Letterbox Library

Liverpool! I am thrilled to be coming to celebrate the Lunar New year with you! My book Nate Yu's Blast from the Past features Liverpool's Chinatown and more.

Learn why I set the book in Liverpool, ants, and let's make some lanterns with riddles on them!
www.waterstones.com/events/celeb...

Over half the children in the UK don't have a bedtime story. Help us reach them. Donate. Illustration of girl in show wood with book and robins.

If you can, please support @booktrust.org.uk who, like Father Christmas himself, are giving away book parcels so that kids in care or at risk can have brand new books of their own. www.booktrust.org.uk/xmas #MagicOfBooks

Screenshot from start of our Insta reel. Text reads “LGBTQ+ Early Years & Primary Highlights From 2025” Beneath is a colourful image by illustrator Claire Powell from the book The Princes & the Pea. Shows a man of colour in a top hat and glasses and a white man with a crown in an open top old style rolls Royce with a Just Married front number plate. Both wear a big bow tie. Pet dog in back of car. Rainbow flag flies from car bonnet. A brass band to the right.

Get on over to our Insta account to see a little reel on just some of our lgbtq+ children’s books highlights over the last year- based on our contribution to @booksforkeeps.bsky.social Books of the Year.
#KidLitUK

😊The absolute joy of interviewing @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social about her Nero shortlisted title, People Like Stars for Books for Keeps
@scholasticuk.bsky.social
#KidLitUK
#BfK

2/2 … “who could help shape how concepts are developed with inclusion at the heart”.

A great piece by Beth Cox on a very practical idea for embedding inclusion in publishing across departments and within a wholly creative role.
@thebookseller.com

In publishing, one DEI role is not enough To future-proof publishing, we must bake in inclusion at much greater depth.

1/2 “There needs to be… a ‘creative inclusion’ lead” shifting an “often neglected, element of DEI out of HR and into content creation in a role that is not just creative, but commercial and a vital part of the publishing infrastructure.”
…
#KidLitUK
www.thebookseller.com/comment/copy...

12th December

12th December

12th December

Lui Sit returns to the literary fray with a debut children's novel The author’s debut children’s novel, Land of the Last Wildcat, is a breathtaking action adventure series with important representation of mixed-race heritage.

Great read- @lui-land.bsky.social Sit interviewed by @evawongnava.bsky.social on exploring the 🇦🇺bushland as a child, environmental activism, not wanting to be pigeonholed and incidental ESEA representation.
#KidLitUK

www.thebookseller.com/author-inter...

Book pack image from website. A square split diagonally with two tones of orange. Against a yellow background. Text in square reads “Early Years Concepts Book Pack 25 Books” There are 4 book covers shown; What Can I Hear? Outdoors Opposites Snow Other book title obscured as books overlap.

A visual asset with “Senses” at the top. 4 images against a blue/cream grid like graph paper. The images look either ‘pinned’ or ‘taped’ at the corners as if on a noticeboard. They are all inside book images: Top left a toddler of colour sits eating some bread; book test reads “and big bites of chewy bread”. Underneath picture is written “tasting!” Top right Face of East Asian boy with glasses; text above reads “helping us to see” and, below, “some people need glasses to help them to see” Bottom left Photo of girl of colour leaping across sand against a blue sky. Top reads “hot and cold”; bottom reads “the Sun has warmed this sand. It feels very hot” Bottom right White toddler lies on grin. Wears glasses & an eyepatch on right eye. Plays xylophone. Text reads “Bing, bong, bashing!” Text below picture reads “hearing!”

It’s back! Our popular Early Years Concepts Pack, a mini library offering early introductions to concepts e.g: seasons, weathers, counting, colours, shapes, bodies & senses.

(And as always it’s an inclusive collection.)

Visit: www.letterboxlibrary.com/product-page...
#KidLitUK

Shows a previously posted visual asset with details of a giveaway. This is now mostly obscured by a large yellow circular stamp with insert text which reads, “Winner Announced!”

And we have a winner!!

Shaftesbury Junior School are all set to receive a FREE #ReflectingRealities Book Pack, funded by author Sophie Anderson.

To find out more about the pack visit letterboxlibrary.com/product-page/r…
#KidLitUK

3/3 “‘Seeing yourself in a book’ has become the mantra of inclusive storytelling – but for many authors of colour like me, access to audiences has too often meant sitting on yet another diversity panel.”

➡️ “Visibility without understanding is another kind of flattening.”

2/3,“Just count the number of ESEA-created picture books that reference the moon and ESEA titles launched in the Lunar New Year…”

➡️Publishers’ preferred ESEA tropes in picture books…

1/3 “Our publishing industry of majority white editors can’t help its ‘white gaze’..that filters expectations of what an ESEA writer can&should write.”

➡️The political usefulness *and* ‘flattening’ of ESEA labels-

G8 piece by @candygourlay.bsky.social & citing other ESEA creatives.
#KidLitUK

😊The absolute joy of interviewing @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social about her Nero shortlisted title, People Like Stars for Books for Keeps
@scholasticuk.bsky.social
#KidLitUK
#BfK

@profsunnysingh.bsky.social

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️An Audacious Queer History:
Our latest Book Review over on our Insta grid.⬇️

Hear us sharing 5 reasons why every secondary school should get themselves a copy.

Also now listed on our website: www.letterboxlibrary.com/product-page...
#KidLitUK

Screenshot from the “About” section of the Jhalak Prize website. Text reads: “About The Jhalak Prize From 2024, the Jhalak Poetry Prize has been added to our awards portfolio. Our poetry award is supported by the independent poetry publisher Ink Sweat & Tears with a special focus on their internship programme. First awarded in March 2017, the Jhalak Prize awards seek to celebrate books by writers of colour in the UK and Ireland. In 2020, the single award was bifurcated to create a dedicated Jhalak Children’s YA Prize. From 2024, the Jhalak Poetry Prize has been added to our awards portfolio.”

Find them at The Other Place and also on insta ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Terms and conditions | Jhalak Prize

“The winners find courage, empathy and delight in places and moments where these seem entirely impossible”
(S Singh June 2025 The Bookseller)

This year’s #JhalakPrize submissions close 12th December,folk!

THE prize you want your authors/illustrators entered in. www.jhalakprize.com/terms-and-co...

The first in @booksforkeeps.bsky.social #Nerobookawards interview series: Jenny Pearson/Shrapnel Boys.

Up next:
👀look out for our interview with @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social #PeopleLikeStars @scholasticuk.bsky.social

2026 marks nearly 20 years of Lulu, everyone’s fave pint-sized picture book hero.

We’re getting in on the celebrations early…head on over to Insta to see our Lulu-happiness!

Thank you for the Lulu legacy Anna McQuinn, Rosalind Beardshaw & Alanna Max Books
#KidLitUK

A little crop of my illustration of Yusuf and his new classmates for Wild Journey by A M Dassu @amdassu.bsky.social which is out now! @edpr.bsky.social @zephyrbooks.bsky.social
#illustration #kidlitart #kidlitillustration #kidlit #kidlillustrators #kidlitartists

A screenshot from the Letterbox Library website. Title 'Books for the Season'. Under this is the book cover image for one of the featured titles: The Other Father Christmas. Cover shows a man and boy of colour sat in a sleigh being pulled by two reindeers. Backdrop of a night time purple star-lit sky. Underneath the book cover is the price £8.99 crossed out with the offer price £8.09 next to it. Under this, 'Add to cart'.

🎄We mostly sell book packs to schools but, at this time of year, we love seeing the flurry of seasonal individual book orders which come our way…🎁

It must be the new “Books For the Season” recs we just added to our home page (scroll dooooooooown)
letterboxlibrary.com
#KidLitUK

Winning titles asset. Top reads “Information Book Award Winning titles 2025” in white font against dark blue banner. Right top shows the Schools Library Association’s logo: S L A in green red & navy blue blocks. Below are the 4 winning titles: This Book Will Make You An Artist Amazing Asia How the News Works Black History Every Day

From artists to every day Black histories, @sla.org.uk presents the 2025 Winners of the #InformationBookAward
#KidLitUK

We are into the last 5 days of the #Creatives4Sudan auction. There are some INCREDIBLE lots on there. Please consider a cheeky little bid. EG on creative mentoring from @rashmiwriting.bsky.social #KeepEyesOnSudan app.galabid.com/creatives4su...

Just a few weeks left for publishers to submit books to the Jhalak Prize...this is me and Rikin Parekh, the artist in residence 2022! I won for Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths @piccadillypress www.jhalakprize.com

The so-wonderful #JhalakPrize is reaching its 10year milestone next year.

One of many reasons for publishers to submit- and authors/illustrators to ask their publishers to submit!
#KidLitUK

A photograph of author Jenny Pearson. She is sitting on a bench in a London square, wearing a spotted short sleeved shirt.

The cover of Jenny Pearson's book Shrapnel Boys (Usborne). It shows a group of young boys in front of St Paul's Cathedral in wartime as enemy planes fly overhead.

‘A stunning piece of historical fiction which combines meticulous research with a beautifully imagined plot.’

First in our series of interviews with the authors shortlisted for #NeroBookAwards, Joanne Owen talks to Jenny Pearson about SHRAPNEL BOYS #KidLitUK

booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/hear...

Visual asset for the Nero Books Awards shortlist 2025. Reads “2025 Children’s Fiction Shortlist “ Beneath is a stack of four chapter books. Titles from top to bottom are: People Like Stars My Soul, A Shining Tree Shrapnel Boys Dragonborn

ICYMI⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

We’re the very lucky people who got to interview @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social for @booksforkeeps.bsky.social to mark her Nero Book Awards shortlisting.

Patrice’s energy for gathering stories and telling them across genres & age range is phenomenal.

Feeling very nourished!

“Recent news stories include school and public librarians being asked to remove books, such as LGBTQ+ titles from shelves following complaints and universities navigating free speech.”

Quotes from @bookbrunch.bsky.social
article:
www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/article...