Writing As and For Children: The Author’s Journey
“If somebody had told me when I was ten that I was going to grow up and become a children’s book author, I would have hid under my bed and told them they were lying…and then written a diary entry on it. I never thought I would become a writer, but books are all I […]
The Seed of a Story
Katherine Applegate told us that the inspiration for a lot of her books comes from the news, “There was a Muslim family that had moved into a small town in the United States, and somebody had put a note on their door that said, Go away. We don’t want you here. It was outrageous…we were […]
The Books That Spoke To Authors
Popular author Thomas Taylor says that all the books he enjoyed reading as a child also found a home in his own writing. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien—one of the books that had a huge effect on him—opens with a map and he decided that he’d put one in his book too, when he wrote […]
The Art of Inspiring Through Storytelling: In Conversation with Kate DiCamillo
“Each letter has a shape,” Beatryce said. “And each letter has a sound and you put these shapes and sounds together and they become words.” This is one of the many prolific lines that stuck with our readers while the New York Times Bestselling author, Kate DiCamillo weaved magic through her words. Having won accolades […]
Snippets from Virtual Sessions: Life Beyond Words
While the pandemic pulled us apart, the collective experience of isolation and pain also unified us and brought us together. Over the last two years, writers from around the world have joined us virtually to talk about writing, reading and leading life through an overwhelming time. As we inch closer towards the end of the […]
Seeing The World Through Books
“Empathy needs to be shown, it needs to be taught. We weren’t born caring about other people. When you are only shown aggression, you become aggressive.” To bestselling author Holly Goldberg Sloan, this is why books and stories are crucial. Stories, she noted, allow young people to identify with a character, a setting, a problem […]
Engaging Deeply with Books
The NLF Reading Challenge 2022 brought together 10 to 13-year-old book lovers from around the country in a bid to not only get them to read more, but also to read better. Through author sessions, writing prompts and book discussions led by reading guides who oversee children’s reading, we hope to encourage children to read […]
When We Got Lost in Dreamland: Book Review | Young Readers Write
We invited young readers to share their thoughts on the books they liked the most from the NLF Reading Challenge 2022 list. Here is what two book lovers from Grade 4 had to say about Ross Welford’s latest book When We Got Lost in Dreamland. Weda Ganesh from Neev Academy, Bengaluru writes: “When We Got […]
Malamander: Book Review | Young Readers Write
We invited young readers to share their thoughts on the books they liked the most from the NLF Reading Challenge 2022 list. Here is what an avid reader from Grade 4 had to say about Thomas Taylor’s middle-grade novel Malamander. Aadya Singh from Neev Academy, Bengaluru writes: “Malamander is the story of a Lost-and-Founder at […]