Made it out for a run for the first time in six days this evening - in the pelting rain no less - and, not to overstate it, but running gives me more life than basically anything else 🏃‍♂️❤️ ☔️

'It is no great victory to learn to do something that one will not choose to do given the choice.' Eisner quoted in Making Poetry Happen in the context of children being volitional readers of poetry, but it's just as true & vital for all aspects of reading & writing. We need the skill AND the will 👏

For #KidsBooksFriday this week let’s highlight great kids puzzle and activity books. I find these are a great way to get kids to engage with physical books, particularly those who fear reading large swathes of text (as I did when I was wee). And they’re just great fun. #KidLitUK #UKKidLit #KidLit

'Times betwixt & between the demands of the curriculum where poetry can have a presence for teachers & pupils through reading aloud in an atmosphere of enjoyment & challenge is the place where poetry can matter most' My reading during kids' tennis lessons - real food for thought.

Plain Jane and the Mermaid by @verabrosgol.bsky.social is an utterly brilliant graphic novel. Drawing from a range of folklore, it examines our eternal obsession with physical beauty & how we need to overcome that to find real worth and happiness. A great pick for UKS2 🌊 🧜‍♀️ 🦭

I'm enjoying Adventures in Wonderland by @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social (thanks for the rec @newhambookshop.bsky.social). This point is spot on, kids' lit is a place where it is sensible to hope. Opposed to most adult lit which is centred on the inevitability of tragedy/the tragedy of inevitability.

With the IBC Excluded Voices report making for sober reading this week, let’s use #KidsBooksFriday to celebrate brilliant books from global majority writers. #KidLitUK #UKKidLit #KidLit www.inclusivebooksforchildren.org/excluded-voi...

What if the refugee crisis wasn’t happening far away, but here—in our own homes? No Refuge by Joe Brady & Patrice Aggs is a gripping, empathetic graphic novel that refuses to look away. I reviewed it for @justimaginecentre.bsky.social @the-phoenix-comic.bsky.social justimagine.co.uk/childrens-bo...

Does your class love graphic novels? We are thrilled that Mai K. Nguyen is joining us for a Children's Authors Live event on Friday, 26th September at 1:15 justimagine.co.uk/author-live/... @uklitassociation.bsky.social @sconnor7.bsky.social @samcreighton.bsky.social

Thank you @newhambookshop.bsky.social! King's Hansel & Gretel is deliciously dark & more faithful than expected. Sendak's pictures are the right amount of scary. The Rosen/Oxenbury is so fun & I can't wait to read it aloud. My Hair... is beautifully lyrical. Now to start the new Rundell!

Today's discussion with fellow @uklitassociation.bsky.social Award longlisters is absolutely one of the highlights of my year. An incredibly hard task to narrow the 7-10 category down to just 20 texts but the vibrant and thoughtful discussions are an honour to witness and be part of 👏 📚 ❤️

Everything crossed to get MCR tickets. My teenage self is beyond excited... 😂😂

Schools are back this week in Scotland. So at @samcreighton.bsky.social’s suggestion, this week’s #KidsBooksFriday is about great books to share with a new class of kids. I’m not a teacher but I think these are all great books to read to kids as a first port of call. #UKKidLit #KidLit #KidLitUK

This is a pretty amazing place to live. I think everyone should get to see the sea every day.

Excited to discover @lighthousecomics.co.uk in my new town. I only popped in but it looks fab. Picked up Haru in the hope of making the next #LetsTalkGraphicNovels @mattobin.bsky.social @richardruddick.bsky.social @rcharlesworth.bsky.social 👏 Will be sure to go in again to buy these new titles too.

I hope you're happy @struan-murray.bsky.social! My 9 year old is bereft having finished Dragonborn because the next instalment isn't out yet! He adores it and now can't choose his next book, as he thinks nothing will compare! 😂 How long until he can get his hands on part two?!

The world is a stunning place 👏 🌳 A family stroll through Brockhill Country Park. My kids get taken there quite a lot by school, such an amazing resources to have on your doorstep!

I help run a MAT book club where teachers from each of the 5 schools meets half-termly to discuss 2 texts. Here are my initial choices for next year but I'm very open to suggestions or recommendations! @teresacremin.bsky.social @richardruddick.bsky.social @jonnybid.bsky.social @smithsmm.bsky.social

“Students have been incentivised to behave and write like an algorithm in order to please the measurements by which they’re judged…” - @biblioracle.bsky.social

Lovely 4 days alone with my kiddos! Bravo @englishheritage.bsky.social & @nationaltrust.org.uk. We've ✅ Dover Castle, Richborough Roman Fort, Walmer Castle & Scotney Castle (& Radnor Park, Brockhill Country Park & Cheriton Library). We've Warren Coastal Park & Battle Abbey today & Cliveden tomorrow

Some great stuff here 👏 'Teachers should reflect on how weighted their English curriculums are towards other subjects as opposed to explicitly focusing on the teaching of writing.' 100% this 👆 we need to use writing lessons to actually teach writing knowledge & skills!

If you want to read some thoughts on Tolkien, Le Guin, Pullman, Blackman, Blake & more - I very much enjoyed talking about them all in this interview about Tyger with The Daily Bulldog: dailybulldog.com/arts/an-inte...

These pictures sum up my four perfectly. The six year old and two year old running off with wild abandon, the four year old dancing around with a flower and the nine year old about to fall off a hill because he's lost in a book (Reek by @alastairchisholm.bsky.social) 😂

“Manhood’s become a rock / I cannot lift alone.” Joseph Coelho’s The Boy Lost in the Maze remakes the Theseus myth into a mirror—reflecting modern masculinity, identity and the timeless search for self. My review for @justimaginecentre.bsky.social justimagine.co.uk/childrens-bo...

Here is our first round-up of reviews for the summer holidays for you. Happy reading everyone! Thank you @librarylady.bsky.social @kashleyenglish.bsky.social @samcreighton.bsky.social @barbaraevav.bsky.social and all our other reviewers this week: justimagine.co.uk/childrens-bo...

This has sent me into the summer on such a high. Met a girl in my new class at the beginning of the week, who confidently told me she doesn't like reading. I said that's fine, but even after just knowing you for five minutes, I think you might like this, and handed her Smile by @goraina.bsky.social

I utterly love being a teacher but I do hate how we go so full on during term time that our bodies save all our illness for the start of the holidays... felt like death for two days now and know I will do for another week...

Last literacy masterclass of the year for staff. Choose a book to enjoy over the summer! (No compulsion to read them but I'm confident most will choose to, especially after I share my favourite Auden quote on the first slide!) @teresacremin.bsky.social @jonnybid.bsky.social @openuni-rfp.bsky.social

Another work of utter genius from Shinsuke Yoshitake. It's definitely going to be one of the first books I read with my new class, we might even then write one together about teachers and pupils 😂. First books to read in September could make a good #KidsBooksFriday Q @mariannedoherty.bsky.social! 👏

It's taken me too long to get around to reading Rosa by Starlight from @hilarymckay.bsky.social. It's quiet, brave & magical, just like Rosa. It's a certain sort of book for a certain sort of child, it reminds me of texts likes The Song of Lewis Carmichael or, more recently Jakub's Otter ❤️ ❤️

✅ Writing as a distinct subject ✅ Reading like writers ✅ Pupil choice & agency ✅ Real purpose for projects ✅ Daily writing ✅ Personal writing time ✅ Valuing writing identity & culture ✅ Teachers as writers Writing Framework offers big steps forward @writingrocks.bsky.social @teresacremin.bsky.social

Off on our travels again; today with Nevermoor for company. A good epic series often gets us through a long family car journey. We’ve loved Brightstorm by Vashti Hardy and @cressidacowell.bsky.social’s Wizard’s of Once series. What are you #KidsBooksFriday epic series recommendations? #KidLitUK

Amazing evening hearing Kwame Alexander speak at an Andersen Press salon tonight. His line that 'the mind of an adult begins in the imagination of a child' will stay with me. I also got to ask a question about shifting themes in his work that I've been wondering about for a while 👏

@frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social I was at your UKLA keynote & asked a question about how children are taught writing. Your answer really chimed with the curriculum we’ve developed at our school in East London over the past five years. I’d love to share some info—what’s the best way to contact you?

Buzzing on the way back from the @uklitassociation.bsky.social International Conference. From the opening session to the closing, so much to think about. Even more amazing though are the connections I've made with inspiring researchers and practitioners I can learn from and work with in the future

Just finished Fallout and it might be my favourite @lesleyparr.bsky.social book yet 👏 pacy but full of depth, great characters & a perfectly rendered historical period, cracking stuff for UKS2. Now it's off to the @uklitassociation.bsky.social Book Awards ceremony!

200% well deserved this is 👏

Kicking things off earlier today as I’m heading off on a summer bookshop hunt. So for this week’s #KidsBooksFriday - what recent titles should we all be keeping an eye out for in bookshops this summer? Mine are The Hidden Heroes of Science and Nate Yu’s Blast from the Past. #KidLitUK

I accept this is a nice problem, but choosing which sessions to go to at the @uklitassociation.bsky.social International Conference is so hard! Out of the 4 slots when I can attend something, there are 17 workshops or symposiums etc I want to see 😂 spoilt for choice!

Very excited to head to Liverpool tomorrow for the @uklitassociation.bsky.social International Conference. Beyond psyched to learn from colleagues, to present on my school's writing curriculum & to spend all my money at @childrensbooks.bsky.social 👏

A cracking little article. The Earthsea Cycle must be one of the greatest examples that children engage with stories of great depth and importance, that they should be spoken up to, never down.

Reader problems #478 (and probably the WORST one): When you go to bed after reading up to a crucial and exciting part of the story but, the next morning when you are leaving for work, you can't remember where you put it down, so you have to leave without it. 😭😭😅

There are some authors where you have to read every word they write. Katya Balen is one of those for me. I have finally started Ghostlines today & the beauty of her writing never disappoints. I always think, just like with David Almond & Julia Green, her prose reads like poetry #KidsLitUK

I reckon we could use some more kids’ book chat on BlueSky, so I thought I might attempt a #KidsBooksFriday chat. Let’s start with… What is one book you’d love every child to get the chance to read? Mine would be @markbradley.bsky.social’s Bumble & Snug and the Angry Pirates. #KidLitUK #KidLit

'What ifs weigh heavy, why nots lift the heart...' Jakub's Otter by @coralrumble.bsky.social is a gentle joy - I can't recommend it enough 👏 📚 ❤️

My daughter loves her Tonie Box & after I read her a bedtime story, she lies down & listens to the We're Going On A Bear Hunt Tonie. She has listened to it so many times, she can recite it to herself, including @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social's delivery of all the copyright information 😂😂

On The Wall by Anne Fine is utterly brilliant, both peaceably gentle & sharply astute. A series of connected vignettes from across a school year, it follows the lives & revels in the thoughts & foibles of a class of year sevens & their teachers. It couldn't be more real, affirming & warm hearted 👏

I love Reading Gladiators, it's one of the highlights of my year. I cannot wait to start up again with the new look programme next year 📚 👏 I 100% recommend it as an effective, engaging, high-quality, but low workload reading club.

Two stunning picture books about powerful activists who used their voices to make change. These are just two of 40 picture book biographies we are using in our 'reading as writers' lessons for our biography writing project. I can't wait to see what the kids write themselves @writingrocks.bsky.social