🥳Welcome to 2026. And I know we keep shuffling you over to our Instagram account BUT keep shuffling if you’d like to see our Letterbox Library Year in Review. 🤗All the highs: -books -launches -ponies 🐴 -a splash of ABBA. #KidLitUK

Heads, Dep Heads, Snr./Literacy Leaders- ☀️your 2026 wake-up 😊course: FREE online intro to the @theclpe.bsky.social #PowerOfReading flagship training & how it can scaffold your English curriculum. #KidLitUK

“But asking awkward questions is better than accepting the silence of a still-narrow literary monoculture” Nuances of working class identities for creatives,targeted initiatives&hope for @newwritingnorth.bsky.social ‘s The Bee project. #TheBooksellerMostRead. www.thebookseller.com/comment/am-i...

Vision impairment shouldn’t prevent a child from developing a love of books and reading 💙 It's #WorldBrailleDay, and we're sharing useful tips and book recommendations from @rnib.bsky.social#WorldBrailleDayto help you support blind or partially sighted children to engage with stories 👇 https://bit.ly/3LgHP9S

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... If you’re in the Cambridge area, here’s something worth doing!

Join our free online event and explore how Power of Reading training can strengthen your English curriculum and impact teaching and learning. Book now: https://clpe.org.uk/training/webinars/leading-english-curriculum-power-reading-online-event-leaders-2

A whole day of No Outsiders staff training at a school in Wandsworth. A whole day exploring strategies to develop the inclusive narrative. Fantastic start to 2026!

“Is 2026 the year DEI dies?” Comment by @pennyauthor.bsky.social With specific reference to disability representation in children’s books and to the Reflecting Disability Project: reflectingdisability.co.uk #KidLitUK

“Our collective resolve is unstoppable. In the long arc of history, the freedom to read will win.” A brilliant summary from @bookriot.bsky.social on the trends, challenges & successes re: North American book bans in 2025. bookriot.com/book-censors...

🎄As we go in to the sleepy festive period, we’ll be just a little quieter on social media. But a pause here to say: THANK TOU -to all of our followers, supporters, customers, book pals. As a small not-for-profit workers coop, your championing of what we do means EVERYTHING. #KidLitUK

Another #Christmas present from us to you! @nicolettejones.bsky.social interviews Jamila Gavin about her #nerobookawards shortlisted MY SOUL A SHINING TREE: it has musical prose and historical facts about a hero who won the Victoria Cross. #KidLitUK @farshorebooks.bsky.social tinyurl.com/y5ry8d8f

Teachers of poetry in schools and colleges: do you know about this fantastic video 'library' of modern poets performing their poems? www.youtube.com/@ApplesandSn...

Get on over to our Insta grid to see the out-takes from our interview with @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social for @booksforkeeps.bsky.social And read the bits that *did* make the cut at: booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/peop... #KidLitUK

It took a little while…but we finally found some book titles whose covers live up to the very pink sparkle of our offices’ Christmas Tree. (Books by Flavia Z. Drago, Anna McQuinn & Rosalind Beardshaw and Viola Wang) #KidLitUK

1/3 Great piece by Kate Bugos querying the usefulness of redefining literacy during the National Year of Reading. “..that does not mean playing a video game is the same as reading, especially when the most popular games are things like Fortnite, Minecraft and Fifa..” #KidLitUK

Thanks to @letterboxlibrary.bsky.social for choosing Nate Yu’s Blast From the Past!

“It showed who gets to sit at the centre of festive storytelling, and who is missing. Whose traditions get the spotlight and whose don’t” Jasmine Richards @storymix.bsky.social blogging for @theclpe.bsky.social re: festive book treat #TheOtherFatherChristmas clpe.org.uk/blog/christm... #KidLitUK

Stand Out Books of 2025 The best selection in @booksforkeeps.bsky.social Where we also had the joy of highlighting books by @catwrote.bsky.social @maisiechanwrites.bsky.social @manumontoya.bsky.social @tommydoyle.bsky.social Claire Powell & Peter Bentley

1/2 “I have already heard through the grapevine that one big house is declining all manuscripts for children’s books with diverse content.” A view from North America: Jason Low @leeandlow.bsky.social on: * the impact of book bans. *a call to be vigilant.. #KidLitUK www.slj.com/story/We-Mus...

❤️Such a lovely post to start the week! ⬇️ And you can check this out here too: www.letterboxlibrary.com/product-page...

Liverpool! I am thrilled to be coming to celebrate the Lunar New year with you! My book Nate Yu's Blast from the Past features Liverpool's Chinatown and more. Learn why I set the book in Liverpool, ants, and let's make some lanterns with riddles on them! www.waterstones.com/events/celeb...

If you can, please support @booktrust.org.uk who, like Father Christmas himself, are giving away book parcels so that kids in care or at risk can have brand new books of their own. www.booktrust.org.uk/xmas #MagicOfBooks

Get on over to our Insta account to see a little reel on just some of our lgbtq+ children’s books highlights over the last year- based on our contribution to @booksforkeeps.bsky.social Books of the Year. #KidLitUK

😊The absolute joy of interviewing @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social about her Nero shortlisted title, People Like Stars for Books for Keeps @scholasticuk.bsky.social #KidLitUK #BfK

1/2 “There needs to be… a ‘creative inclusion’ lead” shifting an “often neglected, element of DEI out of HR and into content creation in a role that is not just creative, but commercial and a vital part of the publishing infrastructure.” … #KidLitUK www.thebookseller.com/comment/copy...

12th December 12th December 12th December

Great read- @lui-land.bsky.social Sit interviewed by @evawongnava.bsky.social on exploring the 🇦🇺bushland as a child, environmental activism, not wanting to be pigeonholed and incidental ESEA representation. #KidLitUK www.thebookseller.com/author-inter...

It’s back! Our popular Early Years Concepts Pack, a mini library offering early introductions to concepts e.g: seasons, weathers, counting, colours, shapes, bodies & senses. (And as always it’s an inclusive collection.) Visit: www.letterboxlibrary.com/product-page... #KidLitUK

And we have a winner!! Shaftesbury Junior School are all set to receive a FREE #ReflectingRealities Book Pack, funded by author Sophie Anderson. To find out more about the pack visit letterboxlibrary.com/product-page/r…#KidLitUKUK

1/3 “Our publishing industry of majority white editors can’t help its ‘white gaze’..that filters expectations of what an ESEA writer can&should write.” ➡️The political usefulness *and* ‘flattening’ of ESEA labels- G8 piece by @candygourlay.bsky.social & citing other ESEA creatives. #KidLitUK

😊The absolute joy of interviewing @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social about her Nero shortlisted title, People Like Stars for Books for Keeps @scholasticuk.bsky.social #KidLitUK #BfK

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️An Audacious Queer History: Our latest Book Review over on our Insta grid.⬇️ Hear us sharing 5 reasons why every secondary school should get themselves a copy. Also now listed on our website: www.letterboxlibrary.com/product-page... #KidLitUK

“The winners find courage, empathy and delight in places and moments where these seem entirely impossible” (S Singh June 2025 The Bookseller) This year’s #JhalakPrize submissions close 12th December,folk! THE prize you want your authors/illustrators entered in. www.jhalakprize.com/terms-and-co...

The first in @booksforkeeps.bsky.social #Nerobookawards interview series: Jenny Pearson/Shrapnel Boys. Up next: 👀look out for our interview with @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social #PeopleLikeStars @scholasticuk.bsky.social

2026 marks nearly 20 years of Lulu, everyone’s fave pint-sized picture book hero. We’re getting in on the celebrations early…head on over to Insta to see our Lulu-happiness! Thank you for the Lulu legacy Anna McQuinn, Rosalind Beardshaw & Alanna Max Books #KidLitUK

A little crop of my illustration of Yusuf and his new classmates for Wild Journey by A M Dassu @amdassu.bsky.social which is out now! @edpr.bsky.social @zephyrbooks.bsky.social #illustration #kidlitart #kidlitillustration #kidlit #kidlillustrators #kidlitartists

🎄We mostly sell book packs to schools but, at this time of year, we love seeing the flurry of seasonal individual book orders which come our way…🎁 It must be the new “Books For the Season” recs we just added to our home page (scroll dooooooooown) letterboxlibrary.com #KidLitUK

From artists to every day Black histories, @sla.org.uk presents the 2025 Winners of the #InformationBookAward #KidLitUK

We are into the last 5 days of the #Creatives4Sudan auction. There are some INCREDIBLE lots on there. Please consider a cheeky little bid. EG on creative mentoring from @rashmiwriting.bsky.social #KeepEyesOnSudan app.galabid.com/creatives4su...

Just a few weeks left for publishers to submit books to the Jhalak Prize...this is me and Rikin Parekh, the artist in residence 2022! I won for Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths @piccadillypress www.jhalakprize.com

The so-wonderful #JhalakPrize is reaching its 10year milestone next year. One of many reasons for publishers to submit- and authors/illustrators to ask their publishers to submit! #KidLitUK

‘A stunning piece of historical fiction which combines meticulous research with a beautifully imagined plot.’ First in our series of interviews with the authors shortlisted for #NeroBookAwards, Joanne Owen talks to Jenny Pearson about SHRAPNEL BOYS #KidLitUK booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/hear...

We’re the very lucky people who got to interview @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social for @booksforkeeps.bsky.social to mark her Nero Book Awards shortlisting. Patrice’s energy for gathering stories and telling them across genres & age range is phenomenal. Feeling very nourished!

1/2 New @cilip.bsky.social Committee to defend intellectual freedoms. “Intellectual freedom means the right of everyone to access information, ask questions, learn, explore ideas and express opinions without undue restriction…” #KidLitUK

While CILIP welcomes the Budget announcement of £5m for secondary school libraries. CEO Louis Coiffait-Gunn calls for “a long-term strategy to secure statutory status for school libraries, with ongoing funding for professional library staff in every school”. https://ow.ly/OOC150XyxWb

And I present to you the happiest tag to get behind TOMORROW: #BookFriday #KidLitUK

“Loving others is the loudest language of all.” — The New York Times Thank you to @nytimes.com for this thoughtful review of Listening to the Quiet. 🤟✨ uk.bookshop.org/a/291/978191...

The most recent @ibbyuk.bsky.social conference centred on what histories children are traditionally told and how these can be resisted, expanded, interrupted. A superb lineup of speakers including: Farrah @theclpe.bsky.social @chrishaughton.bsky.social @gitaralleigh.bsky.social with … #KidLitUK

SCHOOLS GIVEAWAY ends TOMORROW 5pm. And it’s an exceptional one 🤗

Very happy to see THE PRINCES AND THE PEA by me and Claire Powell in this Books of the Year selection. Nice to be in such brilliant company. @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social