Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and it’s so much fun. My contributions will naturally be heavily kidlit skewed! 

I’ve gone with my own prompt today: books that have been sitting unread on my shelf the longest! I really want to read all of these, and I’ve already started some but, for some reason or other, didn’t manage to finish them and need to start again! I find it difficult to give up on a novel but over the years I’ve made peace with the fact that sometimes, it’s just not the right time for a certain book. I might be enjoying it but just can’t quite get into it or give it my full attention right now, and I need to cut it loose and keep it for later instead of slowly slogging through for the sake of it, particularly as I have a lot of books to get through thanks to my job!

1. Last Day on Mars by Kevin Emerson | I started this middle grade space opera years ago as research for an editorial report I was writing on a client’s book and never had the chance to get past the first chapter. I can’t remember anything about it but the blurb described it as Gravity meets The Martian which is up my street!

2. White Cat by Holly Black | I love everything Holly Black writes but never got around to starting this YA fantasy about a world where only 1% of the population can perform magic and have been driven underground.

3. All of the Above by Juno Dawson | I always say I love Juno Dawson because I’ve seen her on tons of panels and briefly met her at a writing class over a decade ago but I’ve actually only read one of her books – Say Her Name – so I’d love to finally get around to this one, which has been sitting on my shelf for yeeeears.

4. The Haunting by Alex Bell | Alex Bell is one of my favourite kidlit authors and I adored Frozen Charlotte and Charlotte Says so I’m sure I’ll love this YA horror from the same Red Eye collection by Little Tiger.

5. Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou | I picked this Greek mythology-inspired dark fantasy up after watching the author on a panel at YALC. It’s a gorgeous book and I really enjoyed the first chapter but for some reason I had to pause and read something else.

6. Rebel Skies by Ann Sei Lin | I also grabbed this after seeing the author at YALC. The premise is so unique and gorgeous (Japanese paper magic), but I haven’t managed to read it yet.

7. Red hood by Elana K. Arnold | I have no memory of buying this 😅 It’s a YA dark fantasy with Little Red Riding Hood vibes and sounds excellent.

8. Straight on til Morning by Liz Braswell | Ths is a middle grade Twisted Tales reimagining of Peter Pan told from Wendy’s POV as she tries to save Peter and Tinkerbell from Hook.

9. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi | I’ve had this book FOREVER and I know it’s amazing because everybody tells me so all the time but for some reason I haven’t read it yet! It’s next on my list.

10. The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig | I grabbed this for research because a client listed it as an influence on their book, and I read a couple of chapters to get a feel for the story but didn’t have time to finish it. It’s a YA fantasy about two twins – one perfect, one who must be cast aside, but nobody knows which is which.

When I started Writer and the Wolf, I set out my three core values: the things I believe in that drive me to do my very best work every day. They’re the reason I do this job and what sets me apart from other editors. I recently combined these three values into a mission statement:

Young readers deserve…

• the best books
• authors who care about their readers and what’s important to them
• to see themselves reflected in the books they read
• to feel valued and important
• stories that help them see the world in new ways

and I couldn’t be more excited to lift you up and support you while you create those stories for them. 

Then the other day I thought: wouldn’t it be great for children’s book authors to write their own mission statement? Something that can get them while they write, or plot, or read. So try it! Ask yourself:

• Why do you write for children or teenagers?
• What drives you to sit at your desk or pick up a pen?
• How do you want your readers to feel when they read your book?
• What’s missing from the children’s book market that you can bring?
• What sets you apart from other writers?

Jot down a sentence or two that sum up what you stand for and what values motivate you to write, and look back at it now and again when you’re struggling with a story or feeling fed up and wondering why you bother. This is why you bother.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and it’s so much fun. My contributions will naturally be heavily kidlit skewed! 

This week I’m looking at the ten most recent books I’ve added to my collection, either through buying them myself or being gifted them for Christmas or my birthday.

1. Ghostly, Ghastly Tales: Frights to Tell at Night by Anastasia Garcia | A middle grade collection of ghost stories with a glow-in-the-dark cover! This was a Christmas present to myself and I’ve only read one story so far but I just feel so happy whenever I see it on my shelf.

2. Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang | An adult satirical novel about racism and representation in the publishing industry. Everybody told me to read this one and I loved it – it’s brilliantly written and terrifyingly accurate with an often very unlikeable protagonist  – although I did find the ending a bit of a letdown.

3. Grim edited by Christine Johnson | a collection of dark YA fairytales. I’ve read about half of these and really enjoyed them, although the first story is probably my favourite.

4. She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran | A YA gothic mystery I haven’t read yet but has had loads of buzz

5. You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron | A YA horor I’m really excited to read!

6. The Christmas Jigsaw Puzzle Murder by Alexandra Benedict | An adult murder mystery. This is a book I wouldn’t have picked out myself but when my husband and son put it in my stocking for Christmas I thought I’d better give it a go, and I loved it! It was super cosy and really easy to zip through. Very funny and voicey, too, and reading the POV of an 80-year-old cantankerous puzzle setter instead of a child or teenager made a nice change!

7. Berserker by Adrian Edmondson | The autobiography of comedy actor Ade Edmondson. I recently listened to his Desert Island Discs episode and was really fascinated by his upbringing (sent to a British boarding school while his siblings stayed living with their parents abroad) and his career in comedy. I’m a big Rik Mayall fan and he spoke about him with such love and respect, so I thought I’d check this out on audiobook. I’m a sucker for comedians’ autobiographies!

8. 8 Days in the Woods: The Making of The Blair Witch Project by Matt Blazi | A non-fiction, behind the scenes account of the production of TBWP. This was a present from my dad and I really enjoyed digging into the secrets and details of how this film was made – I hadn’t realised just how in the dark the actors were and what a terrible time they went through.

9. The Undying of Obedience Wellrest by Nicholas Bowling | This is a YA gothic horror novel that I’m going to start reading this week since I’ve set it as the January readalong in The Wolf Pack Facebook group.

10. Zoinks! The Spooky Folklore Behind Scooby Doo by Mark Norman | This was another present and I’m very excited to read it! I absolutely love learning about the legends and stories that inspired books or TV shows and I think this will be a really fun ride.

Next up in my blog series exploring the values and beliefs that drive me and my business, I’m going to talk about being a readers’ champion and what that means to me.

Although you, the writer, are my customer, there’s somebody else I always have to keep front of mind when working on your manuscript: the child who’s going to read it. 

Helping you love your book is SUPER important to me. I want you to be so proud of your work that you skip around the house in your pyjamas singing ‘Roar’ by Katy Perry and can’t stop looking in the mirror and saying ‘you, yes YOU, are the best darn writer there ever was!’

That’s my dream.

But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I stopped there. Because it’s not enough that you love your manuscript. We want readers to love it too, right? 

I feel very strongly that children and teenagers deserve excellent books that aren’t just fun or exciting but that make them feel seen, recognised, important, less alone. 

They deserve books that help them see the world in new ways and understand the experiences of people who are different from them. 

Your book can help children and teens develop empathy, cultural awareness, tolerance and kindness. 

And it can help them realise that they deserve those things from others, too. 

I care a lot about increasing and promoting diversity, representation, sensitivity and conscious language in children’s books, not just as a professional editor but as a parent and school library volunteer.

I also feel really strongly that children should be allowed to read whatever they enjoy, whether it’s comics, fairytales, horror, big books, short stories or literary fiction. That’s how they learn to love language and stories. That’s why I want to help you tell your story, because it’s unique and important and might just make somebody fall in love.

So here’s my mission statement:

Young readers deserve…

– the best books

– authors who care about their readers and what’s important to them

– to see themselves reflected in the books they read

– to feel valued and important

– stories that help them see the world in new ways

– to read whatever stories make them happy

and I couldn’t be more excited to lift you up and support you while you create those stories for them.