Say hello to our new website
yourkidsnextread.com has had a makeover
The Your Kid’s Next Read team is a little bit excited this month because we’ve finally got ourselves organised and set up a proper home base on the internet.
The new YKNR website brings together the podcast show notes, book lists, merch and more under one roof, renovated by Digital Lemonade, and easily searchable.
Pop over and see what we’ve done with the place – we’d love to hear what you think!
UPDATES FROM TEAM YKNR
Sadly, we had to cancel our Brisbane event last month due to family reasons, but we were still able to get together for a one-day ‘summit’ to plan some exciting things for the Your Kid’s Next Read community in 2024. See us in action here.
We also squeezed in a photo shoot with Kate from Quince & Mulberry Studios. (See behind the scenes here.) Here we are modelling the exclusive YKNR T-shirt…
Check out the t-shirts and our teacher-librarian endorsed tote/book bag at the button below. We donate 10 per cent of profits to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
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 editor of the anthology ‘Teacher, Teacher’ from Affirm Press. More about Megan here.
This month has seen me travel to New Zealand Aotearoa to speak at the School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (SLANZA) conference.
Huge thanks to the SLANZA conference committee who invited me and put on such a great conference and to the lovely school librarians who drove me to and from Wellington and had dinners with me.
A special shout out to lovely YKNR member Penny for allowing me to attach myself to her and chat her ear off. So fascinating to hear about the New Zealand Aotearoa school library context.
MEGAN’S BOOKMARK REVIEWS
Each month, I share full reviews of two outstanding books that have crossed my desk. Bookmark these for your young readers.
Two Sparrowhawks in a Lonely Sky by Rebecca Lim (podcast interview ep 103)
Thirteen-year-old Fu, his younger sister, Pei, and their mother live in a small rural community in Southern China that is already enduring famine conditions when it is collectivised as part of Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward campaign (which ultimately led to economic disaster, widespread famine and millions of deaths).
After tragedy strikes, and threatened with separation, Fu and Pei set out on a perilous journey across countries and oceans to find their father, who left for Australia almost a decade earlier.
A powerful story of the bonds of family and the complexity of the Asian-Australian experience, this is a great novel to study in schools at upper primary year levels - lots of good links to HASS, in particular.
Lim's writing is strong, as you would expect from the esteemed author of 'Tiger Daughter', winner of the 2022 CBCA Book of the year for Older Readers.
‘Lily Halfmoon: The Magic Gems’ (Lily Halfmoon #1) by Xavier Bonet. Marie Trinchant (Translator)
A magical graphic novel about a secret school of witches, animal guardians and magical gemstones which I found in a local independent bookstore. I love finding gems such as this one (pun entirely intended).
'Witches and Wizards, Sorcerers and Enchanters, by the magic granted to you, you must solemnly promise to keep your powers a secret forever ...'
Lily Halfmoon has just moved to the town of Piedraville. New house, new school and apparently new powers, as Lily finds out she is a witch. She must learn magic, and find her animal guardian and gemstone, while keeping her new identity a secret.
Highly recommended graphic novel series for a middle primary audience.
HELLO FROM ALLISON RUSHBY
The award-winning, bestselling author of many, many books for children and adults, Allison Rushby’s novels are firm favourites in the Your Kid’s Next Read community. Her latest illustrated junior fiction series, The Wish Sisters, is fast gaining fans. More about Allison R here.
Well, I hope you enjoyed all the bits and pieces from adminland that we posted while Allison T was up in Brisbane on secret admin business (okay, it wasn’t very secret, but let’s attempt a bit of mystery…).
But now it’s back to work. I have two more books to publish before 2023 is out!
There is the fifth book in The Wish Sisters series – The Christmas Wish – out with UQP on 31 October. (Watch me unbox it here.)
And also the third and final instalment in the Miss Penny Dreadful series – Miss Penny Dreadful and the Mermaid’s Locks – out with Walker Books on 1 November.
I can’t wait to get them both into little readers’ hands!
THREAD OF THE MONTH
Ah, there’s nothing like a trip down memory lane, is there? And I just love it when a book I adored as a little reader surfaces in the YKNR collective memory.
We recently had a member ask one of ‘those’ questions – the ones we love best – where we must all rise to the bookish challenge and recall ‘that’ book.
Penny Pollard’s Diary by Robin Klein (illustrated by Ann James) was an easy one to recall, as it turned out, for it was beloved by many of us!
HELLO FROM ALLISON TAIT
Writing as A. L. Tait, Allison is the internationally published, bestselling author of three series fantasy/mystery/adventure middle-grade series: The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries. She is an in-demand speaker, a writing teacher for kids and adults, and co-host of the YKNR podcast. Her new novel THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE is out now. More about Allison here.
Despite the ridiculous face in this photo, it’s been back to business here.
I’m prepping for a workshop on how to be a children’s author at the South Coast Writers’ Centre, Coledale, NSW, this weekend details and bookings are here).
I’m also looking forward to hosting an In Conversation with Kell Woods to launch her debut historical fantasy novel (for adults) After The Forest. More about that here.
AND THEN, I’m putting together a new workshop at Kiama Library for NaNoWriMo participants, all about Writing Through The Messy Middle. Details here.
Book lists are back!
Our new website gives us new scope to organise – and add to – the world-famous Your Kid’s Next Read book lists. You’ll find a selection of our current lists of recommended books for readers of all ages here.
Some new additions include:
10 spooky (not scary) books for Halloween (curated by Allison Rushby)
10 great Australian novels to read aloud to your class (curated by author Sue Whiting)
We also curate exclusive lists for paid newsletter subscribers. Recent examples:
What 13 year olds are reading right now (includes recommendations from the YKNR community as well as teacher-librarian Trisha Buckley)
75 books that 11 year olds are loving right now (recommendations from the YKNR community)
We’ll be updating and adding to these lists, both free and paid, so keep an eye out – and remember that our podcast show notes contain lists of all the books we mention. If you haven’t discovered Your Kid’s Next Read podcast yet, press the red button!
OCTOBER 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 full subscriber list by random draw and announced here!
There are SIX books in the OCTOBER prize pack.
The OCTOBER bookmail giveaway winner is …
Emma Nield
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.
Is there a particular book list you’d love to see?
We’re here to help you find the next great book for your young reader, so if there’s a book list you’d particularly like to see, let us know in the comments!
Allison T, Allison R and Megan