Simran Kaur Sandhu (she/they)

I asked a child what their fave book from last year was and their answer was a series that was published about a decade ago. A good reminder that a book is always new to a child who hasn't read it. The constant publishing hustle for novelty has nothing to do with what children want. #KidLitUK

Thinking about that new ranking system for editors and honestly my heart goes out to editors at the moment - they're under so much pressure, without enough support (in terms of numbers of editors, in terms of staffing in other teams) and adding a system of direct comparisons into that feels HARSH.

In light of the findings in the CLPE Reflecting Realities report, in 2025 I’m going to be starting regular free Ask Me Anything Zoom sessions for UK children’s writers of colour and BookTrust will host the first in March to help reach more writers! 📚

Q&A with Jasmine Richards Storymix c.e.o. Jasmine Richards on the industry’s “breathtakingly swift rollback” on its commitment to diverse stories and her inclusive children’s fiction studio’s move into publishing.

"I appreciate the allure of 'safe', but I am not prepared to leave kids of colour off the bookshelves. Nor am I prepared to leave creators of colour out in the cold."

Jasmine Richards discusses the launch of micro-indie press Storymix 👇 www.thebookseller.com/features/jas... #BookSky

Post a pic you took to add some calm to the timeline!

This is a really good point! We’re defs for the first half of the year focussing on just getting us running in the most efficient way poss for everyone and working on balance, but it should free us up for other things later if all goes well! I think my personal hope is to do more outreach stuff!

Calvin and Hobbes cartoon by Bill Watterson, showing Calvin and Hobbes reading comics for pleasure

I don't believe in "good reading" & "bad reading". Comic books, graphic novels, manga, picture books, joke books, sports reports, all kinds of poetry & prose: it's all reading, and it's all good! Let kids read for pleasure - and they'll be readers FOREVER! #reading #literacy

(Art: Bill Watterson)

On the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, we call on the government to end its participation in genocide.

We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, today and every day, until there is a free and independent Palestine.

Crypto entrepreneur eats banana art he bought for $6.2m Conceptual work created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was sold at auction in New York last week

The symbolism is so heavy it's put my back out

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...

Screenshot from The Bookseller: Neglecting realities: CLPE reports 'stark' drop in representative children's books NEWS NOV 29, 2024 BY CAROLINE CARPENTER CLPE has revealed that the percentage of racially-minoritised characters and protagonists in children's titles dropped in 2023 for the first time since reporting began. in [photo of Farrah Serroukh with the caption: Farrah Serroukh has called on publishers to take this opportunity to stop and reflect]

Screenshot from the article: “Every year, the Reflecting Realities report includes recommendations for the industry to consider. This year's recommendations are less concerned with the content of books And instead focus on the publishing process. [the next section is highlighted in blue:] 'If you're invested in producing inclusive literature, then it's not sufficient to be solely invested in the idea of it," said Serroukh. "There has to be consideration around the journey of a book. You have to back that investment at every stage through time, through money, through infrastructure and through promotion."

Screenshot from the article: Serroukh hoped that publishers reading the report would not "become despondent or disheartened by the figures, but actually take the time to use this as point of reflection". . She continued: [the next section is highlighted in blue:] "It would be a real shame for the industry to roll back, because I think it would ultimately compromise the literary quality of what we're seeing. People might view representative literature as an additional or niche thing-something that you wheel out for Black History Month or a particular festival-but what the last seven years has shown us through the exemplary titles that have come through is that if you invest in inclusive and representative literature, it transforms the creative space in a profound and very sophisticated way." • Ultimately, she said of the potential response to the survey: "I think it's really important that we use this as an opportunity to stop and take stock, and then think more deeply about what we're doing and how we're doing it." Read the report in full on the CLPE website.

Repeat after me: representation matters 👇🏽

This is something lots of us talk about all the time. Who gets to be the hero of their story? Whose stories matter? Whose stories are considered “universal” enough to “sell”? And the promises publishers make - how long do they last? #ReflectingRealities

I can never understand why children's books get left out of "great book" lists. The books we call "children's books" are really books written for an audience that includes children, but excludes no-one. They are books for EVERYONE - and if you exclude them, you miss the most important books of all!

Friends, I don’t think anyone is remotely surprised at the findings that rep in kidlit has almost HALVED in the last year. This is a reflection of the world around us (because books are political, even kid ones) and how publishing in general has learned nothing and will do less if they can.

For anyone wondering what we do at Fat Liberation London, here’s a little explainer! More than happy to answer any questions! 🥰

So anything you think we should be doing more of, ideas to reach more people etc we’d love to hear! We’re based in London but are planning more online events for accessibility purposes and in collab with other fat spaces too so anyone not in the city can still experience community!

We also have a WhatsApp community where people can make plans with other people whenever they want so it’s really a space where you can participate and help it grow! V much not a space with a bunch of professionals though, just some kids who want fat friends and decided to start a MeetUp group!

Events we’ve done so far include: monthly coffee (we joke that it’s our therapy space!), drinks, eating out, big nights out in collab with other fat-run spaces like Meringue or Fat Cabaret, clothes swaps, karaoke, picnics, walks, dungeons and dragons, board games, protests, house parties and more.

At the moment, we have outreach spaces where allies are welcome in our film and book clubs where we look at fat representation and fat liberation texts and really get into the nitty gritty of those ideas, but mostly it’s a space run by fats for fats to come and make friends who love and accept them.

It’s totally free and we make 0 money, so it’s really a community, not a service. Up until now it’s just been run by myself and the 2 other founders, but now we’ve got a team of volunteers so we’re hoping to be more accessible than ever and to do a wider range of activities with less burn out 😅

Absolutely! So we’re a social group that creates events for fat folks to meet other fats with an aim to help as many of us as possible to find community, hear about fat liberation and how it goes much further than body positivity could, and to connect us to each other so none of us feels alone.

#London #England #BodyLiberation #FatCommunity

Heart-shaped bubbles in pastel colors with Lindley's logo and the first line of this post.

Thin privilege is buying clothes off the rack at a brick-and-mortar store.

This is one of the areas where the spectrum of privilege is really easy to see. The larger your body, the more limits there are on where you can buy clothing, and the options diminish really rapidly. ⟡ 1

Fat friends, what are your wishes for fat community? We’re spending some time this evening imagining what other things we can be doing, so would be so helpful!

For this post, dedication reads ‘to the struggle of fat women to hold on to their dreams’

Absolutely! 💜

The reading for Dec’s Fat Lib Book Club is a classic fat text ‘Shadows on a Tightrope’ - we chose it because we felt we needed to connect with our history and the liberationists who came before us with the world feeling so much harder. Here’s the dedication 💜

I mean it was such an absurd turn of events but also so telling of how comfortable kids of this age are policing their bodies and how genuinely concerned they are with pursuing thinness

Fat friends- yesterday I was buying oat milk and a school girl looked at me CV and then said to her friend to not buy oat milk because she doesn’t want to get fat. How should I have handled this? I wanted to suggest some reading but these were like 15 yr olds and I didn’t think that would help 😂

if you've heard that fat liberationists are trying to steal anyone's right to try intentional weight loss, you've heard wrong.

there's nobody more invested in body autonomy than fat liberationists.

but it's to literally everyone's benefit if crit, analysis, & discernment are part of all decisions.

You can find more information about Fat Liberation London on Insta and Meetup - we have coffee meet-ups, drinks socials, fat lib book club at The British Library, film club, karaoke, picnics and so much more!