Skip to content

Our supporters and patrons

Myra Barrs
We are very sad to announce that our patron, former colleague and friend,  Myra Barrs, died on 24 October 2023.

Myra was Director of what was then the Centre for Language in Primary Education, now Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), where all of the Love my books team worked during an extraordinary period of educational development in the area of children’s literacy learning. 

The Guardian obituary linked here is from Sue Ellis, who became Director of CLPE after Myra, and gives a full and moving account the life and work of this extraordinary woman.
We are deeply sad to lose our friend and colleague.


Michael Rosen
Former Children’s Laureate, writer, poet, broadcaster, Professor at Goldsmiths College, Michael’s books include picture books We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and This is our House, children’s novels including Uncle Gobb and the Dread Shed, poetry for example A Great Big Cuddle, one of Our top 10 poetry books and Michael Rosen’s A-Z
of Poetry from Agard to Zephaniah, and a book for parents Good ideas, how to be your child’s best teacher www.michaelrosen.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/michael.rosen.5496


SF Said
Award winning children’s author, SF Said won the Smarties prize for Varjak Paw , the Blue Peter Award for The Outlaw Varjak Paw and was nominated for the 2014 Guardian prize for children’s fiction for his book Phoenix.
In 2024 his latest book Tyger was voted Book of the Year.

Visit SF Said’s website http://www.sfsaid.com/

Click here for link to a trailer about Phoenix.
Read about the books which influenced SF Said as a child


David Almond
Award winning author for children and young people, winning the Carnegie and Whitbread prizes within the UK. International prizes include the Hans Andersen award in 2010, the most prestigious prize in children’s literature.

David’s books include: Skellig, The Boy who Climbed into the Moon , My Dad is a Birdman and The Boy who Swam with Piranhas

Visit David Almond on Facebook.


Mini Grey
An award winning illustrator and writer of very popular picture books, Mini has won the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Smarties Book Prize. Her picture books include Traction Man is Here! , Space Dog, Toys in Space, Biscuit Bear, Egg Drop, and The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon.

Visit Mini’s website http://minigrey.com/     Mini’s sketchblog is Sketching Weakly at http://minigrey-blog.com/


Julian Grenier
A Headteacher and National Leader of Education, Julian worked in early years education for the last two decades with a particular focus on young children’s communication and early literacy. Julian has a doctorate in education (EdD).
Julian is was Headteacher at Sheringham Nursery School; see the Teaching School Programme at www.sheringham-nur.org.uk
In 2023 Julian received a CBE and now works for Ofsted
You can follow him @juliangrenier


Jessica Souhami
Jessica Souhami’s books are  exquisitely illustrated and mainly retellings of traditional stories. She was formerly a puppeteer, making shadow puppets and bringing traditional stories to life.

 Her  first book was The Leopard’s Drum, a story from West Africa and one of Our top 10 folk and fairy tales. Her other books include Foxy! , No Dinner  and Sausages. Her new picture book, Honk, Honk! Hold Tight! is one of our Top 10 new picture books and tells the traditional and very funny folktale of the princess who will not laugh.


Marilyn Brocklehurst
Marilyn is the founder of the Norfolk Children’s Book Centre, a wonderful independent bookshop. She works with schools to develop library provision, provides support for National conferences, has judged National book awards and writes reviews for The Bookseller and other publications. In recognition of her work she has recently become a Fellow of the English Association.

Marilyn is passionate about Reading for Pleasure and this is central to  her work with schools and parents.


Chris Riddell
Chris Riddell is the current children’s laureate. He is a prolific illustrator with a distinctive detailed style. He  has collaborated with a number of writers for children including Neil Gaiman and another of our patrons, Michael Rosen illustrating A Great Big Cuddle: Poems for the Very Young. Chris is a renowned political cartoonist.

Chris is a highly successful, award winning writer in his own right and his solo work includes the Goth Girl and Ottoline series. The first Goth Girl novel won the Costa Children’s Book Award in 2013. Other awards include the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration which he has won three times; most recently in 2016 for The Sleeper and the Spindle with Neil Gaiman.

Follow Chris’s laureate log.
Visit his website


Chitra Soundar is a writer and storyteller who draws inspiration from the ancient epics and stories of India to write picture books and young fiction. Her Farmer Falgu titles were included in the TES list of “50 Books to diversify your class reading” list. Recently, A Jar of Pickles and a Pinch of Justice has been shortlisted for the Surrey Libraries Children’s Book Award.

Lovemybooks were delighted to include Pattan’s Pumpkin in our selection of stories about ‘Our World’ launched in March 2017. See our activity page here: http://www.lovemybooks.co.uk/pattans-pumpkin.  Pattan’s Pumpkin is now also part of the 2017 CLPE Power of Reading programme and the October 2017 book of the month for Read Across America.

Chitra’s new book with Poonam Mistry coming soon is You’re safe with me a stunning and beautifully written bedtime story published by Lantana books (in May 2018). Website: www.chitrasoundar.com

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/ChitraSoundarAuthor
Twitter: @csoundar


Joseph Coelho
Joseph’s poems have been published in several Macmillan anthologies including Green Glass Beads edited by Jacqueline Wilson. Joseph has been a guest poet on
Cbeebies Rhyme Rocket where he was beamed up from ‘The Rhyme Rock’ to perform his Bug Poem and has featured alongside Michael Rosen and Valerie Bloom on Radio 4’s Poetry Playtime. His debut children’s collection Werewolf Club Rules is published by Frances Lincoln and was the winner of the 2015 CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Award. His collection for older readers Overheard in a Tower Block was long-listed for the 2018 Carnegie Medal. He recently finished filming ‘Teach Poetry’ a 10 part BBC online series that aims to make the writing of poetry fun and accessible to all.

In addition, Joseph has written two wonderful picture books, Luna Loves Library Day with Fiona Lumbers and If All the World Were illustrated by Alison Colpoys included in our Top 10 picturebooks 2018.

In 2022 Joseph became Children’s Laureate.


Imogen Russell Williams.
Imogen is a children’s literature critic writing for the Guardian, the Metro and the Times Literary Supplement, and a co-presenter of Down the Rabbit Hole, a children’s book show broadcast monthly on Resonance FM. She has also written a non-fiction title for 5-8-year-olds, The Big Book of the UK, which is published by Ladybird.


Frank Cottrell Boyce
Frank is an award-winning screen writer and novelist. He won the Carnegie Medal for Millions and the Guardian fiction prize for The Unforgotten Coat. He was commissioned to write the sequel to Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and collaborated with Danny Boyle to create the storyline for the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony in which children’s books had a central role. He is a strong advocate for the importance of children’s books and reading for pleasure.




Sonia Thompson
Sonia is Head Teacher at St Matthew’s CE Primary School, in Nechells, Birmingham: the first winner of the Open University/UK Literacy Association Whole School Reading for Pleasure School of the Year. She is passionate about evidence-based reading for pleasure practices, and places these at the heart of the school. 

Sonia has run an OU/UKLA Teachers’ Reading Group for two years and is an advisor for the OU/UKLA Research Rich Pedagogies website. She has spoken at various conferences about Reading for Pleasure, including Peters Love Literacy and ResearchED. Sonia is a co-opted member of the UKLA National Council, representing the OU Teacher Reading Groups.


Welcome to Lovemybooks

Lovemybooks is for parents, carers, teachers, schools, and early years staff, created by literacy experts. Free and ad free with over 250 activity pages full of creative book-based ideas.
SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER to see new books, activities and ideas

NEW BOOKS AND ACTIVITY PAGES

So many great picturebooks have been published in 2023.
Here’s our selection of some of the best.

We hope hope you and your children will enjoy sharing these books again and again and enjoy conversations, creative activities, finding out more or imaginative story play.

Looking for a gripping new novel for a more experienced reader or to read aloud to them? Here are a few new titles to look out for. Find out more here.

OUR BOOK IN FOCUS

Our book in focus is Maybe, Chris Haughton, Age 0-5

When three baby monkeys are left with strict instructions not to go to the mango tree as there are tigers there the temptation is just too much and in no time at all they find themselves narrowly escaping danger.

Maybe brilliantly captures the feelings of the very young when warned not to do something tempting. The illustrations are stunning, and the monkeys’ huge eyes convey their thoughts and feelings powerfully.

Joan tells us about sharing Maybe with her granddaughter, Nancy (2 and a half). After sharing the book a couple of times, they play the story together.  
Visit our activity page: Buy the book

MESSAGE TO PARENTS FROM SONIA THOMPSON, BIRMINGHAM HEADTEACHER

Sue McGonigle from Lovemybooks recently interviewed Sonia Thompson, Head Teacher of St Matthews C of E Primary School, Birmingham. See whole video
See Sonia’s message to parents below.

https://vimeo.com/860628826

TYGER by SF SAID WINS CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR

Congratulations to TYGER by SF Said, illustrated by DaveMcKean, which is winner of Book of the Year: Children’s Fiction at the British Book Awards. All the judges agreed that the book already “felt like a classic”.

SF Said says ‘I put 9 long, hard years of my life into writing TYGER because I believe children’s books are the most important books of all. So it was beyond incredible to see it win Children’s Book Of The Year at the #BritishBookAwards. Thank you @thebookseller @theweekjunior & the judges!!!’
See our Tyger activity page

https://vimeo.com/775328321

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR PATRONS 🧡 🧡 🧡

Award for Michael Rosen
Congratulations to Lovemybooks’ patron Michael Rosen on winning the prestigious Pen Pinter prize for his fearless body of work including his writing for children. Ruth Borthwick one of the judges said Rosen has “championed a way of writing for children which reflects their everyday worlds, using humour and wordplay to validate their imaginative ways of thinking and being”, said judge and chair of English PEN, Ruth Borthwick. Read more here: Author Michael Rosen wins 2023 PEN Pinter prize for ‘fearless’ body of work | Books | The Guardian


The Island of Brilliant
Interested in children’s books? Another of our wonderful patrons Frank Cottrell Boyce has launched a great podcast with author illustrator Nadia Shireen entitled The Island of Brilliant The Island of Brilliant! | a podcast by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Nadia Shireen (podbean.com)


SF SAID
SF was appointed writer in residence at Booktrust in March.
See Writer in Residence at BookTrust: SF Said | BookTrust


This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is david-almond2-1.jpg

DAVID ALMOND
David received an OBE for services to Literature in April. He has also received two international prizes this year, the Nonino International prize one of Italy’s most prestigious literary prizes and the James Kruss prize awarded to a living author of children’s and YA books distinguished by linguistic brilliance originality imaginative storytelling and cosmopolitanism.

Visit our activity page for David Almond’s Tale of Angelino Brown and The Boy who Climbed into the Moon


JOSEPH COELHO
We are utterly delighted to announce that award-winning poet, playwright and author Joseph Coelho is the brand new Waterstones Children’s Laureate! ⭐


JULIAN GRENIER
Julian receives a CBE in the Jubilee Honours list. He is a Headteacher and National Leader of Education and one of our first patrons. Julian is a dedicated pioneer in early years education and has a particular focus on young children’s communication and early literacy. He has a doctorate in education (EdD).
Visit the website of Sheringham Nursery School where Julian is Headteacher and see the Teaching School Programme at www.sheringham-nur.org.uk

Julian blogs at www.juliangrenier.blogspot.co.uk You can follow him @juliangrenieR

WELCOME TO LOVE MY BOOKS

https://vimeo.com/678686124
Sue McGonigle from Lovemybooks talks about our website

What people say about Lovemybooks
The activities brought the story to life! Elena, Parent

Lovemybooks is a treasure trove of well researched guidance on books and reading Alex Law, Head teacher

Everything I think is important about Lovemybooks is right there in its name!
SF Said, author

Praise for Lovemybooks

I would encourage any nursery/primary teacher school to take a look at these resources!
Lovemybooks is also an amazing website to share with your parents.
Sonia Thompson our patron and Birmingham Head Teacher:

"The Lovemybooks website is something that I have shared with training teachers here at Brookes & with parents too. It's a HUGE database and worth schools subscribing to the newsletter and passing the site onto parents as well.
"Mat Tobin Lecturer in Primary English and Children's literature at Oxford Brookes

“The Lovemybooks website is a brilliant resource of both fun and educational activities”  Sarah, parent

“This site is gold, such a rich resource for schools and parents, and the bodies behind the scenes are experts in their field”  The Writing Web

"Lovemybooks is such a brilliant resource for parents and teachers! Thank you Lovemybooks for such brilliant recommendations and such imaginative and inspiring activities to continue the fun further!" Rachel, parent and teacher

"Caspar loves reading but he gets particularly excited when we can bring books to life for him. Lovemybooks provides some great inspiration for how to achieve this. Thanks Lovemybooks for the great recommendation and fantastic ways for Caspar to immerse himself in the book!"  Ben, parent

"Fallen in LOVE with @lovemybooksUK lovemybooks.co.uk absolutely brilliant activities to enhance reading time with children."
Cheshire SEN tutor

"As an early years lecturer at Strathclyde University I would like to express how useful your web site has been in delivering training to early years teacher within Scotland . They have notified parents and used the web site to support their own work in nursery. The feedback has been exceptional so I was keen to let you know." Deirdre Grogan Early Years lecturer Scotland

"I am a child care provider in the US.  I just found your site today by accident while looking for an "Elmer" template.  I am IN LOVE! I have saved your site to my computer and will be back soon and often.  Thank you for this amazing resource."
Kelly Simpson US

"What an amazing resource!"Jennie Clarke 

"What a wonderful website!!"  Helen Bradford Senior Teaching Fellow UCL Institute of Education

You can search the Lovemybooks website for:

* Topics and themes…
Our specially chosen books are arranged in topics and themes that young children love, with ideas for ways to share the books and lots of exciting things to do Read more…

* Books for different age groups
Find books for children aged 0-3, 3- 5, 5-7, 7-11 Read more

* Our Top 10 book lists
Whether you want to find out about exciting new picture books, alphabet books, folk and fairy tales or story apps you’ll find them here in our Top 10 books sections Read more

 

 

 

Your feedback

You can contact us using the form at the bottom of the page, by email at info@lovemybooks.co.uk, on our Facebook page or on Twitter @lovemybooksUK.

 

Your comments

Here is a great new website all about reading for pleasure. Lots of recommendations, activities, tips, great advice for parents and children. It’s been created by true experts and enthusiasts, and patrons are Michael Rosen and SF Said. Fantastic for the summer holidays and beyond. Find out how to make an origami book, discover how we learn to read, send feedback, ask questions. It’s bright and brilliant and free!

David Almond, author,  via Facebook

It’s absolutely marvellous, many congratulations for getting something so bright, comprehensive, clear, easy to navigate, inspirational   – I could go on all day!

Sian Williams, Children’s Bookshow

What a fantastic website- well done- lovely graphics, easy links and great idea.

Kathy Cruise, Supervisor Family Nurse Partnership 

It’s a pleasure to see such a beautifully curated reading resource.

SF Said, author via Twitter

 Fantastic new website with TONS of great books & creative reading ideas for 0-7s!
SF Said, author via Twitter

Reading for pleasure, reading for fun: howze about this?
Michael Rosen, author and broadcaster  via Twitter

Miss G Garnett@fazakeyfs Jul 15

Have a look at for great reading ideas for children aged 0-7
Via Twitter

Alison@WoodlandAli Jul 16

Loving your website great timing for Thanks top tweet!
Via Twitter

Jul 21

Very impressed by new website from Wonderful, FREE resources for parents
Via Twitter

“I have just clicked onto LMB and LOVE it already! I have been reading The Hungry Caterpillar, The Gruffalo, Dear Zoo and other stories for the last 6 months to my son and I adore all your ideas on how to expand and develop the stories. Thank you for creating this website!”

Tamiko,  parent

My daughter (aged 2) loves the activities on your website. She can now often be seen walking round the flat, bag packed ‘going on a bear hunt’ and is turning into a real bookworm, looking at the pictures telling us the stories from her favourite books – thanks for all the creative ideas Lovemybooks!

Emma (Naomi’s mum)

Contact form

A Great Big Cuddle

 

Michael Rosen, Chris Riddell (illus)       
Walker Books
Age 0-5 years

This is a delightful and award winning book. Full of fun and language play, it’s a perfect entry to the world of poetry and rhyme. Very young children will want to hear, and repeat these contemporary rhymes again and again, just as they can with traditional nursery rhymes.

There’s lots which will resonate with young children and their parents as many of the poems tap into familiar feelings and experiences; being excited about a party in Party Time, feeling anxious in Lost, being told what to do in Are you Listening? or wanting to have a go at something in Let me do it.

This is an inspired collaboration between two of our Lovemybooks’ patrons; a great poet, Michael Rosen, and a great illustrator, Chris Riddell, with joyous results.

 

lovemybooksactivitiesorangecentre

Share the book

You could read the poems in order or browse and dip into the book, stopping to share the pages that take your fancy. Children will develop their own favourites (and so will you!) and enjoy hearing you reading them again and again. Encourage children to join in with the words and actions and perhaps with completing the rhymes.

I don’t want, Oh Dear and Let Me Do It are just three of the poems with repeated lines or choruses which would be great fun for children to join in with.

The illustrations are absolutely delightful and children will enjoy looking at them and talking about them. Which are their favourite pages?

Watch Michael Rosen perform ‘I am Angry’ here:

Kids’ Poems and Stories With Michael Rosen

Visit Michael Rosen’s YouTube channel with more performances from A Great Big Cuddle

Things to do

  • Recite The Button Bop  when you are buttoning up clothes.

  • Dance to Tippy-Tappy and Music.

  • After sharing Boing Boing children can try to roll up like a ball or pounce like a tiger. Wiggly Wiggly will encourage lots of delightful wiggling, jiggling and giggling.

  • Finger story  will encourage finger play and thinking together what fingers can do.

  • Practise counting down together with Party Time.

  • At mealtime you can repeat the words of Lunchtime, crunching and munching.

  • In I AM HUNGRY you can have fun together talking about all the things you’d eat if you were really hungry, or what makes you really angry in I AM ANGRY. Can children make a really angry face?

  • With Once they can enjoy looking scary like a terrible ‘Berrible’ perhaps looking at their faces in a mirror! Children might like to draw their own picture of a terrible Berrible.

Jennie, George and Lizzie

"It’s not just the title that resonates with children there are some really great poems in this collection. The illustrations are so eye-catching my 2-year-old can easily find his favourites and the pictures give him plenty to talk about.

'I have loved exploring these poems with George who was 2 in May. He loves stories and that special time you get together when we read. He has been exploring sounds and words a lot lately and loves to watch your mouth when you make noises or sounds and any increased expression or intonation so these are perfect for him to join in with. His favourites are 'Boing! Boing!' where he bounces with me pounces and then does an impressive roar. He loves the finger play in 'Finger story' as well as the brilliant accompanying image which he notices every time. The poem has lots of actions and it finishes with bed so George can pretend to fall asleep which he loves doing with accompanying snores.'

'My four-year-old has just started school and is already coming home playing schools, and she enjoys the 'Lunchtime' poem with its rhymes, repetition and different sized words. Her school cardigan has buttons which she is learning to do up herself so the 'Button Bop' has come in handy a few times too. She has enjoyed noticing the exciting ways the text and images are laid out and how the words don’t need to be the same size. It also has a colourful contents page, so we have been able to look at that together too. She likes making up her own actions to join in with the poems and like most children the ‘silliness’. It is perfect.

We took this book away with us over the summer and it was lovely to see older children getting enjoyment out of it too. They love to read aloud, and this was perfect, the younger children didn’t need to sit and listen for long, they could join in and the older children loved performing the poems as well.'

 

Find out more

See our top ten poetry books here

More about poetry and rhyme here

Walker and Booktrust have produced some downloadable activity sheets on this book.

Read more books by Michael Rosen. His books for the very young include:

We’re Going on a Bearhunt

This is Our House

Little Rabbit Foo Foo

Michael Rosen has also written a wide range of poetry and information books for older children and also the Uncle Gobb series of novels Uncle Gobb and the Dread Shed

Chris Riddell  has illustrated many children’s books and is author and illustrator of the Ottoline and Goth Girl series. See our activity ideas for Ottoline and the Yellow Cat here.