Good morning! Today's read is Spring Comes To World's End by Monica Dickens.

Fancy helping us choose the books for our programmes? We're currently recruiting for our selection panels for: ⭐ #Bookstart Additional Needs ⭐ #Bookbuzz Primary ⭐ #Bookbuzz Secondary Find out if you're eligible to take part and apply here 👇 https://bit.ly/4wEeoR6

✨Go behind the silver screen with books celebrating the icons and stories of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Discover the collection: https://geni.us/Old-Hollywood 📽️ #FashionSky @bloomsburymedia.bsky.social @jasoncolavito.bsky.social

Our NEW issue is here #BfK279 with interviews, features and children's book reviews. Includes Tom Palmer, Patrice Lawrence, John Agard, Britta Teckentrup, Melinda Salisbury, Letterbox Library recommends, new Beyond the Secret Garden & more! All free to read. #KidLit #summerreading😎 bit.ly/3TjoNU0

Good morning! Today's read is The Girl Who Wouldn't Make Friends (a lovely say it how it is title) from Elsie J. Oxenham. I'm also working on an academic book proposal - I've wanted to do it for a while but indie scholar life (& indie scholar funds) are a precarious thing. Nevertheless, we persist!

Looking at If This Is A Man by Primo Levi didyoueverstoptothink.com/2026/07/15/i...

Good morning! I will be getting rid of these by the end of the week but if you're interested and would like to make me an offer, please do feel free to bob me a private message (I like the books to go to good homes, it's a thing).

Good morning! Today's read is Mega Robo Bros - Final Form by Neill Cameron. (FURRY WILLIAM) (iykyk) #booksky

"Just keep smiling Rufus otherwise he'll come back" #girlsowncc

Good evening! Tonight's read is The Truce by Primo Levi.

As a nonprofit, volunteer-run publication, SOLRAD content is funded by the generous support of our community. Patreon allows us to sustain SOLRAD’s mission-driven work and build a vibrant community around comics arts. solrad.co/join-patreon

when your blog reminds you that you've been on brand for a while (didyoueverstoptothink.com/2016/07/12/l... for those interested).

"man, that’s a vested compliment. But how else to review these indefatigable, indescribable things! These pulpy powerhouses! They make no sense! I am fascinated by them!" It's time to review Worrals on the War-Path by Capt. W. E. Johns didyoueverstoptothink.com/2026/07/10/w...

Hello everyone! A reminder that I'm always available for school/uni visits and talks on children's literature & creative writing. I also offer freelance research support (need something looking at in the British Library Boston Spa? I'll do it for you!). More info: didyoueverstoptothink.com/hire_me/

HELLO DARKNESS MY OLD FRIEND

This is perfect lunchtime viewing (and also, it's giving me an enormous amount of joy)

Good morning (just!). Today's read is If This Is A Man by Primo Levi. I've wanted to read it for a while and finally found a copy. #booksky

Thrilled to see this!!

This little stormer entered the world 4 years ago. Thank you to everyone who believed in her & to every single reader. I am so grateful for this adventure! (and if she's new to you, pop her on your tbr! I guarantee cakes, Paris, and Best Friends Forever adventures!). @pushkinchildrens.bsky.social

I'm SO happy to finally be able to share this publication with you all! "Disrobing the text: Burlesque as l’écriture féminine". "This article argues that burlesque... can be read as a material embodiment of Hélène Cixous's l’écriture féminine, namely ‘women's writing’..." doi.org/10.1177/1464...

Good morning! Today's read is Worrals on the War-Path by Capt. W. E Johns. #booksky (try saying THAT title five times fast).

It's time to return to the Chalet School series reviews and look at The Chalet School Wins The Trick by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. didyoueverstoptothink.com/2026/07/05/t...

"A collection of moments which sort of determinedly gather themselves towards being something. Not a capital letter sort of something but a something nonetheless. And I did think that I might end this review here but then I got to thinking about Audrey." didyoueverstoptothink.com/2026/07/05/t...

Good morning! This weekend's read is The Chalet School Wins The Trick by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. (one of the few CS books I'm yet to review - and one I've not read for a long time). #booksky

Lovely to speak about Angela Brazil, Elinor M Brent Dyer and their treatment of creative writing and child authorship today with #histchild26. Thank you for an excellent few days!

The Line, by me and @fawa.bsky.social, is out today - it’s about the Partition, with a hopeful message at its heart. Both Indian and Pakistani voices worked on this making it particularly special. Published by @scholasticuk.bsky.social and available in bookshops now 🙏🏾 #EduSky #Skybrarians #UKKidLit

Never a bad time for a Sally Nicholls

The sudden and quite precise craving for one of those Enid Blyton River Island bags

Are you the parent/guardian of children aged 3-7? Or a childcare professional working with children that age? Could you spare 10-15 mins for a survey on picture books depicting LGBTQ+ identities and non-traditional families, to help Deanna with her dissertation research, please? lnkd.in/e9q2B9KW

Do you work in Trade Publishing in Ireland or the UK? Would you be able to spare ten minutes to share your thoughts on how AI is affecting you, please, to help our superb student Dearbhla Brady with her dissertation? Thank you! (Please share too!) lnkd.in/e_bH3m8y

Our Micro-Bursary submissions are open! The Micro-Bursaries are open to early career, UK based: Comic Creators of Colour, Disabled Comic Creators, and/or Trans/Non-Binary Comic Creators. Find out more, and put your name forward here: thoughtbubblefestival.com/microbursaries

When your conference notebook is on brand

A unique US ya/children’s Indigiqueer booklist- at the intersection of Indigenous heritage and queer identity. #KidLit #BlueSky cbcbooks.org/2026/06/26/b...

How To Be Brave is four years old today. Four years!!!!!! This journey has been such a delight Thank you if you've read, supported, reserved, shared, my books and a thousand thanks to those of you there from the very start. I appreciate it all enormously. You are infinitely wonderful. ❤️

Another tiny landmark hit over this weekend for this tiny podcast, thank you if you're listening and I am working on episode four as we type. open.spotify.com/show/3kFlg9F... (Episodes so far: Angela Brazil, Enid Blyton, Elinor M. Brent-Dyer).

This ooooold post has been getting some traction today so I'm sharing it here (and thanking you if you've been reading). It's about The Chalet School and Sickness and I'm still trying to tease out many of these ideas today - didyoueverstoptothink.com/2012/10/07/t...

Another tiny landmark hit over this weekend for this tiny podcast, thank you if you're listening and I am working on episode four as we type. open.spotify.com/show/3kFlg9F... (Episodes so far: Angela Brazil, Enid Blyton, Elinor M. Brent-Dyer).

"Eric?" "Yes Mildred?" "What are you doing?" "I am doing manly things with this nail, Mildred." "Eric?" "Yes Mildred?" "It's not a nail. It's a bit of asparagus." #girlsowncc

Good afternoon! Today's read is an interesting thing. It's a collection of short non-fic ("some thirty letters") on the countryside for London kids off on their hols. First published in 1939, this is the 1947 reprint. It's more than a little dry at times but there's still an odd charm to it #booksky

Oh I love this!

Always delighted when an older bk review gets traffic and today's is: Pea's Book of Best Friends (from the before times of 2012). It is so genuine & lovely & I remain a fan of everything Susie Day does. Please do take the time to discover it! It's worth it! didyoueverstoptothink.com/2012/07/25/p...

"You start to want to ... to essentially figure out why we tell the stories they tell. Enormous questions for a ten year old, let me tell you that. They’re still enormous questions for the two hundred and thirty two year old very hot woman sat in the dark writing this."

"You start to want to ... to essentially figure out why we tell the stories they tell. Enormous questions for a ten year old, let me tell you that. They’re still enormous questions for the two hundred and thirty two year old very hot woman sat in the dark writing this."

It's a 'hide in the dark' day so I am doing some long overdue admin. First thing to mention is an updated research page on my site with two free-to-read articles - one on Queen Victoria's juvenilia and another on Joan Cope, a young writer from the 1930s: didyoueverstoptothink.com/my-research/

Good morning! After rereading The Eagle Of The Ninth (See below), I'm now moving onto The Silver Branch. #booksky

I always enjoy the ambition of these emails

"This is Roman Britain, this is beyond the wall, this is the battle, this is the moment. I don’t think I’ve read anybody else for quite some time who gives you that sense of everything being here. Everything convinces. Hugely. Confidently. It’s beyond true." didyoueverstoptothink.com/2026/06/25/t...

It's a 'hide in the dark' day so I am doing some long overdue admin. First thing to mention is an updated research page on my site with two free-to-read articles - one on Queen Victoria's juvenilia and another on Joan Cope, a young writer from the 1930s: didyoueverstoptothink.com/my-research/

Good morning! It's hot and so it's time for my favourite literary quote ever: "Eh, it’s ’ot," he said, his accent at once betraying him for a Yorkshire man. " ’Ot for this time o’ t’ year it is."