessie’s Bees.
George is a teacher, librarian and author living in East Lancashire with
a passion for creating normative representation of neurodiverse characters
in books for young readers. Her first picture book Bessie’s Bees published
by Templar, is a neurodiverse picture book with an ADHD girl at its centre.
You know
the saying …
“We
lose ourselves in books. We find ourselves there too.”
I bet you
do. I bet you love it.
But I don’t
agree with it!
Now don’t
get in a fluster and certainly don’t flap. Let me explain, and to do that let’s
start at the beginning…
‘George’s
head was full of bees, absolutely buzzing with them …”
I didn’t
know when I wrote my first draft of Bessie’s Bees that it was a
neurodiverse picture book- I suspected, but I wasn’t sure.
Having a
head full of bees was something I just used to say. One of those things I
thought that everyone felt sometimes like ‘having your head in the clouds’.
Only for me it wasn’t just some of the time, it was all the time.
I was that girl who grew up covered in bruises
and scabs, whose laces were always undone and whose hair was always in
knots. The girl who could never sit
still, ever be quiet and certainly didn’t fit in, apart from one place… the
library.
I grew up so
close to my local library I wasn’t very old before I was allowed to start
taking myself. It was my first taste of
freedom, walking in by myself, choosing whichever books I wanted and escaping
into them. I could write you a long list of which books I chose right here,
right now, but there just isn’t time, so let’s skip ahead to…
My
secondary school, an old-fashioned pile something like Hogwarts that sadly
didn’t have the library to match. Just a little room of books that had been
long forgotten about so long you needed Indiana Jones to find it, or my friend
Oggy. Oggy offered to revamp and run it
for the lower years and quickly roped me and a few others in. Before long we
transformed it into a vibrant hub of activity and creativity. We raised funds to
buy fresh stock so now I wasn’t just choosing books for myself, I was doing it
for others too.
It was the
first time I felt really connected to a group of like-minded people and it
inspired my first attempt at a serious novel. ‘Og the Librarian’ followed the
misadventures of Og, pupil librarian driven to madness by overdue books who
took on a life of human cannibalism… I never did find a publisher for it.
Aren’t
words brilliant? In just a few I can transport you 15 years into my future,
through university, quite frankly dodgy early lessons of a career in primary
teaching and propel you to my days as a parent of babies and toddlers. It was
isolating, I was trying and failing to connect again so where did I go?
The
library! But now I wasn’t satisfied with
just reading stories, I wanted to tell my own too. And the library let me,
encouraged me, they even let me be… GASP… LOUD!
Now, if you
have been keeping count you’ll know there’s one more to go. I left teaching, I
loved it, but it didn’t love me. My mental health was suffering, and I was
struggling to do the one thing I felt driven to do, write. So, when 8 years ago
the job of Library Manager came up at my local Grammar School I jumped at it,
and thankfully they seemed pretty happy to catch.
Yet again I
found myself building up a lively community of young people, creating a space
where anyone and everyone who wanted could fit. Many of them had neurodiversions,
and I was recognising my younger self in them more and more. I was beginning to
suspect that maybe not everybody did have bees in their head after all. So, as
I poured this idea into a story, I put myself forward for assessment and
discovered I didn’t just have bees, I had ADHBEES! Or coexisting Autism and
ADHD to be precise.
I was now
sure beyond a doubt that Bessie’s Bees was a neurodiverse story. In fact
it was the one that I had needed to read when I first stepped into the local
library by myself all those years ago.
So,
remember that saying? The one you love?
This is how
I think it really should go…
‘We lose ourselves in books and we find
ourselves in the library.’
A big thank
you to George for a fascinating guest blog!
You can follow George on Instagram @GeorgeKirkTales.

Tags:
diversity
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neurodiversity
Picture books
picturebooks
reading
reading for pleasure
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
23 June 2025
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In 2018 the Youth Libraries Group established its YLG Award,
to recognise outstanding commitment and innovation for children and young
people’s services carried out with public libraries.
Past winners include Agnes Guyon, Olivia Barnden, Zoey Dixon, Jenny Hawke,
Yvonne Manning and Carol Hayes. After
long deliberations, we are delighted to announce the shortlist for the YLG
Awards 2025.
Tiffany Haigh –
Kirklees Libraries. Tiffany is a
librarian for Kirklees Council. She has
been a judge for the Carnegie Medal for writing and illustration, has organised
an innovative series of storywalks and is the Chair of YLG Yorkshire and Humber
as well as being a part of National Committee.
Sue Prior –
Bexley Libraries. Sue is a Reader
Development librarian based in Bexley.
Sue has been a dedicated and active member of the Youth Libraries Group
in London and has sat upon the National Committee.
Sarah Smith –
Brent Libraries. Sarah is a libraries
development manager for Brent and works tirelessly to create opportunities for
children and young people in her role.
She has sat on the Diverse Voices selection panel, is part of the
Empathy Reads panel and has organised an incredible array of events and
training through her career.
Congratulations to each of our three shortlistees. The winner will be announced at YLG Conference,
Journeys
into Reading, in September. Don’t
miss your opportunity to be there! Good
luck to Tiffany, Sue and Sarah.
Photos show Tiffany Haigh, Sue Prior and Sarah Smith

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Tags:
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
18 February 2025
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We took time out to meet with Jenny Hawke, new Chair of the Youth Libraries Group and to ask her some questions about her career in libraries and involvement with the group. Find out more below and do consider getting involved with the group if you aren't already!
Please can you give us an overview of your
career in libraries (what did they mean to you as a child, how did you come to
work in them, what's your current role)?
I have spent over 30 years working in academic,
special, school and public libraries. I left school at 17 in 1983 and made the
decision to work in a public library which seemed natural to me as I enjoyed
reading books as a child. I have fond memories of my parents taking the whole
family to the local library on a Saturday afternoon. We would look for our
favourite authors and get excited about new books. Armed with a large pile of
books we would come home and all settle down with a cup of tea and get lost in
one of our new books. Often my dad would read to me, favourites were Watership
Down and The Borrowers.
At my first library job, favourite activities would be working alongside the
children’s librarian, telling stories to visiting school classes and helping to
run under-fives sessions. Five years later I wanted to gain experience in an
academic setting so I began working as a library assistant in South Bank
Polytechnic which later became South Bank University. Whilst working at South
Bank I undertook an access course which enabled me to go back into full time
education and study for a degree and it was at this point I decided I wanted to
qualify as a librarian, so undertook a Masters at UCL.
After graduating I was appointed as a librarian in a special
library/information centre at the International Transport Workers’ Federation ITF
(an umbrella organisation for national transport unions). I decided to charter
in 2008 and needed to focus on a different sector, so I chose school libraries and,
rather conveniently, my daughter’s school invited me to overhaul and expand and
organise their modest library. This benefited the children with a fully stocked
and fully functioning library and I gained valuable knowledge and experience of
working with children’s resources.
I started working for Bromley Libraries in 2008 as a manager of a medium sized
library. By now children’s activities and children’s literature was at the
heart of my professional career. Later,
when GLL (the charitable social enterprise) who were now running Bromley
Libraries asked me if I would like to move to one of their larger libraries and
become the children’s librarian I was thrilled.
This was a great move for me involving a variety of interesting projects. I currently
wear three hats. One is to plan, prepare and run children’s activities at
Orpington Library from Baby Bounce and Rhyme right up to our Older
Teen Reading Group. Another is to
work with the children’s team to plan borough-wide activities. Finally, my
other hat is the set-up and managing of the GLL Literary Foundation
which was launched in November 2024.
This aims to support authors, inspire young readers and champion public
libraries. We are offering bursaries, training, networking and mentoring
opportunities for authors through the new foundation. This is an incredibly
exciting part of my role and I’m hugely grateful to GLL, the YLG and other
organisations who have helped to make this project a reality.
How and when did you first become involved
with YLG?
During Chartership, I decided it would be important to sign up to the YLG as
one of my Special Interest Groups as I knew children’s libraries and their
activities and services was an area I wanted to move into. In 2011 I applied
for the YLG SE bursary to attend the YLG National Conference at Goldsmith’s
College. This was an incredibly inspiring experience: listening to a mix of
authors, academics and librarians talk about children’s literature and library
services.
It was also a wonderful opportunity to network and share good practice with
other librarians. After the Conference I asked the Chair if I could join the
Committee and have been there ever since. I have really enjoyed being an active
member of the YLG SE which has involved our annual training day and annual Carnegie
Discussion Day and also a monthly Picture Book Chat focusing on either the BookTrust
Storytime Prize and the Carnegie Medal for Illustration Shortlist. I
am really grateful to the YLG SE Committee members as they have all been very
enthusiastic and passionate about everything we set out to achieve.
You've been a judge for the Carnegies, what
was the most challenging aspect of this and what was the most rewarding?
I think the main challenge was the obvious one of reading over 200 books across
both medals. I had to be very strict with family and friends and at Christmas I
would sneak upstairs and furtively read a few exciting chapters of a Carnegie
or get absorbed into a Kate Greenaway. Meeting the other judges and discussing
the books in such detail was incredibly stimulating and everyone was so
committed about the whole judging process.
The best part of being a judge is how much it has helped me in my job as a
Children’s Librarian. It gave me a greater awareness and knowledge of
literature for children and young people, and obviously helped me with my Shadowing
groups over the years as well. Shadowing the Carnegies is a brilliant way to
find out about new books for children and particularly books which are often
more thought provoking, diverse and promote discussion. I always ensure there
is an informal setting with snacks and the children find that chatting about
books is just a great thing to do.
What has been the highlight of being
involved with YLG?
I think this has to be my two years as a Carnegie judge
(2017 and 2018) and particularly the award ceremonies. Before this 2014 sticks in my mind as this
was the year that my Chatterbooks shadowing group won the Shadowing
Magazine Award. It was fantastic and we were invited to the award ceremony
when Jon Klassen won the Greenaway and Kevin Brooks won the Carnegie. My group
did a radio broadcast to start with and then met lots of authors and
illustrators as well as watching the ceremony live. The group members are all
practically grown up now but I’m sure they will all look back on it as a very
memorable experience. I also really enjoyed chairing the Funny Fiction
panel at the 2024 conference in Glasgow, it was such fun!
Are there any particular areas or themes you hope to make the focus of your
time as chair?
I’m very excited about the National One Day School which we hope to hold
in Eastbourne in the autumn of this year. It will be themed around Journeys
and encompass books in translation, empathy, refugees and how children and
young people embark on their reading journey.
We need to look at communication with our members and
how we currently deliver this and if we can make improvements. AI and new
technologies will be affecting the way we all do things so this is another area
that the YLG should focus on. There have been a lot of cuts in public services
over the years and it’s really important to find ways in which we can support
our colleagues who work in the public sector. Governance and business planning
should underpin everything we do at a regional and national level. National committee meetings will be
discussing other themes that should be focused on throughout my term as Chair, I’m
very fortunate and grateful to have such a brilliant team of people on the
National Committee who have already given me so much support since becoming
Chair.
Can you give us three top tips for books you
enjoyed in 2024 please?
Rainbowsaurus by
Steve Antony is a joyful, inclusive and extremely
colourful picture book whose characters jump off the page. The family, which
has two dads and three children, set out to find the Rainbowsaurus and
invite the reader to join them in addition to a number of distinctly coloured
animals. Different age groups of readers will engage with this book as there is
so much to look out for in the illustrations. This is much more than a simple
picture book.
Code Name Kingfisher
by Liz Kessler is a compelling and poignant novel set in World War II written
from different points of view in a really accessible way. The writing is
beautiful with well defined characters from past and present.
Glasgow Boys by
Margaret McDonald is a beautifully written coming of age story and includes
themes of acceptance, love and guilt but also the importance of family in its
widest sense and friendship.
A big thank you to Jenny Hawke for taking time out to be interviewed!

Tags:
Carnegie
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Reading
Reading for Pleasure
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
14 July 2023
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To help celebrate the
start of the 2023 Summer Reading Challenge, Ready Set Read, we are
delighted to welcome Robin Bennett
to the blog to discuss his own relationship with books, libraries, reading and
sports. Robin is the author of the wickedly
witty Stupendous Sports
series filled with fantastic facts published by Firefly Press.
I once went on a mini
pilgrimage to Hull University – to the library, to be precise … or to the
librarian, to be preciser.
‘I really like your work,
Mr Larkin.’ I said – a little more formally than intended – all at once hoping
I was addressing the poet himself and not some other tallish man in glasses.
He peered at me owlishly for a few moments then said, ‘Thank you … shhhh.’
As meeting your heroes
goes, this is not quite as exciting as the time Alexi Sayle and I stopped a
woman being attacked in a phone box in Soho but, still, I’m very fond of the
library encounter. Not least because his reaction was completely in character,
but also because it marked a time in my life when I finally started to fall in
love with reading.
When I was younger, I had stoutly resisted all overtures to get me to pick up a
book. This had mainly consisted of well-meaning relatives shoving copies of The Borrowers or Hornblower under my nose and
saying things along the lines of, ‘try this, Robin, it’s really good.’
Nothing wrong with that
approach but, between the ages of nought and eleven I couldn’t sit still, so
the thought of sitting still AND reading for more than a few minutes was
torture for me. I had nothing against being indoors, but I found that if I was
outside, I was much less likely to get shouted at for being annoying, so
outside it was.
This meant sport was my
thing, long before reading.
When reading did take hold
– a combination of moving to France, being friendless and French TV, which
sucked in the 80’s – I was disappointed to discover that there was very little
out there to read on sport. As in really read, not just dip into for tips and
stats. So, I moved on to more literary sorts of literature, which is how I
found myself standing about awkwardly in Hull Uni library a few years later.
Taking all this into
consideration, when I grew up and became a writer, one of my goals, alongside
finding a career that kept me out of trouble and (hopefully) not starving in a
ditch, was to write books for children who don’t necessarily like reading.
Funny helps, as does
short, as does illustrated. What is also effective are books that tell kids
about other things they also like doing – and might even help them do it better.
This is why I wanted to write the Stupendous
Sports and why I’m so grateful to Firefly Press for making it possible – and
to Matt Cherry for illustrating the books in the spirit they were intended.
We all know that in
fiction children want to see a version of themselves and this is also very much
the case with non-fiction.
The Summer Reading
Challenge and the decision to make it about sports and activities this year is
inspired: summer holidays and being outside – reading or running after a ball –
go hand in hand. And sporty kids rise to a challenge.
Well, not just the kids, because
I fully intend to get involved. For the launch of Cracking Cricket in August, I’m climbing up a mountain in
the Pyrenees so I can hopefully bowl a ball in Spain, so someone can hit it in
France and catch it in Andorra.
This summer there’s a lot to look forward to!
So
happy reading and happy playing.
A big thank you to Robin Bennett for the blog and to Graeme Williams for the opportunity.

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
10 October 2020
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As the finale to our Libraries in the Picture feature for Libraries Week, we are delighted to welcome illustrator Yu Rong to the blog. Yu Rong is a great friend to libraries, she created the Youth Libraries Group logo and was the cover-artist for the inaugural issue of Pen & Inc magazine. Yu Rong's work is a fusion of traditional Chinese papercut and pencil sketches creating a distinctive and fresh style. Yu Rong has been awarded the Golden Apple by the Biennial of Illustrations, Bratislava for Free as a Bird in 2013. She has illustrated Matt Goodfellow's Shu Lin's Grandpa which will publish with Otter-Barry Books in 2021.
Please can you introduce yourself?
My name is Yu Rong and I am an
illustrator whose work grows out of traditional Chinese folk art form of
papercut. Traditionally papercut has
very strict limitations, it is flat and two-dimensional. When I was a student, publishers and my
course-leaders were impressed by these techniques. I felt encouraged by this and wanted to
experiment to find ways that I’m less limited by the method of papercut. I am the type of person who likes to accept
challenges so I wanted to play and find ways to overcome the barriers with
papercut. I use different papers,
experimented with limited colours and different types of material – from Chinese
rice paper which is only red and blue, to tissue paper available in all sorts
of colours. I love to experiment with
colours and textures.
The way paper is cut can make it difficult
to show features and body language, so I see it as being like a
stage-play. My white paper is the stage
and the paper is the puppets that I move around to form the drama.
When I started out, I was very passive,
but I have turned papercut into a good friend and spent a lot of time thinking
about how to be able to portray what I want.
Now when I think about what I want to show, I have good ideas of how best
to do this.
This year’s Libraries Week is themed around books and reading, can you
tell us about some of the books you enjoyed as a child and why these connected
with you?
I grew up in China and in my
childhood we didn’t have many story books that were specifically for children. My mother was a headteacher in a primary
school and there we had some memorable fairy-tales from overseas like The Little Match Girl and The Little Mermaid. We also had traditional Chinese stories like Hua Mulan. There were also little booklets which told
stories by Chinese authors and which were illustrated. They were not much like picture books
nowadays.
We had special sort of comic books
which were the size of postcards and featured rectangular illustrations and
text underneath. They were useful in
helping children to learn and often told traditional tales like The Monkey King. Maybe there is a link between these and why I’m
so interested and fascinated by picturebooks.
What do you feel is important about libraries?
Having a library for children to read
in is amazing! The library is not only
for books, it’s a special world for children to be in and find all manner of
different stories and enter new worlds!
Even a corner with children’s books in is a treasure trove and I love
that in waiting rooms there are little places where children can pass the time
and explore and imagine!
Can you share details of one of your favourite libraries – this could be
a school library or a public library?
The library I choose is at the Peace
Primary School in Shenzhen. It is a very
innovative school in China. What I liked
about the library was the way they had little corners where children could sit
and cuddle themselves up, losing themselves in books. The space was comforting, relaxing and
inspiring. It was a really fun place to
be and a hideaway too. One of the things
I love about libraries is the way they have different sections for different
ages - even toddlers can be like adults making their own choices about where
they want to be and the stories they love the most!
Can you tell us anything about your next book?
I’ve
just finished illustrating a book called The
Lost Child. It has a very simple
text ‘I am a lost child’. It’s a story
about a subject that happens to everybody.
We all get lost very easily and sometimes we just need a moment to find
ourselves. One of the things I loved
about working on the book was the chance I had to add a special baby book, a
rainbow book, that has a one-tone paper cut for every colour of the
rainbow. The baby book has no words, it
just shows an imaginative journey and then we come back to reality. I still love to experiment and challenge
myself as an illustrator!
My
next book is going to be around the story of Turandot the opera. I am
excited to work on the stage design and costume design. The story relates to China but was made
outside China so it gives me a good chance to experiment again. I always feel I need to love the process of
what I am doing. My job is about finding
what is best for me, what is best for the author and what is best for the
story, I experiment and play to achieve this and there is a joy and an energy
in that!
Photos 1-4 Copyright Jake Hope, 2019
Image One shows Yu Rong creating a very special library doodle on the walls of the Peace School Library where it can be enjoyed by children and staff alike!
Image Two shows Yu Rung with author Qin Wenjun enacting I am Hua Mulan at the Shanghai Book Fair during a celebration of its publication.
Image Three shows children at the Peace School Library dancing and reciting I am Hua Mulan in traditional dress during a visit by Yu Rong.
Image Four shows the outside of the Peace School Library.
Image Five shows the brilliant logo Yu Rong created for the Youth Libraries Group.
A big thank you to Yu Rong for the interview, for the brilliant support that she offers to libraries and for creating the Youth Libraries Group logo!
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
09 October 2020
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Continuing our Libraries in the Picture feature for Libraries Week, we are extremely excited to welcome illustrator Rikin Parekh to the blog. Rikin's work is characterised by a whimsical and energetic line. Rikin has an impressive list of publications and has illustrated James Bishop's Iguana Boy books, Emma Perry's This Book has Alpacas and Bears, Konnie Huq's Fearless Fairy Tales and Joanna Nadin's The Worst Class in the World. Rikin has also written an illustrated the picturebook Fly, Tiger, Fly!
Can you introduce yourself – a little about your
work and technique?
My work tends to drawn towards animals, colour and expressions which I
find really intriguing. I use a dip pen and a brush to ink my illustrations and
use watercolours, acrylics and colouring pencils to colour in my work. All this
done to the sounds of either a film soundtrack or Jimi Hendrix!
This year’s Libraries Week is themed around books
and reading, can you tell us about some of the books you enjoyed as a child and
why these connected with you?
The late, great Judith Kerr's The
Tiger Who Came to Tea was one of the first picture books I remember
reading. It filled me with so much joy, excitement and wonder, reading and
seeing a tiger coming to someone's house and having fun! That sense of wonder
and joy coupled with the amazing illustrations inspired me and continues to do
so.
What do you feel is important about libraries?
I feel libraries are not just important but a lifeblood for the
community. It's where children can go and check into new worlds, meet new
characters, become inspired by word and colour, feed their hunger for knowledge
and see the importance of learning. It's where people can come and find
answers. I love my local library, I remember going there many times whilst at
school, loaning books out, just becoming mesmerized by how much knowledge there
was and why I couldn't just take it all in!
Can you share details of one of your favourite
libraries – this could be a school library or a public library?
I think it would have to be the library at my old high school, Preston
Manor High in Wembley. It was here that I learnt how to use the internet, how
my friends and I would seek refuge there when it rained outside and we'd
discover the beauty of books. It was briefly shut as it was being refurbished
but when it opened, during the late 90's when I was there, it was SO cool! We
had new seating areas, Mac computers, PC's, new furniture, NEW BOOKS! I loved
going there during my empty periods and drawing in the learning booths, it felt
like my studio and I had any reference books at an arm's length.
Can you tell us anything about your next book?
I have a couple and a few picture
book manuscripts I've submitted to my agent. That's about all I can say right
now!
Thank you so much to Rikin for a brilliant interview and for his amazing library inspired doodle!

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
08 October 2020
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We are delighted to continue our Libraries in the Picture feature for Libraries Week and welcome Jen Khatun to the blog. The books Jen has illustrated include David Ashby's Gribblebob's Book of Unpleasant Goblins and most recently Chitra Soundar's wonderfully warm Sona Sharma, Very Best Big Sister.
Please
can you introduce yourself?
Hi I’m Jen, a Children’s Illustrator,
represented by The Bright Agency Group. My clients include Bramble Kids Books,
Pushkin Press & Walker Books.
My favourite things are:
-Spending time with my family, fiance
and our dog Juno.
-Collecting Berets and wearing them (See
my doodle for proof!)
-Cooking and dancing at the same
time.
-Watching my favourite Mystery
moguls, Poirot, Columbo and Holmes.
My work is heavily inspired by natural
surroundings, the people around me and my favourite childhood books. I enjoy
creating quaint yet quirky, loose and spontaneous illustrations that deliver an
essence of nostalgia and everyday magic. I have always been an avid pen and ink
Illustrator, but recently I have tried creating my illustrations digitally,
which does help with time and meeting quick turnovers with projects.
This year’s Libraries Week is
themed around books and reading, can you tell us about some of the books you
enjoyed as a child and why these connected with you?
My favourite books that really moulded
my creativity were Roald Dahl Books. His stories alongside Quentin Blake’s
illustrations were altogether awe-inspiring. I loved the simplicity, the
natural-ness, the imagination that they both delivered in each book.
What do you feel is important
about libraries?
I feel a Library can bring communities
of all ages together to read, learn, inspire and provide a great insight of the
actual world and the imaginative world.
Can you share details of
one of your favourite libraries – this could be a school library or a public
library?
I can’t say I have a favourite Library,
as each library has a specialness to it. But I always have a lovely memory in
the Library in my hometown, Winchester, Hampshire. When I was very little my
Dad took me to the Library where he got me my first Library card. And the
Librarian explained to me all the books I can borrow. I was so delighted, I
felt like I had ‘the golden ticket!'
Can you tell us anything about
your next book?
I can’t say much, but it’s full of fun
facts about maths and science…and there’s a library mouse in there too!
A huge thank you to Jen for taking part in our interview and for creating a brilliant library doodle!

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
07 October 2020
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We are delighted to welcome illustrator Diane Ewen to the blog during Libraries Week. Diane was born in Walsall in the West Midlands and has a life-long love of art. Diane graduated from the University of Wolverhampton with a B.A. Honours degree in illustration. Diane creates illustrations that are hand-drawn in pencil before painting with watercolour and acrylics. These are then embellished using Photoshop. Dinae also enjoys creating designs digitally and constantly develops her style as she progresses.
Diane loves the fact that illustrations are the first elements of a book to entice the reader to engage. She is inspired by the use of vibrant colour. The first book Diane illustrated was Pretty Poodle Parlour by Angela McAllister. Diane has also illustrated Rashmi Sirdeshpande's Never Show a T-Rex a Book! a brilliant celebration of libraries, books and reading! Diane has also created the illustrations for a picturebook version of Floella Benjamin's Coming to England.
We are tremendously grateful to Diane for creating and allowing us to share some special library illustrations which she has created! Thank you to Diane Ewen, to Penguin Random House for the support and to Rashmi Sirdeshpande for her brilliant book!

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
06 October 2020
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As part of Libraries Week, we have an illustration focus. We'll be talking with a number of illustrators about their thoughts and views about libraries and many have created special library doodles for us to share! We are thrilled to welcome Ehsan Abdollahi. Ehsan is an art teacher, illustrator and animator. He has illustrated several books including Thinker: My Puppy Poet and Me and A Bottle of Happiness.
Please can you introduce yourself and your
work?
I'm a lecturer of illustration at Tehran University
of Arts and an illustrator. Most of my illustrations are for children.
I always like to experiment with different
techniques in illustrating my books, such as collage, watercolor, acrylic, etc. In the last book I published in the UK The Secret of the Tattered Shoes (Tiny
Owl), I used a combination of paper dolls and collages.
This year's Libraries Week is themed around
books and reading, can you tell us about some of the books you enjoyed as a
child?
When I was a
child, I was very interested in The Little Mermaid storybook. My father always read this book to me or I
listened to his story tape and looked at the pictures in the book. The mysterious spaces under the sea have
always fascinated me. Although the characters had fish-like tails, they were
amazing and magical to me.
Sometimes I thought that maybe one day I would
have a tail like a mermaid
What do you feel is important about libraries?
In my opinion, the most important thing about
library spaces is their soothing atmosphere. This is where people, children,
and grown-ups can find peace. They are also points of knowledge and nothing can
replace them. A dreamy library for me is one with sunlight, green plants,
beechwood, and white walls.
Can you share details
of one of your favourite libraries please?
The most beautiful library for me is still the
library in my nursery school. This library was not large, only a few blue
shelves with a number of children's books. But it is still the most beautiful
library for me.
What are you working
on next?
Currently, I'm working on a book about the
lockdown. This book is an experience of group work, in which various
illustrators contribute their experiences during the lockdown in the form of an
illustration. Hopefully, this book will be published by Tiny Owl in March 2021.
The latest book published by me was a unique experience collaborating with
Jackie Morris, The Secret of the
Tattered Shoes, (Tiny Owl).
I'm going to write a story about mermaids. This is a good opportunity for me to
illustrate my own story.
A huge thank you to Ehsan for sharing his thoughts and creating such a special library inspired doodle!

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