In the Reading Corner

Mark Bradley is a comics writer and artist who lives in Yorkshire with his family. He grew up reading stories about ghosts and monsters and promptly decided that he preferred them to humans. Having worked for the probation service for many years, he saw first-hand how important emotional literacy is and hopes his debut series will help young readers explore feelings in a fun setting. Bumble and Snug developed out of characters he kept drawing in the margins of other projects until he launched them on his Instagram account (@markbradleyillustration) and found himself with a book deal – something he never even dared to dream was possible.

In this episode, Mark talks to Nikki Gamble about his new comic book Bumble and Snug, which readers can enjoy from around age 5 upwards.
Originally recorded in April 2019
About Bumble and Snug
Best friends Bumble and Snug are Bugbops – little monsters filled with BIG feelings! In this full-colour graphic novel, join them on a funny, imaginative adventure with some VERY angry pirates, learning about the world outside and inside along the way.

Bumble and Snug are going on a big adventure to ... have a picnic! But when they accidentally get lost, they’re both cross – is their adventure ruined?

Working together to find their way home, Bumble and Snug come across a pirate treasure horde. But taking treasure that isn’t yours is a good way to get into trouble; sure enough, some VERY angry pirates aren’t far behind.

Bumble and Snug are certain they can replace the treasure and fix things to make everybody happy. But there’s another monstrous obstacle in store – and this one has TENTACLES.

Bumble and Snug and the Angry Pirates is a story about being cross and how to listen, friendship and sandcastles, and one GIANT octopus!

Support the show

Thank you for listening.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. And if you are interested in the books we have featured, purchasing from our online bookshop Bestbooksforschools.com
In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. It is produced by Alison Hughes.
Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1
For general news and updates, follow us on Twitter @imaginecentre
Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Deborah Ellis works as a mental health residential counsellor in Toronto. She is the winner of the Governor General's Award in Canada (equivalent to the Carnegie Medal) for her first novel Looking for X.

She was raised in Paris, Ontario, and from the time she was 17, she has been a political activist advocating non-violence. After high school, she went to Toronto and worked in the Peace Movement. Later she got involved in the Women's Movement, focusing on women's rights and economic justice.

Deborah has spent much time in Pakistan, in Afghan refugee camps, talking to women and documenting their lives under 20 years of war. Her main engagement continues to be anti-war politics.
Deborah has written four novels about a 12-year-old girl, Parvana, living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan and the challenges that she and her family face. The fourth book, My Name is Parvana, is set against the American invasion and is a period of cautious hope.
Since the American withdrawal and the subsequent takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, Deborah has been compelled to write a fifth novel about Parvana, One More Mountain. She joins Nikki Gamble In the Reading Corner to tell us more about it and her involvement with the women and children of Afghanistan.
About One More Mountain
It's 2021, and the Taliban have regained power in Afghanistan. Parvana and Shauzia, the brave protagonists of The Breadwinner, must now flee to escape new dangers from an old enemy. It has been 20 years since Parvana and Shauzia had to disguise themselves as boys to support themselves and their families.
But when the Taliban were defeated in 2001, it looked as if Afghans could finally rebuild their country. Many things have changed for Parvana since then. She has married Asif, who she met in the desert as she searched for her family when she was a child.
She runs a school for girls. She has a son, Rafi, who is about to fly to New York, where he will train to become a dancer. While Asif tries to get Parvana's sister, Maryam, and Rafi on one of the last flights out of Kabul, the Taliban come to the school, and Parvana must lead the girls out of Green Valley and into the mountains.

Support the show

Thank you for listening.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. And if you are interested in the books we have featured, purchasing from our online bookshop Bestbooksforschools.com
In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. It is produced by Alison Hughes.
Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1
For general news and updates, follow us on Twitter @imaginecentre
Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Kwame Alexander is an American poet and author of books for children, including the verse novel The Crossover, which was awarded the Newbery Medal in 2015 and is the basis for a new series from Disney Plus (2023). It is also available in a graphic novel adaptation illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile. Kwame's novels often use sport as a metaphor for the characters' struggles or the books' themes. In Booked, the sport is football, And in his most recent book, The Door of No Return, the main character, Kofi, is learning how to swim,
Kwame's father was an academic and activist in the civil rights movement. And Kwame has written a picture book, Undefeated, celebrating Black History and the extraordinary strength and bravery of those that transcended their circumstances.
Two new books, The Door of No Return and the picturebook Unspoken (published in the US as An American Story), also assert this strength and the refusal to be defined by one aspect of Black History - slavery.
In this episode, Kwame talks with Nikki Gamble about both books and their origins.
About The Door of No Return
Eleven-year-old Kofi Offin has dreams of water, of its urgent whisper that beckons with promises and secrets. He has heard the call on the banks of Upper Kwanta, where he lives.
He loves these things above all else: his family, the fireside tales of his father's father, a girl named Ama, and, of course, swimming. But when the unthinkable - a sudden death - occurs during a festival between rival villages, Kofi ends up in a fight for his life. What happens next will send him on a harrowing journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves.
Yet Kofi's dreams may be the key to his freedom...
About Unspoken
How do you tell a story that starts in Africa and ends in horror? About strength and pride and refusing to be broken? One that still hurts and still loves?A powerfully moving, poetic exploration of the story of slavery: from Africa to the tall ships, from back-breaking work in a strange land to resilience and eventual emancipation, Kwame Alexander tells the story that's hard to hear. Told through the lens of a teacher speaking to their young pupils, and in multiple art styles from award-winning artist and sculptor Dare Coulter, the story of slavery becomes one that you can tell with the bravery to lift your voice.

Support the show

Thank you for listening.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. And if you are interested in the books we have featured, purchasing from our online bookshop Bestbooksforschools.com
In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. It is produced by Alison Hughes.
Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1
For general news and updates, follow us on Twitter @imaginecentre
Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Scottish author Juliette Forrest is the award-winning author of Twister, The True Colours of Coral Glen, and The Night My Dream Came Alive.
Twister was a Sunday Times Book of the Week and chosen by The Guardian as the one must-read kid’s book of the summer. It was longlisted for the Branford Boase Award and won Calderdale Book of the Year.
The True Colours of Coral Glen was picked by the Evening Times as a best book of 2020 by a Glasgow author.
Juliette says, 'I write children’s fiction featuring quirky female lead characters with strong voices. Packed with adventure, my stories combine gritty reality with magic. I love imagining new worlds as well as unforgettable baddies.'
In this episode. she talks to Nikki Gamble about The Mountain Rescue Dog, a story inspired by the true history of the pioneer of mountain rescue.
Read our review of The Mountain Rescue Dog on the Just Imagine website.
Purchase The Mountain Rescue Dog from our bookselling partner Best Books for Schools
Publisher's Blurb
A young girl heals from grief and loss in the snowy Highlands of Scotland, with the help of her loyal, trusting rescue dog. Clova's life changes forever when her mother, who was a search and rescue volunteer, dies tragically in an avalanche. Her grieving father withdraws and life at home feels lonely, until the day she meets Border Collie Tatty, a shy and frightened dog who Clova helps make bright-eyed and boisterous again.
She begins to train Tatty as a search-and-rescue dog and when two local boys go missing on the moor, Tatty and Clova spring into action to track them down and save the day. But Dad is furious when he finds out Clova has been on the mountain, and sends Tatty away. Clova is heartbroken.
On the first day of spring, the sudden rise in temperature after a cold snap and heavy snow causes an avalanche on the mountain - and Clova's dad is up there! The Search and Rescue team - plus Clova and Tatty - scramble onto a helicopter for a dangerous rescue mission in the growing dark - can they find Dad and save the day?

Support the show

Thank you for listening.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. And if you are interested in the books we have featured, purchasing from our online bookshop Bestbooksforschools.com
In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. It is produced by Alison Hughes.
Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1
For general news and updates, follow us on Twitter @imaginecentre
Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Sophie McKenzie is the undisputed queen of the teen thriller. After being made redundant from her job in 2003, she started a year-long 'Writing for Children course' at the CityLit Institute in London. She finished her first novel, Girl Missing, at the beginning of 2005; it was then published by Simon & Schuster Children's Books in 2006.
Sophie joined Nikki Gamble In the Reading Corner to talk about her thriller Truth or Dare.
Purchase Truth or Dare from our bookselling partner Best Books for Schools
Publisher's Blurb
When lies are everywhere, how far will you go for the truth? A tense eco-drama with an explosive twist from the million-copy-selling author of Girl, Missing. Fourteen-year-old Maya cannot believe she has to spend the summer with her grandmother, helping out at the family cosmetics firm. But things get much more exciting when she meets a community of activists campaigning against the dumping of chemical waste.
Getting closer to one boy in particular, Bear, Maya is dared to join one of their protest missions but doesn't know that her grandmother's business is the target. Someone has been lying about their environmentally-friendly products, and as danger threatens, Maya must uncover the truth or betray her family forever. In this edge-of-your-seat drama exploring the line between truth and lies,

Support the show

Thank you for listening.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. And if you are interested in the books we have featured, purchasing from our online bookshop Bestbooksforschools.com
In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. It is produced by Alison Hughes.
Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1
For general news and updates, follow us on Twitter @imaginecentre
Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk