Meet our book review team!
Once a librarian, always a librarian! Tash was a children’s librarian before joining Read for Good, her role was to share the joy and power of books and reading with families across Derbyshire. Inspired by Roald Dahl’s Matilda she wanted to share her love of children’s books with as many people as possible!
Why reading matters: It is a privilege to be able to read and share the very best of children’s books with young people and their supporting adults. To give them the power to choose what to read with no judgement, opens up the World to them!
Being an avid reader, Annie has been reviewing children’s books for 40 years for publishers and children’s book journals including The Bookseller. Annie currently writes for a regular book review column for Book Talking and the Teaching Times. She run an agency Author’s Aloud UK arranging children’s authors, illustrators, poets and storytellers for schools and libraries in the UK and overseas. And she spent over 30 years working as a children’s librarian and liaising with booksellers. It’s fair to say Annie loves children’s books!
Why reading matters: Children need to experience choosing for themselves what they read. As adults, we can support their choices and help them discover authors and genres that they haven’t come across before, and share our own passion for reading.
Fiona has four grown up children and lives with her partner, an independent bookseller, and their two youngest sons, on a hill near Stroud. They share their lives with a dog called Errol. Fiona has worked as a teacher in primary schools across the UK and in a Sure Start Children’s Centre. As an education adviser for the local authority she specialised in language and developed storytelling in schools across the county. Fiona has an MA in Children’s Literature.
Fiona recently joined Read for Good’s storytelling team, working alongside children, helping them tell their own stories, with books, rhymes, songs and traditional tales.
Rachel has had a long career in the classroom at both Secondary and Primary level. She held responsibility for the primary school library which led her to completing a Masters in Children and Young Adult Literature in 2023. As well as reviewing for Read for Good she writes reviews for The Reading Zone and is a member of the book selection panel for Cheltenham Festival’s Reading Teachers=Reading Pupils group for 2024.
Why it matters: As a trustee for Read for Good, Rachel firmly believes that all children should be able to choose what they read and that to do so they should have a wide access to all genres of books.
Jane has worked in children’s publishing for over 30 years, specialising in non-fiction books. She was Publishing Director at Kingfisher, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Books. Working with a host of very talented authors and illustrators, she has helped create every kind of book, from first board books for tiny hands to large knowledge encyclopaedias for curious young minds. She has been a volunteer at Read for Good for almost 15 years, and is also involved with the Bath Children’s Literature Festival.
Why it matters: It’s wonderful to watch children freely choose a book to read. However odd their choice, as adults we need to support and encourage them. Information books offer an appealing alternative to reading fiction, especially for more reluctant readers.
Leah Capewell is a Read for Good Young Ambassador and an avid reader!
Why reading matters: You can take a step away from what is going on and go to so many different places in different situations. Say you want to go to a place but you can’t actually go there, books can allow you to go to that place without actually having to go there. If it’s a good book you can actually imagine you are in that place with the characters. You can take a step away from everything and go into the story.
Edward has lived his life immersed in a love of books and reading. He spent more than 20 years in the world of book publishing, working with many of the UK’s bestselling authors and then, in a moment of inspiration (or madness), he undertook a dramatic career change and retrained to become an English teacher. Edward has now written his first novel for teenagers, Stick or Twist Book 1: The Niko Grant Adventures.
Why reading matters: reading books can open everyone’s mind to new worlds, new ideas and new opportunities. More than anything, reading takes us on our own personal journey, allowing us to escape from everyday normality into the deep richness of our imaginations.
Cindy decided she wanted to be a writer at the age of about four, when she realised that books were written by real people! So far she has written 25 books for children and two for adults.
Sometimes Cindy thinks she’s retired but still keeps thinking of stories and loves reviewing, to help children and adults find the books they might enjoy.
Cindy and her granddaughter Seren read together a lot and are both very happy to be reviewing books for the wonderful Read for Good.
Brigette grew up in Vancouver, Canada, and flew across the pond to attain a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Bristol. Having been a student at a speech arts academy for over 12 years, where she was encouraged to explore stories in all their shapes and forms, Brigette is excited to join Read for Good as a book reviewer, supporting their mission to foster children’s love of reading.
Brigette hopes to break into the children’s publishing industry and is eager to explore how to make reading more accessible and representative to children with neurodiversity.
Jules is wife. Mother and Grandmother, and family is the most important thing to her. She enjoys music especially from the 1950’s to ’80s), puzzles, quizzes and, of course, reading!
Walking in countryside as long as there is a pub at the end 😁. Eating out trying new dishes and cooking and baking with the grandchildren.
I’m 74 years old and a retired primary school teacher. I have a BEd degree, my main subject was English and I worked in Cornwall for most of my teaching appointments. Since moving to Minchinhampton, I volunteered for our community run library and was a trustee for 7 of the 9 years, sharing responsibility for the children’s section, buying books from Peter’s in Birmingham and Octavia’s in Cirencester across all genres. I also helped to run the Summer Reading Challenges over the years, visiting local schools to encourage reading over the long summer holidays.
Since retiring, I trained to be a bereavement supporter with Cruse and have worked as a volunteer at the Children’s Hospice South West in Devon, working with the siblings of children with life shortening illnesses where books played a big part in helping children to cope with the loss of a loved one.
Leading up to retiring as a primary school teacher, the last 15 years Rowena worked in SEN in two schools. The most rewarding achievement was to see the progression of children learning to read, through a variety of reading schemes, but ultimately being able to comprehend what they were reading and enjoy the stimulation of reading for pleasure.
As chair of the Minchinhampton Community Library, Rowena is delighted to continue to be able to encourage children to read classics and newly published books, stimulating their whole development – physically, mentally and emotionally. Reading is a precious gift that can be treasured and shared by all ages.
