Empathy in your Library: a training day with YLG Wales:

Sarah Mears

Sarah Mears is one of five founders and a director in a voluntary capacity for Empathy Lab, a not-for-profit organisation which works with schools, libraries and authors to build children’s empathy skills through the creative use of children’s books. In her day job Sarah is Programme Manager for Libraries Connected (formerly Society of Chief Librarians). Prior to this Sarah was Library Services Manager and Children’s Library Service Manager for Essex Libraries and is a past Chair of ASCEL (The Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians). Sarah was awarded an MBE for Services to Children and Young People in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2018 and has been a YLG member throughout her career.

Sarah would like delegates to think of a great read they would recommend as an empathy boosting book to share during the session.

Professor Judy Hutchings, D. Clin Psych., FBPsS, OBE.

Professor Judy Hutchings, Director, Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention. For 37 years, until her retirement in 2010, Professor Judy Hutchings was an NHS Consultant Clinical Psychologist in North West Wales with responsibility for services for children with behavioural problems and she still retains an honorary contract with the Trust. From 1988 she held a joint appointment with Bangor University where she is the Co-Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention.

Judy has been running parenting programmes since 1976 and supported the introduction of the parenting programme into preventive Sure Start services and introduced child and teacher programmes across Wales.

She is currently leading the Bangor work to evaluate the school-based KiVa bullying prevention programme. She has been evaluating a book sharing programme developed in South Africa that encourages children’s language as she sees the need for children with behavioural problems to have the linguistic skills to enable them to work out alternatives to aggression. In 2011 she was awarded an OBE for her work with children and families.

Professor Hutchings would like delegates to take a look at The Books Together Book Sharing Programme for Parents of Young Children in Wales before this event

Catherine Pape

Catherine Pape is a Speech and Language Therapist who works for Welsh Government as National Speech, Language and Communication (SLC) co-ordinator, with a focus on universal and targeted SLC provision. This includes raising public awareness of the importance of SLC development, and upskilling the workforce in supporting SLC.

Catherine’s background is as a clinician in Powys, working with children of all ages, and specialising in early language development and stammering.

She lives in the stunning Brecon Beacons, and spends her spare time exploring the lanes, hills and rivers of our lovely countryside.

Catherine is an avid reader, and her favourite recent reads are ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ and ‘The Island of Missing Trees’. “I’m just about to finish ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ which took me a bit longer to get into because I initially struggled with the lack of punctuation!”

Marjoke Henrichs

Marjoke Henrichs was born in the Netherlands and now lives in the UK where she raised her two children. She has worked in a Montessori school, and as an artist and theatre Designer for many years, and more recently she graduated from the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art. Marjoke lives in Suffolk.

Marjoke’s debut book NO! SAID RABBIT was shortlisted for the Booktrust Storytime Prize and long listed for the Klaus Flugge Prize. READY! SAID RABBIT was published in February 2022.

Eloise Williams

Eloise Williams grew up opposite a library in Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf, where she spent most of her time reading in the ruins of a castle. With a working-class background, she odd-jobbed her way through college then worked as an actor, bartender, teacher, barista, elf, before studying for an MA in Creative Writing at Swansea as a mature student. As the first person in her family to go to university, she was delighted to graduate with a ‘D’ for distinction, rather than the ‘D’s she was more used to at school.

Her middle grade novels have won the Wales Arts Review Young People’s Book of the Year (twice), the Wolverhampton Children’s Book Award, the YBB Book Award, and have been shortlisted for the Tir na nOg (twice), the NE Book Awards and Wales Book of the Year. 2022 is a busy year for Eloise with three books being published. The Tide Singer (Barrington Stoke), Honesty and Lies (Firefly Press), and The Mab (Unbound) - a retelling of the stories of The Mabinogi created with Matt Brown. Previous publications are Wilde, Seaglass, Gaslight, Elen’s Island - all published by Firefly Press.

She is currently writer in residence at Tonyrefail Community School, the school which her father attended, and is a mentor for Michael Sheen’s scheme ‘A Writing Chance’ which encourages and celebrates working-class writers. She is also working on another book for young readers and researching her first novel for adults. Eloise was the inaugural Children’s Laureate Wales 2019-2021.

Eloise now lives in West Wales, very close to the sea, where she wild swims, collects sea glass and ghost stories, and walks on the beach with her cairn terrier, Watson Jones.

Matt Brown

Matt Brown is an author and a broadcaster based in the UK. Over the last six years, Matt has published seven books for kids that have been sold all over the world. Four Compton Valance books (the Most Powerful Boy in the Universe, the Time Travelling Sandwich Bites Back, Super F.A.R.T.s Vs the Master of Time, the Revenge of the Fancy-Pants Time Pirate) and three Dreary Inkling School books (Aliens Invaded My Talent Show, Mutant Zombies Cursed My School Trip, Killer Vending Machines Wrecked My Lunch). In 2020, his book Mutant Zombies Cursed My School Trip won the FCBG Children’s Book Award, the only national book award that is voted for entirely by children. This month sees the release of The Mab, an incredible new retelling of the Mabinogi, for kids, that Matt has created with Eloise Williams. Matt is a passionate promoter of reading for pleasure in schools as well as an advocate of saving public libraries.

Before becoming an author, Matt presented on some of the UKs most popular TV shows like Nickelodeon, The Big Breakfast, the Pepsi Chart Show, Celebrity Love Island, and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! Although, he would readily admit that he has presented on some of the UKs worst-ever shows too! He has also been on the radio a lot, hosting shows on Capital, Heart FM, Magic and Virgin Radio Chilled. He has also made a variety of documentaries for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 5Live, and the BBC World Service.

Matt was recently voted “the greatest writer ever in the history of the world” by Stockport Grammar School, knocking Shakespeare into second place. He has gone horse-riding twice (both times ended in disaster), and was once bitten by a dolphin. Despite the animosity shown him by the animal world he has been both a swineherd and a shepherd and writes books with his two sausage dogs sitting at his feet.