What holds your friendship group together?
Team YKNR is all about children's books – and laughter
Have you ever thought about what holds your friendship group together?
For some people, it’s love of a particular sport, for others, shared history. Maybe you met because your kids are friends, or perhaps a chance comment revealed a similar take on the world – or sense of humour.
Allison R (below, left), Megan (centre) and I were chatting about this one day and came to the conclusion that our friendship is all about a love of books – and a lot of laughter.
It’s been a busy few years for all of us, with some big ups and some very big downs. Despite living in different states, we muddle along together through it all, held fast by words in all their forms, and kept aloft by humour.
We’d love to know what keeps your friendship group together.
One of the greatest gifts we can give young readers are books that will teach them about friendship, showing them through stories what healthy relationships look like – and what to avoid.
But even better than that are the books that become lifelong friends. The ones we turn to over and over throughout our lives for comfort, or wisdom, or just because we feel at home with those characters.
For me, Anne of Green Gables is one. The Trixie Belden series evokes a blend of nostalgia and warmth. The Lord Of The Rings trilogy is always guaranteed to take me to 'another place'.
Allison R nominates The Borrowers, while for Megan it’s Winnie The Pooh.
When I asked the Your Kid’s Next Read community, a few titles came up over and over (and within minutes of my question):
Anne of Green Gables, Pippi Longstocking, Heidi, Little Women, Mallory Towers, Charlotte’s Web
Some were more obscure – but the responses no less immediate:
Pastures of the Blue Crane by Hesba Brinsmead, The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye, The Billabong books by Mary Grant Bruce, Tell Me If The Lovers Are Losers by Cynthia Voight, and many more.
One thing became clear very quickly: If you are a reader, you are never alone.
Megan and I will discuss books about friendship very soon on the podcast. Subscribe so that you don’t miss it!
UPDATES FROM TEAM YKNR
As you can see from their wild eyes, Megan and Allison R have been busy. They sent me this pic from a recent Romancing The Stars children’s literature event (see more from Allison R below), and were just letting me know I was missing the fun…
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.
Off on a road trip for two weeks! Winton, Charleville (where my mum grew up!) and Roma – all in a Kia Carnival with four children and one Beekeeper. What could possibly go wrong? The noise cancelling headphones are charged, the chargers are packed and audio books for ALL are downloaded. It's been a fast and furious Term One and while some sort of retreat with yoga, nourishing meals and SILENCE sounds appealing, a family road trip is calling. Shall report back…
MEGAN’S BOOKMARK REVIEWS
Each month, I share full reviews of two outstanding books that have crossed my desk. Bookmark these for your own young readers.
The Garden at the End of the World by Cassy Polimeni (ill by Briony Stewart)
Isla and her mother go on a journey to the Global Seed Vault in Norway to discover a garden waiting at the end of the world.
When Isla makes a special discovery, she and her botanist mother adventure to the Global Seed Vault in Norway. Isla is going to leave her precious package there, so children who haven't even been born yet can grow and eat the food we all enjoy. What else will they encounter along the way?
A visually stunning book for an early to middle primary audience, this one is sure to generate lots of discussion and research opportunities. Briony Stewart's artwork really does add a depth to the entire production, her use of photographic techniques and accurate depiction of plants makes this a book to explore over multiple readings.
In Briony's words: 'I use plants in different ways as key materials in the illustrations of the book. I did this firstly by using charcoal (burnt wood) for all the linework of the illustrations. I also made sunprints of plants, which I used for the endpapers but also throughout the book along with silhouette photographs of plants. I liked the idea of incorporating cyanotypes, as it was an early form of photography, and many biological specimens of plants in modern science were first collected and documented in this way.' (UQP Teachers’ Notes)
The Mud Puddlers by Pamela Rushby
A new historical fiction for readers in upper primary to lower secondary.
What lies hidden in the mud? What might happen if you look at it too long? And what will happen if you let it go?
Twelve-year-old Nina is not happy. Her scientist parents are spending a year in Antarctica. And Nina's being sent to London to stay with her Aunt Bee, an intertidal archaeologist, who lives on a converted barge on the Thames. She's also a keen mud larker, combing the river mud for fascinating, long-forgotten articles from past lives. Nina arrives with an Attitude. Her parents have never left her behind before. It takes time for her to settle in, helped by the MudPuddlers, a local group of enthusiastic amateur mud larks, and especially by Molly, an elderly MudPuddler living on a nearby barge. Molly draws Nina into the magic and mystery of the ancient river and its treasures. When she finds herself stranded in time, in the Blitz in 1940, Nina and a very unwilling fellow traveller, Tom, become runaways, fumbling their way across wartime England, desperate to return to London. Will they ever see their families again?
In typical Pamela Rushby fashion, this book is a sophisticated blend of historical facts and fictional story – this one a timeslip linking the present with the past. Rushby’s historical fiction novels for upper primary-lower secondary readers are some of my favourites and they are often used as class novel studies or read-alouds with good reason. Her books bring history to life and allow young readers to walk with a character from another time and understand how life may have been for them, how times have changed and how historical events and learning inform our present, and our future.
A brilliant storyteller, Rushby knows how to keep children (and in my case adult readers) turning pages. Her cliffhanger chapter endings means that ChickPea and I have read way more than two chapters each night while reading ‘The Mud Puddlers’ for bedtime reading this last week. There is a ‘just right’ amount of historical facts, and while I know Pamela Rushby goes deep on her research for each of her novels, you can tell that she carefully chooses only the most intriguing and obscure parts to weave throughout her stories - her books never feel like textbooks or ‘teaching tools’.
‘The Mud Puddlers’ explores history but it also explores family relationships and it was really interesting to talk about how it might feel to have your parents leave you while they work abroad, explore the main characters anger at her parents, her relationships with her online classmates and her developing respect, admiration and love for her aunt.
ChickPea and I have gone down a rabbithole of looking up mudlarking online, and it turns out that one of The Beekeepers brothers who lives in London is quite the mudlarker - so we’ve thinking a copy of this book may need to be sent his way for reading with his kids.
Really highly recommend as both a class read and a bedtime read.
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.
You know what I’ve been up to? I’ve been going to events! How weird and wonderful is it to be able to go to all the events again. I’m just loving it. I attended the always amazing Romancing the Stars event (see above), thanks to BookLinks Qld, ate my bodyweight in cheese, drank a glass of wine I shouldn’t have before rotating around nine tables and telling groups of people about my current releases in three minute bursts, spoke to so many fabulous Teacher Librarians and other lovely bookish peeps and even got to see fellow admin Megan Daley as she was hosting. Yippee! Here’s to a year full of events!
THREAD OF THE MONTH
Here at YKNR, we’re very proud to often receive comments from members along the lines of ‘YKNR is the nicest group on the internet’. As admins, we often get a little twitchy when we spy a post that could easily go off the rails. But, no. Just look at our members discussing things like reasonable people! You guys. You give us all the warm fuzzies!
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.
My big news is also a big picture!
Introducing the cover of my new middle-grade novel, THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE, which will be published by Scholastic Australia this August. Ta-da!
I love its fresh feel and hope you do too!
This novel is new territory for me as a writer – still adventure, still mystery, but no ‘almost history’ this time. I’ll share more details about Callie and her story, as well as pre-order links, in future newsletters, and, of course, on the pod.
If you’re not familiar with them, find out more about my other books here.
PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS
While Megan and I are the voices of YKNR podcast, we couldn’t put our weekly episodes together without a bit of help.
Meet Rah Gardiner from Working With Rah.
I asked Rah to explain exactly what she does for us – and here’s her response:
“Rah Gardiner edits the YKNR podcast audio. She takes what Al and Megan records at their desks and makes adjustments that have weird names like de-esser, noise reduction and normalisation. Whatever those things do, it magically pops out at the other end and becomes the version that ends up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps.
When she's not editing podcasts, Rah works with women and creatives on their digital marketing strategy while trying to mention Hamilton the Musical at every opportunity.”
Find out more about Rah at rahgardiner.com.au
Aside from working with great people, one of the joys of creating the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast each week is seeing which episodes resonate most with our listeners. And sometimes, it’s surprising!
These are the most popular episodes in the last month or so.
You’ll find all our podcast episodes at yourkidsnextread.com or where you get your podcasts. Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss a single one!
And if you love our particular blend of insights into children’s literature, quality waffle, reviews, bookmail, author interviews, news and current releases, please leave us a review!
APRIL 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 April prize pack.
The April bookmail giveaway winner is …
Nicole Raney
Congrats! We’ll be in touch by email.
Want to be in the running to win next month? Just subscribe now!
*Prize consists of one copy of each book pictured, sent as a pack to the winner at an Australian mailing address 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 this newsletter has given you a reason to reach out to your besties to say hello! Or to read, once again, that book that has been your lifelong friend.
Be sure to let us know if you’ve found a book you think might fill that role for your young reader – we’re often in the Facebook community so come and chat to us!
We’ll be back in May with more news, reviews, insights and another Bookmail Giveaway. And a heads up – we’ll be turning on some special paid content options in the near future.
This monthly newsletter will always be free, but we’ll be offering more reviews, more resources, more insights and expert answers, and more book lists as well if you want to jump on board for those.
Stay tuned – and pledge your support if you’re keen!