Children's and YA Seasonal anthologies with heart

Today was the first properly frosty morning walking Billie who coincidentally has a Christmas day birthday. So we were both starting to feel that it was time to get in the festive spirit!

 I've never tired of that childish excitement of the season of candles, home fires and heartwarming gatherings. But I, like many of us, have never lost the sense of outrage that so many people in this frosty weather don't have a roof over their heads and that an increasing number of homeless people are children and young people. So as we approach the Christmas season we hold these great fissures in our minds. The disparity between plenty and poverty. comfort and crisis, love, joy and neglect.

I thought to bring together two Christmas and wintry anthologies that include wonderful  stories of so many of my amazing friends and colleagues in the YA and children's publishing world. Funny, heartwarming, diverse, thought provoking, emotional, humane stories from some of the most wonderful writers today who are holding this dual sensibility of the season through young eyes - alert and all seeing to both the world's woes and wonders at this time of winter celebration.

'One Snowy Night' is a new collection of animal tales for younger readers that captures the beauty  of the wintry season through truly heartwarming tales about the animal world. It's lovingly illustrated in atmospheric black and white drawings by Alison Edgson. I was delighted to be invited to write a story for younger readers with a focus on animal tales as it moves us away from - in Wordsworth's words a period of  'getting and spending' towards seeing much 'in nature that is ours.' Animals and our connection to nature can be the link to a universal human need for a magical sense of awe at the natural world.  Here is Rabina as she meets her first robin in 'Snowland' in 'One Snowy Night.'

'A Robin's Welcome is.a profoundly moving story that has many layers.'

letterpressproject.co.uk/inspiring-young-readers/2018-12-05/one-snowy-night …

'I'll Be Home for Christmas' was published in 2016 by Crisis and Stripes, for YA and teen readers. £1 of every sale goes to Crisis.

Here are Amir's thoughts  from 'Amir and George' 

'Amir and George' is re-printed in:

' A Country to Call Home' Ed. A collection of  stories by some of our most treasured YA writers. The focus of these stories is refugee experience Ed. by Lucy Propescu and illistrated by Chris Riddel

https://unbound.com/books/a-country-to-call-home/

and - 'English and Media Centre' Publication 'The Power of Voice' with KS3 curriculum resources.  

https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/video-clips/ks3-language-laboratory-the-power-of-voice

Invitation from Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants hosted by Amnesty International

30th November 6.30pm

If you're looking for a heartwarming celebration of poetry, art and music that finds a way to hold the disparities of the season by celebrating our common humanity - Come along to a joyful evening celebrating the work of Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrant  at Amnesty HQ

Tickets:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/islington-centre-winter-celebration-tickets-51067152227

Wishing you a light filled festive season

Billie and Sita X 

  

'Corey's Rock' 'What! The real Jane Ray's illustrations in my book!'

Endorsed by Amnesty International for illuminating the human rights values of family, friends, home, safety and refuge.

Review Round up

'One of the most gloriously beautiful, gently inclusive & poignant children’s books I’ve ever read. Gorgeous!'

Nicky Parker (Publisher Amnesty International)

CLPE Books of the year https://clpe.org.uk/library/booklists/clpe-staff-picks-2018 selected by Ann Lazim -…A beautiful collaboration between an author and illustrator which brings together themes of loss and new beginnings, friendship and cultural heritage.

'What makes Corey’s Rock quite so special? Let me count the ways:

First, we have the spiraling poetic language that gently, but insistently, nudges its characters onward, reverberating with the recent past as it echoes across the book, so that Isla and her parents edge gently forward, drawing closer to something like acceptance, something like recovery, and then something that we might tentatively describe as happiness.

Then we have the illustrations. Illustrations that work with and around that poetic language. If you are interested in picturebook codes, there is so much to linger on here.  From the stunning cover, to the profoundly telling endpapers, and then slowly through the careful use of picture, symbol and space, this is an especially crafted, especially beautiful dance of word and image.'  

(Just Imagine)

'Brahmachari always writes with tenderness and awareness about how global and personal difficulties affect children, and Jane Ray’s soft wash illustrations hold the space beautifully for this quiet story of transformation and healing.'

Book Trust ( Books we love)

'A scintillating read for children who can wholly identify with the feeling of being displaced.'

(Read it Daddy Blog)

'A treasure of a book that deserves a wide audience.' Jill Bennett (Red Reading Hub) 

'Written in narrative verse with exquisite full-page colour illustrations [by Jane Ray] A lyrical and deeply moving novella  about bereavement and identity, shot through with the selkie (seal folk) myth. Fiona Noble (preview Bookseller)

'A Magical tale that will bring comfort to its young readers.' Sarah Crossan


'Sita Brahmachari’s words and Jane Ray’s illustrations weave a heartfelt tale of longing and belonging, threaded with the magic of a selkie story. Set against the blue-green sea and sky of Orkney, Corey’s Rock is a story of grief and loss, but also one of light and hope, and ultimately love. A book to be read and read again.'t  Gill Lewis
'A beautiful book.I love the way the narrative flows so effortlessly between dream, myth and realism.It’s challenging without feeling overtly so. Corey's Rock is a doorway to poetry and mysticism.' Cheryl Moskowitz 


'A warmly compassionate , exquisitely beautiful story of love and loss, old tales and new beginnings.' Kate Agnew



The evolution of a rich collaboration...

It is such a joy to have worked with the wonderful Jane Ray on this our second story together. Our first was 'Worry Angels' for Barrington Stoke (2017) which shares a narrative of the power of art and creativity to heal and transform.

I wrote 'Corey's Rock'!  four years ago after reading an article about a family coming to terms with the death of their first child,born with a heart condition. It was something that the mother said about there being so few stories that she could read to her surviving daughter that could help them to re-build their lives as a family. Her words sent me to my desk. A story emerged, image by image. I found the family on a Scottish island, on a wide open beach. In my mind's eye Isla looked out to sea and saw a seal and begins to weave her love of the selkie myth together with having to come to terms with the loss of Corey..she  collages myth and her love of the natural world to navigate her way in her new home and reality. In tone and style it was close to my work in theatre and the poetic co-adaptation of Shaun Tan's 'The Arrival.' As I wrote I felt it needed to be a work of image and word, that it cried out to be fully illustrated.

Signing at The Children's Book Shop Muswell Hill where the collaboration began

I think in pictures and it has been a total joy and honour to see the world of my story illustrated with Jane Ray's beautiful brush strokes. So much so that when I saw her imagery for the first time I burst into tears! To see your words and world visualised with so much care, tenderness, mystery, beauty and magic must be a highlight of any author's career.

The first signing took place at The Children's Bookshop Muswell Hill

Background to 'Corey's Rock'

Jane Ray and I were first introduced by Kate Agnew then owner of The Children's Book Shop Muswell Hill who said that she would love to see us collaborate. I was both excited and in awe of the idea. Shortly afterwards Jane and I worked on the wonderful Pop Up Festival where we both created installations around our stories (Jane with unicorns, me with kites and owls for 'Kite Spirit'). We travelled together and were amused by how many feathers and quiltish things we carried with us! We found we did indeed have much in common.

Shortly after, Jane invited me to work with her at The Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants where we have run an art and writing class together for the last three years. 

https://islingtoncentre.co.uk/

Taking 'Corey's Rock' out of the drawer

One day I plucked up courage to show Jane 'Corey's Rock' and was overwhelmed by her response to it.

‘When Sita showed me her story ‘Corey’s Rock’, I was immediately entranced. I have always loved Selkie stories and have drawn on them for other books, such as ‘Can You Catch a Mermaid?’ (Orchard Books) and ‘Ahmed and the feather Girl’ (Frances Lincoln) The idea of a beautiful wild creature transformed, and torn between two worlds, is a powerful one, which resonates at many levels. Sita’s lyrical writing moved me and filled my head with pictures. These are always the best stories to work on – the ones where I can ‘see’ the illustrations immediately, not necessarily as individual pictures, but as a feeling, an atmosphere. I am very excited by Sita’s lyrical prose. Already I can see the soft greys and greens of the Scottish Isle sea-scapes blossoming into warmer colour as the characters in the story begin the process of healing and adapting after their loss.'

Flow between image and word

These are pictures of a diverse family in rural landscapes that remind me of those my family grew from but the like of which I never saw in pictures when I was a child. I had no idea how much I have longed to see them. I hope that they speak to children as powerfully as they speak to me.

The novella is now arriving in the shops. Jane and I met to celebrate the story and in the quiet of her beautiful garden she gifted me this exquisite painting of Isla in her dream world.

This speaks to me not only of Isla's story but of the transformative power of dreams and storytelling that is the force that drives so many of us children's authors and illustrators.

 This refrain runs through Isla's mind throughout the story...

'Wrap yourself in selkie skin, listen to the call within.' 

I hope that this will be a story that will find readers snuggled on a sofa, or lying on the scatter cushions of a wonderful library, as Isla does. I delight in the idea of a child opening the book and finding in the wide horizon... an invitation to enter. Children need space and an invitation to belong in landscape only then will they begin to make their own marks on a page, and bring of themselves to be readers and writers of stories.

This is a book I will personally treasure. I still have to pinch myself to believe it's really here!

We are so proud that Amnesty International have endorsed this book as a story that speaks to the values of family, friends, home, safety and refuge.

With huge thanks to the wonderful publisher and champion of a diverse world of children's books Janetta Otter-Barry and the whole team at Otter-Barry Books, agents Sophie Gorell  Barnes of MBA Literary Agents and  Hilary Delamere for being so passionate about this story...

'Corey's Rock' is available in bookshops now.
https://www.bouncemarketing.co.uk/publisher/otter-barry-books/

Festivals, Assemblies, Residencies and Workshops

Using a beautiful animated film Sita and Jane have developed a range of creative and immersive talks and workshops offering insight into how an author and illustrator work together. Participants are invited to explore the beautiful, deep and wild imagination of the selkie tale of ‘Corey’s Rock.' Using the film as a backdrop, participants will be immersed in the sounds and sights of the natural world of the novel. Activities include elements of improvisation, landscape painting and sensory poetic writing on the theme of the transformative power of the imagination. Suitable for children aged 8 - 11.

Also by Sita and Jane

'Worry Angels'

Barrington Stoke
Shortlisted for Jhalak Prize and Coventry Inspiration Book Awards

Longlisted for Carnegie
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/book/w/worry-angels/

http://www.janeray.com/

Related links and articles:

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/features/2015/april/wir-what-the-real-jane-ray-in-our-house/

To read more about the vital work of Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants and how you can support:  

https://islingtoncentre.co.uk/

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/features/2015/april/wir-what-the-real-jane-ray-in-our-house/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/23/childrens-books-bame-characters-stuck-monochrome

Kite Spirit installation: Pop Up Festival

http://graceemilymanning.co.uk/pop-up-projects-014

Depictions of diverse representation in the British Countryside
http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/229/childrens-books/articles/beyond-the-secret-garden-england%E2%80%99s-white-and-pleasant-land

To read more about the vital work of Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants and how you can support:  

https://islingtoncentre.co.uk/our-clients-work/

Literary Treasure: David Almond's 'Where Your Wings Were' Seven Stories Exhibition

Diary of an inspirational day at Seven Stories 'Where Your Wings Were'  Exhibition launch. 
28th June 2018.

David Almond is quite simply one of my inspirations as a writer.  So when Sarah Lawrance Collection and Exhibitions Director at Seven Stories invited me to be in conversation with him about his work at the launch of his exhibition 'Where Your Wings Were,' it was not a hard decision to accept!




ON THAT MORNING....I arrived in Newcastle to blistering sunshine and walked along the Quayside to Seven Stories. The beautiful tidal Tyne with its monumental bridges was all of a glitter.  On the opposite bank I read a sign that said 'Go with the Flow/ Swim Against The Tide'... 

I thought about the last time I'd met David at The Hay Festival and he had spoken about a seam that ran through all his stories; the power of the imagination and creativity to harness the passion of youth and  help young people grow...    

'We need to break away from narrow notions of learning into something more tender, more creative, more complex that explores the strangeness of the human heart, that explores the real world and real objects and the mystery of them.' 

I thought about my own journey as a writer and my own children and how important it has been for them to swim against the tide and find their own creative hearts. One of things I have always loved about David's work is it's rootedness in the North of England. In my early childhood we lived in Hull and The Lake District where my mum's family come from and the landscapes of Almond's work speak deeply in me to a place of awe and wonder at the power of the natural world and how we as human connect and impact on it through our imaginations and industry. 

As I walked past a foundry workshop I was struck by the art on the underside of a red brick arch...I was later to discover that this beautiful work is just one of the extraordinary exhibits that forms part of the ' Winged Tales of  The North' art trail  commissioned by Seven Stories from David Almond (words) and Kate Drummond (Visual artist) inspired by David Almond's work. It's a stunning exploration of how an imagination is formed from the landscapes out of which it grows...and it takes you  through the Ouseburn Valley as part of Newcastle's Great Exhibition of The North ....

Staring up at the beautiful owl and kingfisher - much loved birds and powerful symbols in my own stories, I felt a huge sense of anticipation and also considerable nerves!

David Almond in front of the arch on which he has created his own flash fiction.

Interior...

Prior to the interview I was lucky enough to tour the ' Where Your Wings Were' exhibition with David as he shared with me the experience of moving through his own work ... that what he appreciated is the space in the viewer's imagination the exhibition allowed for visitors to imagine and dream for themselves. 

It's this space in Almond's work that I most appreciate.

In keeping with this idea, the exhibition space allows you to fly around it in any way you wish.  You feel as light as a bird on entering the gallery ...where dreams and imaginings of wings greet you at the door and invite you in.

I chose to enter across a wide expanse to a hypnotic vision of a murmuration of starlings. There is space here to sit or lie and take in the wonder and mystery of this vision of nature, a constant theme in Almond's work. All his stories hold something of this hypnotic power and energy.

After the epic contemplation of the large sky screen I bobbed around smaller more personal spaces of exploration inviting the viewer to settle and peck about! I peered into light boxes containing flames tilting and growing, leaned over the edge of a bridge where the surging energy of  the river feels like it's running  through you.




These immersive spaces are hard to leave just as these symbols settle on the mind of a writer and recur in stories...writing themselves into your work... owls, wings, stones, pits, rivers, dreams of flying...

The viewer is invited to lose themselves in these epic natural forces and also to find themselves reflected and refracted in them. Finally pulled away from the power of the weir I came face to face with myself in a reflecting lens where faces and figures distort producing ghosts and monsters. I placed  my hand in a tangled web and nest and found another's hand reaching mine from another realm!

Later in the day David and I would talk about  monsters, fear, angels and flight in his work and they were all here in this exhibition.

At the end of this exploration of self and nature I was invited to write my own fears on an enormous chalk board... once those fears are voiced they too fly around the space.Here is an invition for everyone to experience the power of writing and stories.



After writing on the chalk board I wandered into a walkway of Almond's beautiful illustrated notebooks revealing what Almond calls  'the messiness' and the meandering nature of storytelling (although his notebooks are creations of layered beauty). Anyone interested in the creative process will want perching tim in front of each of these notebooks!

After prizing myself away from the notebooks I discovered on a far wall the iconography of an author's childhood. His learning of the Catholic catechism, his songs of an altar boy which gave him a love of the rhythm of his voice and the mysterious power of words. His own writing inspirations discovered in the Felling Library.  From these powerful objects of childhood  I was pulled away by children's recorded gasps and laughter as they engaged with Almond's stories. On a large screen  images mutated from Almond's work, I saw Skellig's Wings, Mina's tree, A dark pit of 'Kit's Wilderness', a reeling press from 'Heaven Eyes', a wide open tide where the teens of ' A Song for Ella Grey' escaped to... 'The Colour of the Sun,' sea and river creature, stones...a mountain tarn in the Lake District where I sang as a child. Almond's images mutate and are transformed by the watcher to enter their own wild landscape of the imagination.. the power of stories and the ancient human instinct to tell them flies with you out of this gallery .

Later Almond told me the experience of walking through the exhibition was like 'walking through my own mind.'

Exterior

In the foyer we met some 'young producers' who helped to create the ideas and elements for the Art Trail inspired by Almond's work.





We walked along the Ouseburn Valley together beginning with the owls and kingfishers that I had already discovered flying under the arches. We moved on to a mythophone, (perhaps the writer's ear?) distilling Almond's voices and stories, past the pigeon crees, along the canal where a derelict old den could have easily produced a skellig... From there we trailed under a railway bridge where we dared a group incantation ..'Essalamus.' Three times we spoke the word we were warned would lead us into peril... from then on we were all caught in its enchantment!  On this beautiful trail David had woven  new words dedicated to the places that have ignited his imagination in his stories.

It was hot and by the time we returned to Seven Stories I was beginning to feel nervous. The exhibition and the art trail had managed to capture the essence of Almond's magical passionate world so beautifully and following a viewing of the exhibition an audience were gathering to hear him speak about his life's work.

In inteviews questions can be the barred way or the open gate that let's you find a way in to speak about the walled gardens and the wildernesses of the writer's mind...

Collection and Exhibitions director Sarah Lawrance  gave me an excellent tip ... make it a conversation between authors....so i did. I asked David the questions that fly up in me when I read his work .Questions about landscape, his own childhood, about his engagement with monsters as well as angels, his capturing of voice, and he read from  his beautiful most recent novel 'The Colour of The Sun'... and we got lost in the flight and flow of conversation! To hear David read his work to an audience including his own siblings was a truly moving experience. All that was left to do was thank David for sharing his mind, imagination and humanity with generations of people throughout the world through his books, films. radio plays and now through this extraordinary exhibition. I'm sure this exhibition will tour far and wide but you will never feel it's power as truly as in the place it grew.

If you do one thing this summer try to get to Seven Stories to see this exhibition. It will  reveal to you the ways that an imaginations grows, flows, flies and roots itself in the song and sway of the written word where it finds lodging for a tide and time... until a page is turned and it takes flight again in the reader's mind.

The next morning as I walked along the Quayside thinking about the creative writing workshop I was to hold that morning.... I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the sun dancing on the Tyne  and of the glittering presence of wings and light floating in and out on the tide of all our imaginations.

P.S.  I am not sure what this means! When I visited The Lake District for my cousin's wedding recently I had a little present from a pigeon deposited on my shoulder! It came seemingly out of a bright blue sky... I made my cousins laugh by instantly thanking my Dad... (the kingfisher, his favourite bird). Walking under the Tyne bridge into Newcastle... you guessed it... the same deposit on the same shoulder... well not exactly the same. I was informed that in all probability the bird that had left its present was the rare and raucous sea bird the... Kittiwake... I flew back to my nest with two new words ... Kittiwake and Cree!

Thank you Seven Stories for the invitation and this meeting of minds, hearts and wings! Now back to the chalk board....

Website: www.sevenstories.org.uk<http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/>     Facebook: www.facebook.com/7stories <http://www.facebook.com/7stories>     Twitter: www.twitter.com/7stories<http://www.twitter.com/7stories>

With thanks to Victoria Sanderson - Marketing & Communications Manager for use of these wonderful photographs. 

READ THE COLLECTIONS TEAM BLOG : www.sevenstories.org.uk/news/collections-blog<http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/news/collections-blog>

Articles:
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/whats-happening/blogs/2015/june/wir-david-almond---a-humble-giant-of-a-writer/

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/may/17/newcastle-kittiwake-gull-colony

#RefugeeWeek2018 Diary: poetry, events, exhibition, publication and football!

Exhibition: 'Essence of Welcome'

Exhibition

Celebrating Refugee Week (18 – 22 June), an exhibition of poetry and images from the Art and Writing Class held at the Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants. The class is run by Sita Brahmachari and Jane Ray, Writer and Artist-in-Residence at the Centre. 

South Library, 115 Essex Road, N1 0ST Monday 11 – Saturday 23 June

Monday and Wednesday 9.30am-8pm, Friday and Saturday 9.30am-5pm. Closed Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Free

#Librarieswelcomerefugees 

Through the doors of the library
Into the marble foyer
We come
To find our poems and paintings welcoming us
We sing our song of what it means to learn to speak, laugh, play, write and read in your mother
tongue
To sing in Lingala
Lingala is the language that my heart first heard
Lingala is the language that my voice first spoke
Lingala is the language of my heart and soul
Oh! Lingala, Lingala, Lingala

This is a good place to find our words and paintings
This is a place to plant ideas
Where no book is censored
Where you will not be placed in prison for expressing what you think, what you believe, choosing the
wrong books
For painting an image that the government does not like
This is place of freedom
Of independence
Where you can choose the books you want to read
This knowledge you can reach for with your own hands, unforced
Libraries are not free in all countries
They are not open doors for everyone
You can go, only if you have the money to pay
Here you can enter
On a grey winter’s day
Use the computer
Drink a cup of tea and read a book
Here you can sit in peace and warmth

Here you can quench your thirst for knowledge
Join a group
Here you can paint the colour of ideas
Hear a child’s laughter
Here you can spend your energy reading a book,
Journeying wherever you wish
Not only to improve your English
But to nourish your mind
Here is a place
To fly free in your imagination
To lose and find yourself again in words
Slide your mind across the marble floor
Up the spiral staircase
To where the sun shines through a globe window

The library is a place of light
Illumination
When we walk out onto the pavement
We see a woman is spending her time to see our exhibition
It is a good feeling
To see her looking at our paintings
Reading our stories

Post cards of art and writing are available from: 

www.islingtoncentre.co.uk   @RefugeeWeek    @IslingtonCentre

Saturday 16th June

Harberdasher's Girl's School Invites Islington Centre Members to a family day out incuding swimming, art, drumming and a barbecue.

Monday 18th June
Islington Libraries school events with Jane Ray and Sita Brahmachari

Workshops

Sita Brahmachari and Jane Ray will be working with specially invited classes of Year 3 or Year 4 children to explore refugee experience of people living in their community. 

Wednesday 20th June
Archer Academy (Patron of Reading School) Year 10 assembly. Talking of the depiction of refugee characters in my stories and how my work in community over the years feeds into writing.

Sunday 24th June
Amnesty International #Familiestogether #Footballwelcomes
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/families-together-festival-tickets-46188923313
Come and have a family day and enjoy football fun and art. I'll be offering the welcome and writing a poem about why it's vital that children should have the right be reunited with their families. Enjoy a sunday with your family and lobby for people like Amal and Muhammad to do the same.# http://refugeestogether.uk/#group-muhammad-and-amals-story-4QqS4NxavA

Publication: 'A Country To Call Home'  Ed. Lucy Propescu ' Published by Unbound following June 2018 Launch. With contributions from many authors in  the YA book world about the experience of refugee children.

'A Country to Call Home implores us to build bridges, not walls. It is intended as a reminder of our shared humanity, seeking to challenge the negative narratives that so often cloud our view of these vulnerable young people, and prevent us giving them the empathy they deserve.'

There are so many extraordinary stories here. My contribution is 'Amir and George' (First published by Stripes/ Crisis in 'I'll Be Home for Christmas). It tells the story of Amir, a young refugee child integrating into a city school. He enters the George Orwell Public Speaking Competition and finds himself at the finals at Eton where George Orwell went to school. The story, as the title suggests, is a meeting between Amir and George Orwell.  Lucy Prosescu set up a wonderful scheme in which authors could bid for Chris Riddell's wonderful illustrations. Authors were then able to select a school library to benefit by receiving copies of the book. Getting these stories into children's hands feels vital in our times.  Writing this story made me think deeply about my purpose of being a writer for children and young people. Chris Riddell recalled his seminal  image of Alan Kurdi captioned by the words ' Swarms' forcing David Cameron to experience his own de-humanising language.  I'm proud to have Chris Riddell's wonderful portrait of George Orwell as a reminder of why so many writers for young people are carrying our notebooks with us too... and insisting that the individual stories are told. 

Empathy Day 2018 #ReadforEmpathy

'What if no one can tell if they're living in a time that's losing its heart?'

Laila Levenson (aged 12) Tender Earth (Macmillan Children's Books) A #ReadforEmpathy choice

Empathetic Learning is the best kind... when I think of the things I remember from my young years it is always the moments of learning where I was moved by something or someone that have stayed with me.

So too the books that made me laugh or cry, or took me on a rollercoaster of a journey, are the books from childhood that I remember still today.

For Empathy Day 2018 I'm heading to Sheffield Libraries where my day will start by asking people to share a story of a moment of learning through empathy that has had an impact on their lives.

With Mary Lea of Sheffield Libraries at the Empathy Cafe

“We’re pleased that people have come along to participate in this project and it is our hope that everyone who gets involved in our Empathy Day activities will become an Empathy Ambassador, using their empathy skills to help others.” Mary Lea (Cabinet member for Culture, parks and Leisure) 

I've been working closely with Sheffield Libraries to look at how empathy can be increased through characters we meet in stories. The science shows that it can. The beautiful thing about empathy is that it can grow in us... and the more we step into the shoes of another who we may feel we share little empathy for at the outset of a story... the more profoundly we grow. In my experience the Empathy tree is nourished through reading and writing!

I'm often taken aback that a character I can have decided is a secondary character at the mapping out stage then become the ones I empathise with the most. This has happened to me so many times now that it reveals what we all have...unconscious bias.... why empathy is magical is because by truly exploring a character's life from the inside out, by walking in their shoes, you discover so much about the world and about your own world view, and your ability to expand both.

That's why I am delighted that 'Tender Earth' has been selected as one of this year's #ReadforEmpathy books.

Sheffield Libraries have chosen themes in 'Tender Earth ' that are key issues in their communities. Their aim, in inviting me to work with them, is to explore how reading about characters and situations that are relevant in their own community can help people to increase empathy for one another across generations, cultures and religions.




In 'Tender Earth' young Laila Levenson asks the question
'What if no one can tell if they're living in a time that's losing its heart?'


She can't stand the idea of that but at first she's overwhelmed by navigating through some of today's very present realities that impact directly on her and her friend's lives. Poverty inequality, racism and religious intolerence. Laila doesn't know how she can change things but once she starts to feel true empathy for the people around her, a portal opens that leads her to understand how her feeling for others can be transformed into empathetic action that can change her community for the better.





Published by Macmillan Children's Books 2017 

Articles:
The Read For Empathy Titles
https://literature.britishcouncil.org/blog/2018/ordinary-human-life/

Walking in Empathy Shoes
http://justimagine.co.uk/2017/06/09/walking-this-tender-earth-in-empathy-shoes-by-sita-brahmachari/

Tender Earth nominations and awards:

Endorsed by Amnesty International UK

Chosen for the IBBY UK Honour List ( Novel)  2018

Longlisted for: Carnegie Medal 2018

Longlisted for the Shrewsbury Book Award 2018

Selected by Empathy Lab for their 2018 Read for Empathy Guide

Shortlisted for the Little Rebel Awards 2018

Shortlisted for the Haringey Book Award 2018

Shortlisted for the Southern Schools Book Award 2018