Patron of Reading

Leave the Trees, Please by Benjamin Zephaniah and Melissa Castrillón is a deserving winner of the 2026 Margaret Mallett Award for Children's Non-Fiction. It is a lyrical plea to protect nature and the environment, accompanied by vibrant illustrations in a red and green palette.

Over the past few weeks, I've been talking with @MarieZarro97723 about setting up a pupil-judged award for verse novels written for children (two categories, primary and secondary). They're clearly a growth area in children's books right now and are getting lots of attention.

On Thursday 21st May, the fantastic @RuddickRichard and I will be delivering an after-school online session on using graphic novels in the primary classroom. There will be lots of practical ideas and book recommendations, as well as time for questions. eventbrite.co.uk/e/graphic-nove…

Do get along to this if you can. @MarieZarro97723 is a hugely experienced teacher and will be contributing to a session full of wisdom, authenticity, and practical, sutainable strategies for building a school reading culture. @MichaelRosenYes literacytrust.org.uk/events/making-…

It's incredibly exciting to launch our first school poetry award celebrating published children's poetry next week. What I'm most pleased about is that it's entirely child-led, from start to finish.

As it's the start of a new school term, it feels like a good time to reshare my picturebook assembly overview, which has a focus on empathy and inclusion. All the selections are books I've used and loved as a teacher. Feel free to download, use and adapt. padlet.com/Jon_Biddle/rea…

I love the Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac and re-reading his book has been simply glorious. Insightful, funny, challenging and still so very relevant ❣️📚 If you can get hold of a copy, I highly recommend you do!

Today's Read to the Beat! recommendations are The Adventures of Rap Kid and The Adventures of Rap Kid: The GOAT by @MrMCGrammar. Funny, thought-provoking, and fantastic for reading aloud to a class, these books are absolutely full of energy. Perfect for upper KS2.

My latest Read to the Beat! recommendation is Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion, by Shannon Stocker and Devon Holzwarth. It's a story of challenge, perseverance, and the importance of pursuing your dreams, whatever they may be. An inspirational book.

Today's Read to the Beat! recommendation is a book that never fails to move a class. Birdsong, written by Katya Balen and illustrated by Richard Johnson, is really special. Not a single word is wasted. It's lyrical, empathetic and heartbreaking.

Today's Read to the Beat! recommendations are a trio of graphic novels, all suitable for the upper end of KS2. Speak Up!, by Rebecca Burgess, is about 12-year-old Mia, who likes to express her feelings by singing and songwriting, and goes viral online as the performer Elle-Q.

With this year's Summer Reading Challenge theme, Read to the Beat!, I'm going to be sharing lots of music-related books over the next few weeks. When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop, by Laban Carrick Hill and Theodore Taylor III, is a standout choice.

The line-up of authors, poets and illustrators for EmpathyLab’s Empathy Day festival (4th–11th June) is absolutely stunning. Sessions feature @MichaelRosenYes, Tom Percival, Patrice Lawrence, @whatSFSaid, Manjeet Mann and Louie Stowell. More info here: empathylab.uk/empathy-day

Once Upon A Time... It's been a long wait since August, when I originally approached the wonderful Gemma Ranford to suggest that we work together to Go All In. We enlisted the help of the equally amazing Nicki Hitchcock and we started planning community involvement projects.

Over the past few months, the wonderfully inspiring @MarieZarro97723 has created a fantastic range of Padlets linked to books and reading. They contain lots of resources and book recommendations, and can all be accessed from here: padlet.com/mariezarro/pad…

Frank the Monster by Mats Strandberg, illustrated by Sofia Falkenhem and translated by Julia Marshall, is a charmingly quirky story about Frank Steen, a 9yo boy who accidentally gets turned into a werewolf. Lots of fun and exactly the right level of spooky for Y2/3 readers.

Love coming home to this brilliant publication - all the more special as I'm on the Editorial Board for it alongside some pretty fabulous folk! @jonnybid @kat_brereton ❣️

padlet.com/mariezarro/ver… During this NYoR, Jon Biddle and I thought it would be fun to focus on the power of verse novels and so we chose to set up a little verse novel Whatsapp group to share, read together as a community, and to help each other develop professionally.

Having so much fun seeing the humour of year 6 shining through their letter writing chains based around The Fairy Tale Fan Club 😂 This child has written as Christopher ( a child member of The Fairy Tale Fan Club) to Humpty Dumpty and has then written a reply in character as HD

Poetry Pizza by Simon Mole (illustrated by Tom McLaughlin) is a glorious collection of poems for children. Funny, heartwarming, thoughtful and cleverly written. This will be a major player in our Poem of the Day slot over the next few months. Would work well across KS2.