Young Scribblers -- Heroines who write by Sheena Wilkinson

Recently I read a review of a novel where the reviewer said she didn’t like books about writers because she always assumed they were autobiographical. This piqued my interest, partly because I’m almost at the end of a first draft where the main character is not only a writer, but a middle-aged writer suffering some of the vicissitudes in her career that I’ve been through myself, but mainly because I have always liked reading about writers. 

As a bookish child I didn’t often see myself in books – fictional characters were too busy solving mysteries, galloping their ponies, falling into adventure or playing tricks on Mam’zelle to bother much with sitting quietly with a book, my own favourite pastime. So when I did encounter heroines who liked not only to read but also to write, they had a special resonance for me. And now that I think about it, it makes sense that writers might identify with, and therefore write, characters who also wrote. 

So before this all gets a bit meta, here are some of my favourite young fictional writers.

Elizabeth Farrell, in House-at-the-Corner by Enid Blyton. Lizzie is plain and bespectacled, overshadowed by more obviously attractive siblings. But she has a talent for telling stories, and is delighted when she is published in a local newspaper -- though sorry that they don't print her name. Blyton  explores the sensitive Lizzie's pride as well disappointments and rejections, and of course, when the family fortunes falter, it is Lizzie's piggy bank, full of her writerly earnings, which help to make things right.

Of course one must include Jo March! Like Lizzie, Jo has grand ambitions, but like Lizzie (and also her creator, Louisa May Alcott) she has to content herself with writing what will sell, even if her sensationalist stories are disparaged by her friend and mentor, and eventual lover, Professor Bhaer.  I was never a fan of the gothic or sensationalist myself, much preferring cosier stories (like Little Women) so I don't know that I would have been a fan of Jo's stories, but Jo herself, inky-fingered and apt to lose herself in her stories, was a definite kindred spirit. As for Amy burning her manuscript -- I couldn't have forgiven that! 

And talking of kindred spirits, we must have Anne Shirley! Though a lot of Anne's storytelling happens inside her head, we do see her show promise as a writer. The most memorable scene is when she wins first prize in a short story competition -- much to her shock, since she doesn't remember entering it. But bosom friend Diana, not herself gifted with much imagination, has entered on her behalf, adding the important detail that the heroine's cake was so successful because she used Rollings Reliable Baking Powder -- Anne feels she will disgraced for life, but it's not the last time someone has had to compromise the purity of their artistic vision.

Montgomery's Emily of New Moon is the real writer in her oeuvre. I discovered Emily as an adult but I'd have loved her as a child reader, because she takes her writing so seriously.  

As does Harriet the Spy, in Louise Fitzhugh's book of that name.  On the very first page Harriet is frustrated with her friend Sport because he doesn't have 'get' how to play her imaginary game which involves making up a fictional town. I LOVED Harriet. I identified with her frustration -- I could never get other kids to join in with my made-up games and when they did they DIDN'T DO IT THE WAY I WANTED. I wasn't so sure about walking round the neighbourhood spying on people but I certainly understood her need to have her notebook with her at all times. Even today, on the rare occasions when I decide to have a break from writing, I usually end up buying a new notebook and I think of Harriet, the spy unmasked, her notebook confiscated, buying a new one on the way to school.

And there are others. There is Arthur Ransome's Dorothea, with her stories of the mysterious outlaw; Darrell Rivers, who writes a pantomime in In the Fifth at Malory Towers and is thrilled at its success; Jo Bettany who not only writes a school story but has it successfully published by the end of the term (like Françoise Sagan and S. E. Hinton she is still in her teens), the precursor to a long career as a novelist (as well as having eleven children). 

But perhaps my favourite young writer is one you may not know by name, but she deserves to be better known. Alison, the heroine of Joanna Cannan's I Wrote a Pony Book. Alison is fattish  and bookish and hates games. When her horrid English teacher goads her into her writing a book herself 'since you know so much about it', her friends Harry and Hop try to get in on the action. They are fundamentally unsuited to collaborating and Harry and Hop are argumentative and have the imaginations of cheeses, so it doesn't amount to anything (apart from one of the funniest scenes in children's literature). Undeterred, Alison, believing the edict to 'write what you know' writes a pony book, The Price of a Pony which is eventually published. You might call it fanciful but of course Joanna Cannan was the mother of the Pullein-Thompson sisters, who were also published in their teens, and it's also one of the funniest books I have ever read. 

As a young writer myself I loved meeting these scribbling heroines, and now that I call them to mind, there are more of them than I thought. So I must disagree with that reviewer who doesn't like books about writers. I love them! 

VE DAY and PAPER CUTS by Penny Dolan

Among the moving stories of service and sacrifice shared during the VE Day commemorations, there was much about the rationing of food, often with samples of food ration sizes or made more cheerful by photos of children facing communal cake and sandwiches at local street parties.

Now, the idea of living with officially restricted food provokes strong reactions and memories. However, during WW2, there was one specific category of rationing that affected publishers, authors, librarians and all those involved with books and reading: THE RATIONING OF PAPER.  In 1939, when Norway was invaded, supplies of wood pulp for paper-making were severely curtailed.  

                                     

On the 4th of September, 1942, all paper manufacturing and supply came under the No 48 Paper Control Order, with all use controlled by the Ministry of Production, and directed towards the war effort. All types of paper were rationed; newspapers were limited to 25% of their pre-war consumption, but book production guidelines limited the print size, words per page and the inclusion of blank pages. While paper rationing seems a small thing compared to possible starvation, this was still a matter that affected everyone involved in the printing and publication of newspapers, magazines and books, including the working lives of all kinds of writers.

The paper restrictions affected everyone's general lives, of course. Wrapping paper was prohibited in shops so women were expected to carry bags and baskets. People were urged not to waste paper, or throw paper away or even to burn paper. In contrast to today’s novelty stationery ranges and buzzing office shredders, every piece of paper, then, was for collecting, saving and re-using, although the sheets of paper used to wrap wet fish could be excluded. Personal letters were brief and tightly spaced, with a few words often saying much while in schools, the paper restrictions must have emphasised the need for pupils to have neat handwriting, clean pages and tidy exercise books. Of course, at home,  old newspapers became a valuable asset in people’s privies, and not only for reading.

                                            
Ordinary book publishing very much felt the pinch during these years, as George Orwell pointed out strongly, in an article in Tribune in 1944. 

    A particularly interesting detail is that out of the 100,000 tons (of paper) allotted to the Stationery Office, the War Office gets no less than 25,000 tons, or more than the whole of the book trade put together. ... At the same time paper for books is so short that even the most hackneyed "classic" is liable to be out of print, many schools are short of textbooks, new writers get no chance to start and even established writers have to expect a gap of a year or two years between finishing a book and seeing it published.

Nevertheless, although these allocations placed limits on the publication of children’s books, Penguin managed to gain a paper allowance by publishing a series of picture book titles intended to help evacuated city children adjust to life in the country. One early title ‘War on Land’ proved so successful that several fiction titles followed, including a picture book 'Orlando Buys A  Farm' about the already popular Orlando the Marmalade Cat.

                                                            
Paper rationing continued until 1949, and affected children’s book publishing for several years. Nevertheless, advances in printing and colour techniques, combined with a rising birth-rate and an interest in children’s education, brought children’s books back into prominence and the growth of Puffin and other children’s book imprints. ‘Marketing’ too, had arrived: in 1967, Kaye Webb, the enormously influential children’s editor at Puffin Books, was able to promote the pleasures of reading and the sales of Puffin paperbacks to children, parents and schools through ther popular Puffin Book Club. 

Unsurprisingly, even though food and paper rationing was over, hunger remained a constant and shadowy theme in many children books, such as the insatiable yearning of illustrator Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, or Judith Kerr's The Tiger who Came to Tea consuming all the food and drink in the house, or even, Lewis's The Lion, The Wtch and the Wardrobe, poor Edmund being lured into treachery by a box of Turkish Delight. There are also those constant picnics and quantities of food consumed in Enid Blyton’s Famous Five adventures – the publication of whose titles links back to a paper rationing story that, emotionally, seemed to have parallels with today. 

                                                 

 Recently, I was reading Emma J. Barnes ‘Economical With Fiction’ Substack articles. Her three excellent articles examine some false -  but subsequently repeated - rumours about Alison Uttley, the writer of The Little Grey Rabbit books, such as her wish to live close to Enid Blyton. It's all interesting stuff, with echoes of Miss Marple's gossipy neighbours, but what drew my attention was this:

Apparently, in 1939, Enid Blyton’s children’s books were so popular that her publishers put in an early reservation for 60% of the total paper stock allowed for children’s books.  

And this was during the period of intense rationing described above. Oh heaven! How must that have felt to any of the other children’s authors writing at the time? Suddenly, the pangs of injustice caused by the promotion of celebrity authors seemed to have long been part of the children’s book world.

Penny Dolan 

 

ps The illustrator of The Little Grey Rabbit series was Margaret Tempest

 pps. Reference: https://ejbarnes.substack.com/

Children's Book Holiday Quiz by Lynne Benton

 I decided that since so many people are on holiday this month, and not every day is hot and sunny, (especially in England this year!) maybe it would be fun to produce a Children’s Books Holiday Quiz, just in case people are getting bored!

So here we go.  I’ve listed the titles of 25 children’s books (some classics, some more up-to-date, but all well-known) but I’ve only given the initial letters, both of the books and the authors.  But I’ve put in a few whole words like “the”, “to” and “of”.

Okay?  Right, here we go:

1 A T the L G      by  L C

2 T T of  J P     by B P

3 F G to K I     by E B

4 T S G     by    F H B

5 H  by J S

6 F C and I   by E N

7  T W in T W    by K G

8  B S   by  N S

9  H   by L S

10 J E   by  C B

11 T H at P C   by A A M

12 T T W C to T    by J K

13  A of G G   by L M M

14  M  by F C B

15  J W   by R C

16  C of T N F   by C M

17  L W by  L M A

18  W K D   by S C

19  H P and T P S  by J K R

20  T U D   by H C A

21   T M G   by P P

22 T L, T W and T W   by C S L

23 G M T  by M M

24  T V H C   by  E C

25  J S S   by R K

 

I’ll give you the answers next month.  In the meantime, Happy holidays, and happy quizzing!

Website:  lynnebenton.com

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SHOULD CHILDREN'S BOOKS LOSETHEIR MAGIC? by Penny Dolan

It's the first of October today, and the start of a month that ends in spookiness, grinning pumpkins and skellingtons. Lots of fun, but I am still thinking on a twitter thread* about children's publishing I read mid-September.

An established UK bookseller was commenting on Middle Grade fiction. They were not ranting but using a calm and resigned voice of sensible concern and. although - they said - publishers were putting out plenty of new titles, there was a difficulty. 

 Too many titles and too many almost the same.

Publshers were creating a problem for children's booksellers and, eventually,  the disappointment for many once-hopeful authors.

The reason was simple, the thread suggested. Far, far too many of the MG titles were the same genre: fantasy. The children are offered stories about magical powers, enchantments, curses and quests. They meet imaginary characters: a host of dragons, witches, wizards, talking animals. fairies & other beings and more. All very interesting and exciting, if you are a young reader who loves the adventure of being inside those imaginary worlds.

However, the thread suggested, not all children are as deeply into fantasy. Some would rather have books about real, everyday life than the escapism of magical worlds. Some , they suggested, might even be turning away from books altogether.

"Real life" fiction must surely be a problem for publishers. The big companies work with a global market view, assessing world rights sales and other economic factors. They want stories that have huge universal appeal, A child's rea life experiences, however, are often specific to a time, place and culture.

Does a book's real life culture  need to be "translatable" for publication? Or even transportable? For example, Jacqueline Wilson was once seen as the queen of "real life fiction" her in the UK, but how popular were her books in the States? 

Right now, there are highly praised "real life" MG titles by authors like Cath Howe, Catherine Bruton. Jo Cotterill and others. How hard a fight did those real-life stories - and others - have before being accepted for publication? And does something important about "ordinary" lives - no matter who or where - get lost or diminished in a drive for fantasies, especially those with future screen & CGI potential?  

Yesterday, as I looked across the MG tables in a large booksellers, fantasy titles dominated - but maybe not all children fall under that genre's spell. What do you think? What kinds of books do the children you know choose to read? Do children's books need a little less magic?

Penny Dolan 

*If I was better tech-taught, perhaps I could have saved or tracked down the thread. Apologies. Meanwhile, I'm on twitter @pennydolan1

Be bold, Erik by Alex Cotter

“Be bold, Erik” are words from my next book, spoken by a boy – that’ll be Erik – in order to prompt himself to act out of character. A small, seemingly insignificant quote, and yet lately these words have become something of a mantra to me while I write. My Erik’s fictional fight for self-belief is gently goading me into taking more risks in the playground of story-making.

Weird is wonderful

Despite banging on at my own children to question everything and embrace their weird as wonderful (cue eye-roll sigh and “Yes, we know, be yourself” before I even open my mouth), I’m aware that in the past I’ve often trundled down the well-trodden path when it comes to self-expression. I had a cautious childhood, peppered with parental worrying and warnings and worst-case scenarios. I tried too hard to mask my stranger-things, to please and pretend so that I could get by at school, at work, without too much trouble; in effect, without being found out as odd. 

Thing is, masking means developing some robust filters to disguise said strangeness. To create a landing platform in my brain where I pause to check the social rulebook so as to metaphorically not leave the house in my slippers. And it’s these filters that have been worrying me lately as I write – that I believe require an injection of young Erik’s uncharacteristic boldness.

The risk-averse brain

So, our brains are built to keep us from danger, and because we ‘survive’ by being part of a social group, our minds keenly develop these filters so we don’t expose, endanger, or God forbid, embarrass ourselves, and be cast out from society. But what else might these filters prevent? Dancing like no one’s looking when they are? Tone-deaf singing at the top deck of the No. 22? . . . Writing fearlessly?

While I no longer need or desire a strong filter in my social life (I'm available for all your No. 22 top deck entertainment), I’ve been wondering lately if these decades-old filters are subconsciously infiltrating and influencing my writing. Holding me back. 

Originally created to keep me safe from bullies, alienation and ostracism, are they now trying to sneakily urge me down more predictable story paths, prompt me to tread tired tropes, make me consider overused clichés?

How best to be bold, Erik?

To develop as writers, we should take risks. The two main characters in my next book make a difficult journey to embrace personal change and find power in what makes them different. So – “Be bold, Erik” – I’m determined to strive to do the same. To break down any remaining boundaries my brain has built to keep me socially safe; to push and prod myself to write more bravely.

If you too fancy being a bit more Erik, here are a few tips I’ve found can help shake things up in my brain:

1. Question your choices. Did I select that development, scene, action because I’ve been influenced by others – or because it’s right for my story?
2. Play with extreme versions of the story arc or character development to see if it sparks anything new or alternative 
3. Edit with a special highlighter for lazy platitudes and clichés across story, scene and sentence
4. Brainstorm with a big piece of paper – the bigger the better – to try and think with vast ideas not constrained ones
5. Read extensively - all kinds of genres, recent and old - exploring different stories
6. Go for a walk with your characters and talk to them, questioning them on their choices (cue odd looks from passers-by; yup, I’m being bold, Erik)
7. Examine your text to check your own experiences and needs aren’t unduly influencing your characters
8. Ask others to read your drafts and hold up another mirror to examine your story choices
9. Finally, each chapter, I've started to utter, “Be bold, Erik” – just as a wee reminder

Writing often requires a dash of weirdness, a helping of frankly-odd, a soupçon of strange; so, I say: be gone filters for social acceptance and agreeability. I believe this year I’ll be touring the path less travelled (or at least trying to). “Be bold, Erik” - that's my motto for 2022. What’s yours? 

Alex Cotter’s middle-grade novel THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE came out in July 2021 with Nosy Crow. Find her at www.alexcotter.co.uk or on Twitter: @AlexFCotter

STORIES OF SUMMERS PAST, by Saviour Pirotta

Summer was never my favourite season when I was a kid. That was winter, with its Christmas celebrations, trips to the theatre and long baking sessions with my grandma. I also liked spring, the perfect time of year for nature rambles when I'd fill entire notebooks with notes about the local flora and fauna. 

But summer? In the med? For three endless months? Nope, not for me the blinding sunshine, the intense heat that melted the tarmac on the roads and, worst of all, the trauma of being forced to expose my wobbly tummy on the beach. 

The only good thing about summer as far as I was concerned was the time I could spend reading.  I had no access to a public library, so I begged, borrowed and, yes, stole books whenever I got the chance. The house next door to us was rented to British servicemen with large families. They always moved on to Cyprus or Hong Kong and their kids introduced me to British authors I might never had have discovered otherwise: Malcom Saville, Arthur Ransome, John Aiken, Ursula LeGuin. The list is endless.

There were some books I returned to every year and some of those have shaped the writer I became. Some of those stories I still treasure to this very day. Here' my top three.

TREASURE ISLAND, by R.L. Stevenson  was the perfect summer story. It featured pirates and ships. It told of the sea but not as a benign entity lapping gently against a sandy beach packed with idle holiday makers. In Stevenson's story it was a path to dangerous adventure, a link to an outside world I always dreamt of exploring. I fell in love with Long John Silver, who I much preferred to the pompous Dr. Livesey who reminded me of all the respectable men in our village. (PS. I didn't beg, steal or borrow my copy of this book. It was an end of year prize in Year 4.)

THE SILVER SWORD, by Ian Serallier. I borrowed this from my elder brother who was studying it at school. The version I read was part of the Windmill Classics series so it might have been abridged. Nevertheless, I loved travelling with Ruth, Edik and Bronia as they tried to meet up with their parents at the end of World War II. They befriend a mysterious street boy called Jan who you're never sure if he is on their side or not. He has a little wooden box in which he keeps a secret collection of objects. I still have a similar box, which I show to children during school visits. It's filled with little objects that feature in my own books.

TIME AND THE CONWAYS, by J.B. Priestley. This isn't strictly a book, and certainly not a children's story. It's one of Priestlye's Time Plays. I have no idea where I found a Cassell edition of the script but I devoured it in one afternoon. Most of the themes must have gone right over my head but I was gripped by the story of a snobbish family and what happens to them over the years.  What got me most of all was Priestley's manipulation of the time sequence to make his points. Act 1 takes place during a birthday party in 1919. We meed the young Conways and their friends and learn about their hopes for the future. Act 2 takes place twenty years later and we discover what became of the family. Act 3 goes back to the moment it left off in Act 1, forcing us to witness the Conway's actions in a completely different light.  The idea blew my mind.  It was perhaps one of the reading experiences that wanted me to write my own plays.

Saviour Pirotta's Wolfsong series is set in the Neolithic. The final book, The Wolf's Song comes out in January 2022. Follow him on twitter @spirotta.com.

www.saviourpirotta.com

'Pictures and Plums for Fingers and Thumbs', by Sue Purkiss

I'm indebted to a friend of mine for this month's post. She was having a clear-out, and decided that a pile of books which had belonged to her grandfather finally had to go. Most of them went to Glastonbury Rural Life Museum - but I managed to divert a few of them my way. Here's one of them.

You should just about be able to say that the inscription inside the book is dated 1905, and says: 

Rowland Edgar Weston

From his Mother

on his sixth Birthday.

The publishers are EP Dutton & Co New York, and Ernest Nister London. It's a collection of verses, short stories and nursery rhymes: a few are credited to the author, but many aren't - and I can't see any credits to the illustrator.

Of course, they are very clearly from a bygone age. But the illustrations are charming, I think. Here's a poem about curly hair.

This - below - is not the kind of story you'd find in a modern book. I think you should just about be able to read it - it's about Jessie, whose twin brother Philip catches measles, leaving her bored and with nothing to do. But Mother reproaches her, saying: "I would not cry so much, or you will melt away like the sugar princess on the cake." Suitably chastened, Jessie trots off for a walk and comes back with a huge bunch of daisies and grass, which she puts into a pink mug and takes to Philip, who is "so pleased." (Really?) And that's it. Nothing like a nice little moral message.

But this is the one I know you're all going to love. It predicts our girl's future. Just in case you can't read it, here are the last two verses:

When I'm in the twenties,

  I'll be like Sister Joe;

I'll wear the sweetest dresses

  (and maybe, have a beau!).

I'll go out in the evening,

  and wear my hair up high

And not a girl in all the town

  shall be as good as I

When I'm in the thirties,

  I'll be just like Mamma;

And, maybe, I'll be married

  to a splendid big Papa.

I'll cook, and bake, and mend,

  and mind, and grow a little fat

But Mother is so sweet and nice, 

  I'll not object to that.

Isn't it sweet? I think Dickens would have approved. It looks as if young Rowland enjoyed it: it's well-used, and he's coloured in some of the pictures and even drawn one of his own at the back, of a house with a hedge beside it with a gate. I love it!

NB - this post first appeared on 'The History Girls' three years ago.

Moan or be joyful about children's books here, by the Grinch and the Christmas Fairy

Humph. The Grinch here. Here are some grumpy thoughts I had this year. 

1) I’ve seen one or two really didactic preachy books out there. Save kids from humourless moralists.

2) There is no children’s art/music section in our local Waterstones (or it is so well hidden I couldn’t find it). Why? Nobody will buy things if they’re not there.

 3) Celebrities are now broadcasting 'buy my book' messages over the tannoy of my local supermarket, without warning, leaving me stricken and unable to function. 

4) Money. Don't even get me started. Publishers think we live off air and dreams. 

Oi! Grinch! Move over! Here is the Christmas Fairy, with much more positive thoughts, thank you very much.

1) Children’s books have, in the main, been really vibrant and exciting this year.

2) Fact-loving kids are getting a great choice at last.

3) We have a really articulate effective Laureate who is doing great work promoting libraries.  

4) We are still here, doing our best to make the best work we are capable of.

Happy Christmas and happy writing. Do you have a Grinch moan to get off your chest or a Christmas Fairy ray of light to impart? 

The Grinch and the Fairy visited the head of author Moira Butterfield, last seen curled in a ball moaning softly in her local Sainsbury's. 

Reflecting Realities Again by Chitra Soundar

On September 19^th of this year, CLPE published their second annual reporton BAME representation in children’s literature in the UK. The purpose of the report as stated by Farrah Serroukh is “The value of reflecting realities, individuals, identities, cultures and communities is rooted in the importance of elevating all lived experiences and recognising them as worthy of note and exploration.”

While some high-level statistics might show an upward trajectory, there is still a long way to go.

Three in every 10 children is from a BAME background in a UK classroom, only 7 in 100 books represent their presence. But not all of that representation was authentic or the central to the book. Only 4% of the books had a main character from a non-white background. And this does feel stark when compared to 42% of the books have animals as lead characters. It underscores and unconsciously tells a child of colour that they do not rank the same privileges as animal characters.

The research also breaks down the stats into specific ethnicities and as a British Asian I do find it alarming that while 6.8% of British are Asians while only 0.14% of the books are for them. I’m scribbling away as fast as I can so that my nephews get to read the books they feature in, they are the lead characters in.

But as a single author or even as a small group of authors, we cannot change the make-up of the bookshelves in Waterstones. It’s important for all writers to consider authentic representation in their books. 

However, in this regard the survey clearly points out that many of the portrayals raised concerns. Some concerns were regarding how these characters were illustrated and, in some cases, darker the skin-tone in the illustrations, less virtuous the characters. In 2019, as a writer of colour and an aunt of two mixed-race nephews, I worry that the subliminal messaging of good vs bad will set in far too early in young minds.

Here is a recent video from Guardian that talks about how children view this world of books.

The other important factor uncovered in this survey is the “skipping over” of uncomfortable truths in history – glorifying western explorers without referring to the harm they caused during those daring acts of bravery. Language is another area where the report points out hidden bias, stereotypical references and of course pointing out that one character is a person of colour by describing them and keeping the white characters default.

The report also highlights excellent examples where the books have succeeded in in good representations in terms of words and pictures.

While reading the report, I was reminded of an article written by Mitali Perkins, who points out that all writers have institutional bias and language shortcuts in their writing – this is because even writers of colour grew up reading white writers and hence adopt unconsciously the same techniques. Here is an article that she wrote almost 10 years ago for the School Library Journal which sadly is still relevant. Recently Mitali produced a checklist for writers and editors to use to edit their texts of such bad representations. Editing as all writers know is a conscious task and hence will help undo some of the unconscious language that might have swept into our stories.

While thinking about this report, I also want to talk about the care that needs to be taken when writing another culture. What we see on TV or our close friends in one or two social interactions do not substitute for research. This research article on the ice-berg of cultural understanding will help to prevent our own stories from sinking due to inaccurate portrayals.

The CLPE Reflecting Realities 2019 report has created some useful terminology that all writers and editors and publishers can use to check their own text. Some notable ones are Wallpapering, Ethnic fluidity, The Jasmine default.

Most often the cure for a problem can be found when it’s diagnosed. In some cases, like cultural representation, measuring is a key tool. US started their research via CCBC in 2002. UK has just started its measurements in 2017 and there is a long way to go to establish patterns and watch trends.

But in the meantime, as writers, we can all be more aware of our position in this pyramid and how we can use the space and voice we have, to empower children of all colour and abilities. 

---

Chitra Soundar is an internationally published author of over 40 books for children. Her books have been published in the UK, US, India, Singapore and translated into German, French, Japanese and Thai. Her picture book Varsha’s Varanasi was included in the White Ravens catalogue this year, a prestigious list of international literature for young people. Her picture books Farmer Falgu Goes Kite Flying was included in the IBBY International Books of USA and You’re Safe with Me was shortlisted for the 2019 Kate Greenaway Medal for the Poonam Mistry’s unique illustrations. Follow her on twitter @csoundar