Back to school (again) and raring to go
Actually, we're wondering how January seemed to last for a year
Is it just us or did January seem to go on for, oh, several months at least this year?
Megan Daley, Allison Rushby and I (aka, Team YKNR) are old hands at surviving school holidays and buying multiple pairs of school shoes one minute before Term 1 begins, but somehow the endless drag of January days takes us all by surprise every year.
Even when (as Allison R and I are) you’re heading back to school for the 15th year in a row…
But we’re into the serious business of February now, and Megan and I shared some of our favourite Back To School books and tips in episode 87 of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast.
This week’s episode (88) is a bonanza of gold for anyone in charge of a school library, featuring, as it does, Megan’s best advice for setting up your library for a great year ahead.
We haven’t quite let go of 2022, however.
We asked the members of the Your Kid’s Next Read Facebook community to ask their young readers to nominate the BEST book they read last year – books didn’t need to have been published in 2022, just read in 2022.
The result is this cracking list of books for all age groups.
TEAM YKNR
From l-r: Megan Daley, Allison Tait, and Allison Rushby
HELLO FROM MEGAN DALEY
Megan is an award-winning teacher-librarian working in Brisbane, the author of Raising Readers: How to nurture a child’s love of books, and co-host of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. She is also a sought after public speaker, literary judge, creator of the popular website Children's Books Daily and the 2023 curator for Word Play for Brisbane Writers Festival. More about Megan here.
I've been flat out reading submissions for my upcoming project with Affirm Press, editing a book focussed around teachers and the impact they make. I received far more submissions than anticipated, which is an excellent problem to have, and there were all of a high standard. It's been a lot of work but also a privilege and a pleasure to read them and I've so enjoyed the process of getting a nice cross-section of stories to represent teachers. I'm enjoying seeing this book take shape and can't wait to share more!
Also I've been getting four kids ready for 'back to school' but I'm so traumatised by this process and how many checklists we've needed that I cannot speak of it...
FEBRUARY BOOKMARK REVIEWS
Each month, I share full reviews of two outstanding books that have crossed my desk. Bookmark these for your own young readers.
'So That Happened… But Maybe You Already Knew That' by Tami Sussman
Natalie (Nutty to her friends) knows turning 12 is a big deal, and even though she doesn’t like change AT ALL, she’s prepping for:
a) having the best bat mitzvah party anyone has ever been to
b) graduating from primary school and
c) hopefully getting a boyfriend.
But there’s even more headed Nutty’s way that might change everything, like her parents running out of money and selling her childhood home, along with the reassuring family smell. Or when her best friend no longer feels like a girl and wants to leave the bat mitzvah group altogether. It seems only Natalie can keep her family, her friendships and her party from falling apart.
I inhaled this new middle grade novel over the holidays and subsequently passed it to 11-year-old Chickpea who loved it. I particularly liked the epilogue about the ‘smells’ that a family has – ending with the line ‘smells are the hardest memories to forget’. I know from personal experience with my own children and their losses that this is so very true. This is a warm, authentic (at times wince worthy authentic awkward!) and gently funny book for readers 10-12.
Come Together by Isaiah Firebrace and Jaelyn Biumaiwai
In this essential book, Isaiah, a Yorta Yorta and Gunditjmara man, establishes a foundation of First Nations knowledge with 20 key topics. Alongside bright and contemporary illustrations, Isaiah connects us to each topic through his own personal story and culture, from the importance of Elders to the Dreaming.
I ended up purchasing several copies of this book and, for me anyway, it was a case of 'why hasn't this been done earlier?!'.
'Come Together' is such a practical guide to First Nations topics – perfect for classrooms and home libraries. Obviously it will be necessary to dive more deeply into some of the topics covered but as a reference text, this is perfect!
HELLO FROM ALLISON RUSHBY
The award-winning, bestselling author of many, many books for children and adults, Allison Rushby’s middle-grade novels are firm favourites in the Your Kid’s Next Read community, particularly The Turnkey series and The Ghost Locket, and her latest junior novel Miss Penny Dreadful And The Midnight Kittens is fast gaining fans. More about Allison R here.
I’m back on the caffeine bandwagon as I gear up for a big year of releasing six books (gulp).
Right now I’m editing the third Miss Penny Dreadful book, Miss Penny Dreadful and the Mermaid’s Locks (Miss Penny Dreadful and the Malicious Maze, the second book in the series, will be released in April).
I’m also getting ready for the March release of the first two books in my junior fiction illustrated series, The Wish Sisters, illustrated by Karen Blair.
And when I have a minute or two spare (which I don’t), I’m squeezing in a bit of writing on a sneaky project I shouldn’t be writing at all (writers always tend to have one of these lying about!).
YKNR THREAD OF THE MONTH
I’m pretty sure YKNR members will never stop looking for books in the historical fiction space and there are some great suggestions here.
Don’t forget that we also have lots of amazing lists available for you at on our YKNR Community page. If you’re on the hunt for historical fiction like this member, this list is a great starting point.
HELLO FROM ALLISON TAIT
Writing as A. L. Tait, Allison is the internationally published, bestselling author of eight novels for middle-grade readers across three series: The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries. She is an in-demand speaker for author visits and literary festivals, a writing teacher for kids and adults, co-host of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast and former co-host of the So You Want To Be A Writer podcast. More about Allison here.
I’m in the process of editing my new middle-grade novel The First Summer Of Callie McGee, which will be published by Scholastic Australia in July 2023. This novel is a bit of a change for me – still adventure, still mystery, but no history in this one.
It’s a novel that includes everything I love about classic children's mystery stories – a group of kids working together, danger, intrigue, humour, friendship, and more – and I can’t wait to share it. Hopefully, I’ll have a cover to bring you soon.
In the meantime, I’ve also begun writing a new story. It’s very early days yet, but I’m really enjoying getting to know my characters and discovering their world. This, for me, is always the best bit!
WRITING TIP OF THE MONTH
I’ve started to pull together a YouTube playlist of some of the writing tips I share on the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. These are short clips, easily searched, and perfect for anyone involved with helping kids with their writing.
I think now is a good time to share this one about helping older kids with their writing. Experience has shown me that young writers with flair can find ‘writing for school’ to be particularly difficult because they feel constrained by the requirements of marking rubrics and assessments.
My tip is to help them understand that what they’re producing for their senior years at high school is a very particular type of writing. In the same way that writing for a newspaper requires a particular type of writing. Or writing for an annual report requires a completely different type of writing.
One thing I learnt in my many years as a journalist is that the brief is everything. Hitting the brief is more important than your very funny joke, more important than your epic description and far more important than your opinion.
You can hear my full tip here and I hope it helps in those prickly year 12 moments when your young writer is wailing about why their beautiful piece of writing didn’t mark as highly as they’d thought it would.
And yes, I may be speaking from experience here.
FEBRUARY BOOKMAIL WINNER
Each month, we’re giving away a prize pack consisting of some of the brilliant bookmail sent to us for the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. One winner* is chosen from our subscriber list by random draw and announced here!
There are ten books in the February prize pack.
The February bookmail giveaway winner is …
Heather Kirby
Congrats! We’ll be in touch by email.
*Australian mailing addresses only. Prize consists of one copy of each book pictured, sent as a pack to the winner by Australia Post. Winner will be contacted by email and prize must be claimed within 14 days or a redraw will take place. You must be subscribed to the YKNR newsletter by midnight (AEDST) the night before publication each month to be eligible to win. No correspondence will be entered into.
That’s it from us for now.
We hope your re-entry into the world of school is going smoothly! Be sure to let us know how your young reader is travelling – we’re often in the Facebook community so come and chat to us!
We’ll be back in March with more news, reviews, insights and another Bookmail Giveaway.
See you then!
Allison T, Allison R and Megan