About
My name’s Kayleigh, and I’ve never really grown up. I mean, I have a job and everything – I work as a content editor for a defence company – but am I really the only one to want to stick my head in the sand and pretend I’m still a teenager? Without the awkwardness, obviously. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I’ve never grown out of children’s books. At university I wrote my dissertation on a comparison of disability in children’s books in the 20th and 21st centuries. I devoured The Hunger Games and The Fault in Our Stars, and many more. My obsession with children’s fiction has only got worse since the arrival of my nieces and nephews, and I’ve quickly established myself as the go-to aunt for a massive pile of books and the accompanying silly voices. Caitlin is 4, Lewis is 3, Harrison is 8 months and Vanessa is just 2 months old.
My aim for this blog is to review as many books classed as being for children as possible, from 0-17. While reviewing isn’t something I’m used to doing (and I would therefore be very grateful for feedback), I’d love to be of some use to anyone at all in choosing a book their child will love to read. When applicable, I’m planning to use my nieces and nephews as guinea pigs to test their reaction. I’m all too aware that adult reactions can (and often do) differ wildly from children’s. I’m also planning on keeping my eye on any book events out there, from World Book Day to children’s book awards and prizes.
I’m aiming to write at least 1 post a week, sometimes more. Keep an eye on my Goodreads footer to see what may be coming up next. I hope to be as useful as possible while reading the books I love, so if you have a recommendation or you’d like me to add anything, just shout! I’m also always looking for new things to review, so if you are a recently published writer wanting to increase publicity for your book, I’d love to help!
Some of my favourites:
The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Oh yeah, and a while ago I had another blog, called This Life and Time. While it dried up because I wasn’t sure of its purpose, I wrote a somewhat popular list of the top 100 books, called Reader’s Digest. I’ll definitely be looking at the children’s books on that list at some point!
Hi Kayleigh, just found your blog – a great concept for a blog! Have just rebuilt mine – what a faff! Hope all going well at you-know-where!
Thanks! Yours is looking good :-). I keep thinking about buying a domain so I can get nicer designs, but I’ll wait and see on that one I think! What are you up to at the moment?
Thanks – I’m having fun tweaking it and changing the colours and backgrounds every five minutes! I decided to pay for the Business Bundle so I could get that customisation option but loads of the free themes are perfectly good, I think.
I’m doing the occasional subbing shift and also doing 1 or 2 days a week writing interviews for a business mag – and various bits and bobs. Also really getting into songwriting, which will start to be reflected in the subject matter of my blog soon!
By the way, by coincidence I have been in touch about something else with someone who turns out to the the organiser of the Cardiff Children’s Literature Festival (starts soon I think). If you’d be interested in this I could put you in touch.
Most of the themes are great, it’s just I know someone that draws some amazing stuff so I keep wondering if I could get her to draw something for a website design!
About the Cardiff Children’s Literature Festival, that sounds amazing – yes please!
ah yes, so you’d need to be able to have a customised background. Have a look at this blog – great example of how the blog author has collaborated with an illustrator – and it gives the illustrator extra profle too. http://thereporterandthegirl.com/the-writer/
I’ve emailed the book fest woman asking if I can put you in touch…
Thanks!
[…] 3. A World of Wars […]