Changes

SD: I met Jo via some author friends (we also share a publisher, Random House), and when she had the idea to start an author-run daily blog from writers for girls I couldn’t wait to get stuck in. Lots of attention goes to prize-winning ‘literary’ kidlit - which is brilliant, of course; I love those books too. But popular, contemporary fiction for girls often gets ignored, even discouraged by well-meaning adults who think girls should read something ‘better’ - while accessible books that encourage reluctant boys to read are applauded. Our authors represent a variety of genres, for girls aged 8-14, and we want to celebrate enjoyable good books: the kind that create lifelong readers. I’m a big nerd, so I do all the techie stuff behind the scenes of the website. We’ve had fantastic support from all of the UK’s big children’s publishers, and I still feel giddy when I look at our archives: [[:Category:Cathy Cassidy|Cathy Cassidy]], [[:Category:Hilary McKay|Hilary McKay]], [[:Category:Julia Golding|Julia Golding]], [[:Category:Karen McCombie|Karen McCombie]]... I could be here all day! Most of all, I’m massively proud of how it’s taken off with young readers. Their comments always make me beam.