Fidan Meikle talks about her award winning middle grade book, My Name is Samim

Fidan Meikle is a multi-award-winning Azerbaijani-British writer, linguist and translator.

We talk with her about her debut middle-grade novel, My Name Is Samim, which is a powerful novel that follows Samim, a thirteen-year-old boy, as he flees war-torn Afghanistan for a new life in the UK.  It highlights the experiences of young refugees and asylum-seekers, and has been a word of mouth success, winning the 2026 Jhalak Children's & YA Prize, the Federation of Children's Book Groups Award, several regional awards and included in the 2026 Read for Empathy Collection.

My Name Is Samim and its companion novel, My Name Is Zayn, are inspired by the real-life stories of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the UK. 

We also celebrate Patrice Lawrence becoming the new Children's Laureate (Yay!) and the 10th anniversary of her YA book Orangeboy.

We talk about what we are reading over the summer and highlight both the Summer Reading Challenge and the Teacher's Reading Challenge.

And finally we invite you to share your recommendations - tag us in on social media or email us at info@mostlybooktalk.com.

Books we mentioned include:

Always Angel, by Kimberly Whittam

Soul Feeder, by Jennifer Killick, illustrated by Marina Vidal

Big Words by Luke Palmer

Gloam, by Jack McKay, illustrated by Ben Joel Price

Dangerous Influence, Sally Nichols (published Sept 2026)

The Sign of the Raven, by Pippa Dunn

The Shadows of Kensington Gore, by Ross Montgomery - adult (published Oct 2026)

All The Men We've Never Slept With, by Simon James Green and Sarah Counsell - adult (published July 2027)

Faith's First Case, by Jeffrey Boakye - adult (out Feb 2027)

Transcript

Katy 0:12

Hi, I'm Katy.

Ali 0:13

Hi, I'm Ali.

Katy 0:14

And welcome to Mostly Book Talk.

Ali 0:16

We have an interview with Fidan Meikle, who is an Azerbaijani British writer based in Scotland. And we're talking to her about her debut middle grade novel, My Name is Samim. And since we recorded this, she's won the 2026 Jhalak Children's YA Prize and the Federation of Children's Book Groups Award for 2026 in the older readers category. So congratulations to Fidan. And her companion book to My Name is Samim, which is called My Name is Zayn, is out on August the 18th. We mention it in the interview.

Katy 0:47

Yep. So enjoy.

Ali 0:52

We are delighted to welcome Fidan Meikel, an Azabajani British writer, linguist, and translator who's based in Scotland to talk about her debut middle grade novel, which is My Name is Samim. So welcome. Thank you for having me. And I think our first question is always tell us a bit about the book, in your own words, an overview for people who might not have read it yet.

Fidan 1:18

Of course. My name is Samim, is a story about an Afghan boy called Samim and his best friend Zayn, who, after losing their homes and families in a bombing, embark on a very long and dangerous journey across five countries to try and find safety in the UK. The book opens with Samem already in the UK, so we know that he has made it. But from the very first line in the book, we also learn that his best friend Zayn sadly hasn't. The book is split into dual narrative timeline. In one past timeline, Samem tells us what happened on his journey, and in the other present timeline, we see how Samim adapts to life in the UK, but also waiting for his asylum decision to find out whether he is allowed to stay or not.

Ali 2:10

Yeah, and I think it's good you know that he's here, so he's safe. So you're sort of not worrying about that as a reader. But then I think how he comes here is is just really, I think it's heartbreaking that journey.

Fidan 2:24

Absolutely, yes. It's not an easy story to read, and I often tell that to children, and I take full responsibility for that, that it wasn't an easy book. But I do think that um the hard moments in the book and sadness in the book is also important. It's also important because that's where empathy starts, that's where kindness starts, that's where understanding takes root. So, yes, it's not an easy story to read, but but it has hope worn through it as well. Absolutely.

Ali 2:55

And you're a linguist and a translator, as you're I was gonna say your day job, but now you're a novelist, so that's what you are now. How did that feed into the book? And how did you from that role decide that actually there's a book that I want to tell?

Fidan 3:09

Yeah, I've always loved languages, I've studied languages and linguistics, and of course, there are huge advantages to that, not just structurally or grammatically, because of boring sides of it, but also the psychology behind linguistics and storytelling, that's the fascinating part. But I think my writing is more so shaped by my personal background, probably, than my training. English is not my first language, and it's not even my second language. I am from Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijan is a very, very different language from English, obviously. It's also quite descriptive, very lyrical, almost poetic in some ways. But I'm also a child from USSR, and Russian is my second native language, which is very different from Azerbaijani, but also very different from English as well. But it shaped and influenced my voice in its own way. I studied both at school and university in Russian. So when I first started writing in English, I was very unconscious of that. I was very self-conscious, and so I should have been because it's not my first language. And my prose, not only about grammar and all that, but also the way my prose read, it seemed very lyrical, a bit too purple to me compared to the writers, the Western writers that I read. And it didn't feel like proper literature to me. And I was constantly wondering how on earth I could possibly write a book in English, with English not being my first language. So there was a lot of comparison. I'd like to other authors tried to, in a way, strip my voice away and sound like more Western authors, like the authors I read in English, but reading in English also came later for me, once I moved into the UK. Obviously, back in Azerbaijan, I read in Azerbaijani and in Russian. So that was a learning experience to me as well. How certain books, there were books that I read in English, read in Russian as translation, and then I read them in English, and they sounded so different. That was fascinating to me as well. But yeah, there was a lot of comparison, and there was a real imposter syndrome at the beginning and quite a strong one.

Ali 5:28

So you wrote it in English, you didn't were there any and this is a really stupid question in some ways, but when you're writing, are you thinking I'm writing in English, so I'm thinking in English? Or are there bits where you're I've thought what the story is in my mother tongue and then I'm gonna translate it? Is there some of that going on as well?

Fidan 5:51

Absolutely, I think it's a great question. Yeah, absolutely. It's a very messy and chaotic process. If I'm honest, there's so much going on in my head. If we looked at my first draft, I am thinking in English when I write in English. After so many years of learning here, and my family is English speaking. My husband is Scottish, he doesn't speak Azerbaijani and Russian. English is also my native language now, I'd say. Third one. Still not the most fluent out of the whole that I know, but I'm definitely learning every day. So, yes, if you look at my first draft, it has words. I write in English, and then there will be a word or a phrase that wouldn't quite know how to say in English well, and I would write it in as a right journey, and then I would just move on because I wouldn't want that kind of feminist zone. I don't want to pause and think and look up. Sometimes I would shout to my husband, if it's grammar, something to do with the grammar, I would say, is it and um in terms of grammar articles are just their nightmare for me, whether it's the apple or an apple, it's and I do know the rule, the grammar rule. I know that the specific apples, the apple and any apples, an apple. So I know the rule, but it doesn't make it in any way easier for me when I'm doesn't always follow the rules. No, I'm so glad that you said that. This was so hard, and for someone whose other languages don't have articles, they are seems so foreign to me. I don't understand that if I'm sitting in front of someone and there was an apple in the room. Obviously, I'm meaning that apple, not the one that grows on a tree somewhere. So yeah, but if I would shout to my husband, is it this? Do I write it this way or that way? And his most common answer is you can write it both ways. I'm like, I'm sure that's not true. I'm sure I cannot write this both ways. I'm sure there is one right answer here. So, yeah, so it's it's a very chaotic process, but I also love it because I learn so much. It's a constant learning curve for me. So that's exciting. For someone who loves languages, I find it quite exciting as well. Frustrating, exciting, it's up and down.

Katy 8:11

It definitely does not read like someone who's it reads like a native speaker. I wouldn't have guessed from reading it that you weren't a native speaker. So there you go. Thank you. Going back to the story, I understand from reading things you've written elsewhere that the idea came from a news article about an Afghan boy who lost his brother crossing the channel. Can going back to that, what was it about that story that made you want to write about it and was the seed for this story?

Fidan 8:41

Yeah, actually, it was a newsletter that was sent to me in an email one day by the charity organization that I'm supporting. And in that newsletter, there was a story written in first person by the boy himself, who at the time would be around the same age as my son was at the time, so about 13. And in that story, and in that email, he tells his story of having to leave Afghanistan after his home, was bombed in a war, and together with his brother embarking on this long and dangerous journey, eventually arriving in Cali in France, and facing this last part of the journey when they had to cross the English Channel. But by the time he and his brother, his brother is a few years older than his, they're out of money, they're desperate. It's winter, it's cold in Cali, they live in tents, and they're so desperate. So the brother decides that he's going to swim across the English Channel himself. He's going to try to reach the other side and then get help for his younger brother. And as you can imagine, that results in a terrible tragedy. And this boy, he stands there on the shore and he watches his brother trying to swim across and then eventually disappearing in the waters. And as I was reading that part of the story, again greeting by the boy himself, by the child, recounting that tragedy, I couldn't help but wonder what does hope look after a loss like that. What does carrying on and keep on going look like after a loss like that, especially to a child? And that question, it was haunting, that story was haunting. The child does arrive in the UK eventually, but his story in the UK is just was just as harrowing as it was on his journey, which was another thing. Completely I'll say shocking, but surprising, but it's more shocking than surprising. So yeah, and I remember it was my lunch break. I read this story and I went to make myself a cup of tea, and my husband was there making his own cup of tea, and told him very quickly about it. And I remember his shock, and then he said this phrase, he said, Oh, I wish he never told me, because it really is heartbreaking. And my thought was, I wish I told more people. I think more people need to know about that. How is it possible that in a world of billions of adults stories like that exist? Things like that happen to children, I think. And this is a shame that we all need to carry collectively as humans. Yeah, and that kind of was it. The story was haunting me and eventually it led to me writing the book.

Ali 11:46

Um which voice came first? Because it's obviously it's Samim's voice that we hear, but so much of it is about Zane as well, when he's going back in time to tell about their friendship and their journey. Was there one one that came before the other, or did they arrive together?

Fidan 12:04

Because the story that inspired the book was about two brothers. I always knew that I wanted that central relationship there. And although Zayn and Samim aren't brothers by blood to each other, they absolutely are. And from the very start, I knew that Zayn or Ghost Zane, he's going to be the Joker, he's going to be the light, the hope in a story. And then Samim is going to be us. He's going to be someone the reader will relate to. He's going to have our hopes and our fears in hand. So yes, Amin was central. Same was probably the boy whose story I read. And Zayn was in a way kind of inspired by memory of the boy's brother, but also someone who brought hope, very much needed hope to the story as well.

Katy 12:55

You've described how you wrote it, that you uh had filled many notebooks before you started writing. How did you know that you had enough to start? And why do you think you had to write so much through it, as it were, before you felt you could start?

Fidan 13:12

I think that there's a stage in writing process, definitely in my writing process, where I get absolutely obsessed by the story that I'm writing. It's in my head all the time, no matter what I do. And my family gets annoyed with me because and I'm all said, if you're telling me something important, tell me to have an eye contact with you. Because just because we're in the same room, and even because I look like I'm looking at you, it doesn't mean that I'm actually remembering what you're saying or there, because there's so much going on in my head when I'm writing something. And yes, I get completely obsessed with the story. And it was with this book, I was filling up the last notebook. I was halfway through it, and I remember just seeing all these scenes in my head. The stories that I was writing, the true stories that I was collecting of refugees, they were morphing into these scenes in my head with my characters. And at some point it felt like as if someone was shouting in my head, just start writing them down. There was too much going on. And so I started writing. And I never plotted the book, I never had a structural plan. All I had were those stories and the scenes and my research. I did research the logistics of the journey very thoroughly. So that was important to me because I needed that journey to be very clear to me. And then yeah, I started writing the rest came quite organically on the page after that.

Ali 14:49

And you decided that he arrives, he does get to the UK, so then it was writing it backwards, back to this point.

Fidan 14:57

Yes, and it was because I wanted to tell a story of him in the UK and I wanted to tell a story of his journey. I was thinking about the structure of how I'm going to tell this story for a long time. How I'm going to tell a story of him being in the UK and the story of his journey. So at first I thought maybe I'll start from the start and then get to the UK, but then the story ghost thing was a big part of it. And so it had to start in the UK. Yeah.

Ali 15:29

And it's interesting, how was the decision about to make it this age group? A rather than a young adult or an adult? But you were saying, like you said to your husband, you told the story, and he was like, I don't really, I wish you hadn't told me. So the kind of the adults need to know. So I just wondered why the middle grade audience.

Fidan 15:49

When I read the story about these boys, who at the time the same age as my boy was, I couldn't help but think about my children. And I remember this that after reading it, we had dinner one day, and I asked them how much they knew about refugees, and it became very clear very quickly that they knew very little. If anything, they knew the terminology, what it means, a refugee, but not much beyond that. So I went and bought them some books. I read the books myself, they were great books, but it also felt like something was missing to me. It was a journey, it was walking in Samim's shoes that makes you really understand, or at least try and understand what it might be like. And so in the end, haunted by the story and the idea that I want to tell the story of the journey, of the human experience of going through something like that, I decided to write it. And initially, it was literally for just my children. I had very little hope or faith that the book's going to be published. As I mentioned earlier, I had so many doubts and reservations about my writing. And I thought to myself, even if I write it and my children would be the only people who ever read it, that's okay. I wanted to write that journey. And so I started my research.

Katy 17:17

Because it's not an experience that you've lived, what did you feel like the responsibility you had to make sure that those voices were authentic?

Fidan 17:27

Oh, this is something that I think about constantly and something that will always think about. And so I should. I'm very aware that I uh hadn't lived this experience myself, so I could now approach it as someone telling their own story. And that meant I had to be careful about not assuming, not filling in gaps and with imagination where I should be doing more research and listening more deeply and not smoothing over the complexities just to make it easy on me as a writer or on the reader. A big part of my process was also doing a lot of research, as much as possible as I could, working with our Ariyan Muslevi, Afghan photojournalist, but more importantly, listening to people who had lived those experiences. But I was also conscious that their presentation has its limits as well. No single character can tell a story of an entire nation or experience because that's simply not possible. And yet, as I was writing him, I found myself drawn to something more collective in his voice. Saming often tells in the book that he wants to tell the stories of people he meets along the journey. And in many ways, he does, but also he is them. In that sense, Samine becomes a kind of a reflection, a collective voice for many lives and many journeys in the story. And that's why it felt also important to show not that not every story ends the same way. Samin's journey leads him to safety, but that isn't the reality for everyone, and including Daria's story allowed me to show that contrast. In many ways, Samim and Daria, they're telling the same story, one of displacement, one of loss and resilience, but with two very different endings. And that to me really mattered, even though it was a big decision to include that scene in a book and something that didn't take lightly. But to me, it reflected the truth that we shouldn't be looking away from.

Katy 19:34

Yeah, and then it's clearly quite an issue, isn't it, in terms of just because of a middle grade audience, it's balancing.

Fidan 19:42

Finding balance definitely wasn't easy. I have two children, and whenever I wrote a difficult scene, I kept thinking about them. I imagined describing it to them. I have a very sensitive 11-year-old and keeping her in mind surrounded me and helped me guide through those moments. And although she has not read the book and she thinks I did a terrible job. Inevitably, you're a mother, you're bound to have done a terrible job. Yeah, but also because it's just such a sad book, and she was happy about that, and she still holds it against me, and she made me promise that Zane's book is not going to be as sad, and it isn't. It's nowhere near sad. It obviously explores difficult subject as well and has hard-hitting moments, but it's nowhere near sad.

Ali 20:34

So that's good. That's good. Because I think Samim is just he's got so much weight on his shoulders, and he feels so guilty about saying all of that stuff is going on as well as all of his story. And as an adult reading it, I am when they go, it's Italy, isn't it, where they go first. And Italy's fine, just stay in Italy. And I think he takes all that on, doesn't he? Zayn's his brother, of course he was going to go with him.

Fidan 21:03

Yeah, absolutely. Yes. I know I had to do the scene in Italy because they needed a break and the reader needed a break. But there's also another reason behind the scene in Italy. I wanted to show there is one young refugee man that I was talking to and during my research, and she was telling me that he's actually is in the United States, and she was telling me that when she joined the school in the States, people would tell him, Oh, do you know what TV is? Or do you know what the phone is? And and he's a Syrian refugee, assuming that refugees are people who don't know anything or don't have anything or never known or had anything. And it was very hard for him because he didn't like that. He doesn't like that stereotype. And I wanted to show that sometimes that often refugees have a lot and lose a lot. And quite often, actually, people who are going on these journeys. They they need to have a lot of money to pay for these journeys. It's people who don't have money, they actually get left behind. That's another tragedy in this story. And that not everyone can even afford to go and seek asylum in another country. So, yeah, so showing Italy and the scenes in Italy and how they get settled and how they have everything was important for me for a few different different reasons.

Ali 22:28

Yeah, it's a great scene. And that love there and that kindness, I think they really needed that, didn't they? To have a kind of pause in the journey.

unknown 22:37

Yeah.

Fidan 22:38

Yes, absolutely.

Ali 22:39

I think so anyway. And chess is also part, a big part of the story. Why chess? Obviously, Zayn is football mad, but some of him is chess mad.

Fidan 22:50

I love chess. I play chess. My father taught me how to play chess, he's a big chess player. My son is completely obsessed with chess, he plays a few hours a day at least. I think it was that part was a little bit personal, but also chess is a hugely popular game in Afghanistan, so it felt fitting in that sense too. Chess also mirrors in some way Samyem's journey, not literally, but emotionally. There's something about it that reflects survival, the need to think ahead, to be patient, hold back when you want to rush, and to keep your focus on not just what's in front of you, but what might come next. So I think yes, just was a personal choice, but also strategic in some ways too. But also, it's such a fun game to write about because it's full of drama and tension.

Ali 23:45

And you're an expert, so that part of it, you definitely have the lived experience bit.

Fidan 23:50

I'm definitely not an expert. And my son would definitely agree with that statement. No, but I love it. I love watching in in fact, I love watching people play chess more than playing myself. I love watching my son play chess, and that's very exciting for me.

Katy 24:05

And what conversations, because it's clearly a book that opens up conversations. What conversations are you hoping that it will open up in in classrooms and with children?

Fidan 24:16

Words like asylum seeker, migrant, or refugee, they can feel so distant, so foreign, so unfamiliar to young readers, to young people. And in best case scenarios, they will feel quite abstract. But if children have been exposed to certain headlines, news and social media posts, those can also carry very negative connotations of impaired with such terms as illegal crisis, invasion. What I hoped would happen is that young readers would come to understand that refugees just a label put on real people with real lives and real stories. I hope that this book would give them the chance to look beyond that label and meet a normal boy, a boy just like them, a boy who likes chess, football, has a friend, a boy called Salem. And I hope that by walking in Salem's shoes and glimpsing into his world, they will begin to understand what it might be like to feel what it might be like to search so desperately for a safe place to call home. And the ultimate hope, of course, is that the child who walked in Salem's shoes will grow up, an adult who never starts wars. Yeah.

Ali 25:37

And what's been the response when you've taken it into schools or when you've been talking to children?

Fidan 25:43

Brilliant. Children are amazing. They are full of empathy, and it's incredible to see. When I walk into the classrooms and I tell them about the boy calls I mean, their eyes filled with sadness when there are sad moments, and then their eyes brighten up when the hope returns. And it's incredible to see the empathy, the kindness when I ask them what you would do if a boy likes I mean, would join your class. Answers are amazing. I would sit with them, I would show them around and share my lunch with them. It's incredible to see the kindness, the empathy. It fills me with hope every single time. There hasn't been once that I haven't left a classroom filled with hope for our future. It's amazing. It's yeah, I'm always nervous when I do it because I'm an immigrant myself and I speak up for refugees. Um and and I'm always aware that not everyone thinks the same way as I do. But it's so uplifting, it's so inspiring to see that empathy beats it all. Empathy is above it all in the eyes of the children. Yeah, and it's amazing. The response was absolutely amazing and been so lucky so far. Well, it's nice, nice to hear.

Katy 27:00

For a teacher or a librarian, how would you recommend it to a child? If they were worried that it's going to be a sad book, what would you say? Because I think there that there is that possibility that someone might think it's just too sad.

Fidan 27:11

Yes, of course. I would say absolutely yes. It is a sad book in parts. And at times it is a very difficult book to read. But I would also say that we shouldn't be scared of sadness. Sadness matters because it's often where empathy begins. I actually talk about it during my school visits, how sadness matters. Because when we read someone's story and it makes our hearts feel heavy, that feeling is a sign that we are connecting. It means that we're seeing someone else's experience and we're allowing it to matter to us. That's what empathy is. That's what empathy does. And empathy is powerful because it is often where kindness begins, it's where change begins. And so, yes, the book is sad at times, but it is also about resilience, about humanity, friendship, kindness, hope. So sadness, it's not all that this book is. That's for sure.

Ali 28:11

And I won't give the ending away, but I it's very hopeful at the end. Yes. And I was surprised as well. I was very pleased with your ending.

Fidan 28:24

Thank you.

Ali 28:25

So it's the National Year of Reading. Have you got any thoughts or hopes for the National Year of Reading?

Fidan 28:33

Yes, I'm just hoping that there's so many amazing books coming out every day, every month, every year. We have such an amazing choice for books that make us laugh, make us think, make us understand other people's experiences. There really is something for everyone right now in a bookshow. And I just hope that children will get encouraged to look for what they want to read and choose anything that they feel connected to. That we are so spoiled for choice. We really are. I remember walking into this classroom one day and the boy raised his hand and he said, What would you advise? I really don't like reading. I really don't like books, he said. And you could see that he was very honest and just sharing his personal experience with books. And I told him, I don't think you don't like books. I just think you haven't found the book, the right book for yourself. That's an assignment for you. You go into the big shop and you think what kind of book you want to read, what kind of stories excite you, and you find that book, and you will find that book and guarantee you that you will. Parents take your children to the big shop, show them all the aisles. There's so much there. There's absolutely no way that any child, I honestly think that, can leave a big shop and not find a single book that they like with the choice, with an amazing choice that we have right now.

Katy 29:58

Brilliant. And is there a particular book you would recommend, or just go and find the one that sparks your interest?

Fidan 30:04

I I think recommended books is very different because we'll have different things to read, and that's how it should be. But it on the topic of refugees, the books I would recommend is one of my favorites would be Boy Everywhere by A. M. Dasu, and The Fox Girl and The White Gazelle by Victoria Williamson. I think there's these are two very different stories, but equally powerful and amazing. And for adult readers, on the topic, the memoir of Gulwali Passarlay, an incredible man who was forced to leave Afghanistan as well as a young boy and make dangerous journey and fight safety in the UK. His book is incredible, it's inspiring and powerful. I definitely recommend that as well. Okay, thank you. You've mentioned it, but finally, what's next? Next is My Name is Zayn. It's coming out on the 20th of August, and it's a final book in the series. And yeah, I loved writing it. The characters in the book are, I think they're great. I think it's a very different book from book one in many ways. Obviously, it's told from Zayn's point of view. When Zayn is such an uplifting and fun character, and who in many ways masks his grief with humor. But he's also very clever and resourceful, loyal friend, and has very strong moral compass. It was very trying to write, to write a story from his perspective. But also, this book is fast-paced, almost like a thriller and praises, and explores another really important theme through a group of characters. I hope that young readers will connect with.

Katy 31:45

Brilliant. Look forward to that. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed it. It's quite an emotional read, isn't it? But it is ultimately hopeful.

Ali 32:00

It is, and I think because of the looking back element of it. So you know Samim's safe because it's it's the story is him going backwards.

Katy 32:10

Although it's easy to forget that. I mean, I I know you do because of that, but it's because he's telling the story. Yeah, but you do get kind of round up in it thinking, oh my goodness. Yeah. And I think that the thing about the prizes that she's won is that the Jhalek prize is adult judges, isn't it? I mean, adult readers reading it and judging it. Whereas the Federation of Children's Book Groups Award is voted on by children. So it's got endorsements from both adults and children.

Ali 32:40

Actually, yeah. That is important. I'd not really thought about that. And it's got a lot of attention, hasn't it? Without really it's not had a blockbusting marketing budget. It's just been quietly, quietly building, hasn't it?

Katy 32:52

Yeah. Floris, I think, is a mainly Scottish publisher. I think they're a long-standing independent publisher, aren't they? But they're not, it's not one of the big five who will, you know, push out books with massive marketing and publicity. It's definitely been more of a word of mouth librarians, teachers, booksellers, I guess, doing recommendations. So obviously, as well as winning prizes, it's got a lot of attention. And to get on those lists, people need to have read it and said, look, this is one you should be looking at. So yeah, it's done really, really well. So look out for that one. And or if you've already read it, look out for the next in series, Ain, or companion book. It's not really a series, is it? It's more of a companion book.

Ali 33:34

Yeah.

Katy 33:35

Yeah.

Ali 33:35

And then we were super thrilled to get invited to the announcement of Patrice Lawrence becoming the children's laureate.

Katy 33:42

Yes. It's so exciting. She's such a good choice. And I'm really, really looking forward to seeing what she does. Yeah.

Ali 33:50

Seeing what her plans are. And I think it's about community and about shared reading and all of those things that we hold dear. And it's quite interesting as well because Orange boy, which is one of the first books on our book list, is 10 years old. So we are doing a little update for it.

Katy 34:08

It will have a new cover. It's got a it's got a celebratory 10th anniversary cover. It will be very orange, which the old book the old cover cover isn't that orange. And this one is really orange. Yeah. And it's got, has it got a new forward?

Ali 34:23

I think it's got a new forward and a few new bits and bobs, but we're delighted that that's on there. And we're we were just really thrilled to see her swoosh down the stairs.

Katy 34:33

Yeah, she was hidden, wasn't she? We were guessing it was, yeah, it was quite a well kept secret. And it's quite interesting, isn't it? Because Frank Cotrell Boyce has obviously concentrated on the early years, and I think is going to stay on and do work around that. And I think Patrice is going to be just, well, I mean, she writes right the way through, isn't she? She's got picture books and right the way through to YA. So, but I think there will be also sort of quite a lot with some of the older children as well. She kind of shifts that focus a bit older, but definitely around communities of readers and also just where getting into places where books aren't necessarily automatically available or turned to and building those those links and those conversations. And it's just so so peaceful. And she has a very, very nice necklace with laureate on it. Very fancy. Very fancy. And I can't believe that she knew since November.

Ali 35:30

I know when kept it secret.

Katy 35:32

I know. I mean, how well that just must be a really difficult thing to sit on because I think we discovered that some people had had found out because they were doing press stuff, weren't they? And they that that was all kind of interviews and things were done in advance. But actually, it was quite a well kept secret. We talked to quite a few people who who definitely didn't know. I mean, we were guessing wildly. I mean, we had got to the point where we were fairly sure that's who it was.

Speaker 1 35:57

But but we did have some other other people in our in our sites.

Katy 36:02

So two years of Patrice being everywhere, being on a train going up and down the country, probably. Yeah. Yeah. So that's great. Um anything else? Oh, we were just gonna have a little chat about summer reading. What have you started on, Ali? What's on your list?

Ali 36:17

Well, a couple of books. Well, one book that we're probably gonna put on our book list, actually, for book clubs and schools, which is Always Angel by Kimberly Whittam. Oh, yeah. Which is about year eight student who you know has been put in the bad category, and then whatever she tries to do, it unravels. You know, she tries to help people, but she goes about it the wrong way, and it's just about her coming to terms with her mum's illness, the fact that she's in foster care, but actually her foster carers just want to help, and for her to finally start letting people help her rather than always being the person you have to help. Yeah. And it's really nice. And I think what was great was that there's you know, there's some bullying issues in there, but everybody gets a second chance, and that felt like a reasonable ending to the book. So I enjoyed that. I read that, I would say read that.

Katy 37:14

It's a book buzz book as well, isn't it? It's a book buzz book as well. So it's a second the secondary one. So that would be on the list for people to choose from in September from Butcher's. What about you? Well, I've been so I've been on a bit of a mission because obviously one of the things that's on the book clubs and schools list are shorter books because we get a lot of demand for shorter books that are kind of lower reading age but higher interest age. And so I've been on a bit of a binge of some shorter books. So I read Soul Feeder by Jennifer Killick, which is a Barrington Stoke, and it's a horror story. I think it must be part of a new series called Demon Hunter. And it's about two boys, one of their fathers runs like a house clearance and they help out, and there's a house clearance with sort of mysterious circumstances of the owner's death, and everything gets moved back to the warehouse, and they then find themselves with some slightly unwanted company. And I think it's a great, it's a sort of perfect short sort of ghost horror story. So there's that one, and I've also slightly different theme read Dangerous Influence, which is also another Barrington Stoke, which is the actually, are they all of these bangs? No, I've got one that's not a Barrington Stoke. So Dangerous Influence, which is Sally Nichols, which is about two sisters whose mother has put them on social media since they were babies, and it's about how that's working out now that as they've grown older and as teens, and the sort of family negotiation about that, because the reality is that her mum is paying the mortgage by earning a living doing this. She's become a mumfluenza. That sounds awful. Is this such a thing? Yeah, it's something like that.

Ali 38:59

A mum fluenza.

Katy 39:00

A mum fluenza. That sounds like some kind of disease.

Ali 39:04

It does, it sounds like something you might not recover from.

Katy 39:06

I know. But yeah, a mummy influencer, and she's earning her living doing it, but the kids are being like, they're all sorts of hot teasing and bullying and all sorts of stuff coming. And it's just obviously just not very nice and not sustainable. And it raises all of those questions about what happens when you put all of your life online and the reality of it. So how do you get it back? How do you get it back? And how do you resolve those things within a family? So that I enjoyed as well. And then big words, which I think you've read as well, Luke Palmer. I have. Yeah. So that is a boys being bored doing something slightly daft. Going wrong. Going wrong, and the fallout of that for their families and their friendship groups. And um, yeah, that's it. I enjoyed that too. So I'm I'm kind of I'm just racking up books I'm joying, saying, Yes, let's let's do that one, let's do that one. And I have I've just started Gloam, which isn't a Barrington Stoke, it's uh Rock the Boat, I think, publisher, Jack McKay. Jack Mackay, Jack McKay. I never know which way round, but that is I think it's slightly longer. It is 256 pages, but it it's also I think gonna be appealing because it's it's quite it's quite scary, and and we know we know that there's like loads of demand we get from feedback readers for sort of horror and it's set in a decaying house that that there's nothing on an island and it nothing is quite what it seems, and it yeah, I'm only about 10% of the way through, but it is already making me feel like I don't want to read it somewhere dark.

Ali 40:53

Yeah, speaking.

Katy 40:54

So that's where I am. What else have you been? You've been I got all the short books.

Ali 40:59

Yeah, I picked up something which I don't know if it's a book club book or not, but it just looked interesting. I met her at the uh The Thing About Giants Launch, which is another really good book that's out. So this is The Sign of the Raven, which is the name of uh pub. Oh right. It's also where people meet to kind of find out what's going on. So it's Lucid Dreamers, and they meet at the sign of the Raven. And is this a YA? It's a YA and it's uh a new launch. I don't know how it doesn't feel very YA at the moment, so it's at the lower end, I think, but I'm only a little bit of the way in.

Katy 41:38

And crucial bit of information? Who's is it written by?

Ali 41:40

Oh, yeah, Pippa Dunn. It's okay and it's published by DK. It's out in August. Okay. Oh and the other one that I picked up, I'm not quite sure I picked this up actually.

Katy 41:52

Ditching Saskia. Oh, is that a graphic novel? It's a graphic novel. Oh, I've seen stuff about that. Yeah, that's supposed to be really good.

Ali 41:59

Saving up for a spirit flower, Damien's finally about to summon the ghost of his mother.

Katy 42:03

Okay, and who's that by?

Ali 42:04

That's by it's a flying eyes book. It's by John Moore and Neatolls.

Katy 42:09

Okay, so you can come back and tell us about that.

Ali 42:12

Yeah, it looks really interesting. It's just in black and white with a little bit of red as the colourway.

Katy 42:17

Okay. And my other exciting thing on my list is the this isn't a children's book, but it's Ross Montgomery Ross.

Ali 42:26

Did you get a galley proof?

Katy 42:28

I did, but it's a net galley, so I I can't share it with you, but I'm sure we could get one for you, Allie.

Ali 42:34

Yeah, I'm sure it could be really good.

Katy 42:36

Uh I've just started it, um, so I can't really say, but I am looking forward to it. That's my grown-up read. So I would like to read that as well. Well, I can maybe just lend you my Kindle when I get back. And the other thing I found out is that Simon James Green is also, I think I can say this, is also writing an adult. Oh, yes, he is, isn't he? Is that allowed to can we say that? And and when we can say who we interviewed, but just a re-prompt that Jeffrey Boraci also has an adult mystery crime book coming out.

Ali 43:12

Lots of lovely books.

Katy 43:13

And we'll report back on the ones we've not read yet. Yeah. Okay. Should we say something about the summer reading challenge?

Ali 43:20

Yeah, there were well, there are two summer reading challenges, aren't there? There's the open university one for teachers. So join what they're up to. They've got loads of stuff about reading for pleasure, loads of opportunities to kind of get involved. So have a look at that. And there's also the summer reading challenge for kids, which is Read to the Beat this year. Yes. Which will be running in a library near you.

Katy 43:42

Indeed, library near you. And if you have older children at home and you're trying to get them out of the house, I think a lot of libraries are recruiting volunteers to help with that. So, I mean, obviously the summer reading challenge is mainly primary, but libraries in my area, they get older children in to act as volunteers to help listen to the, you know, when the kids come in and tell them about the books.

Ali 44:02

Yeah.

Katy 44:03

So that's quite a good way of getting your teenagers out of the house. Yeah. It's always it's one method. One one method. Brilliant. And we'd be really interested to hear what you're reading and what you're recommending. If you post stuff on social media or anything anywhere else, just tag us in and we can share that. We always like recommendations and really happy to to share them with everyone else. Yeah. Okay. Have a good summer. Enjoy. Enjoy.