Angela Crocombe
Angela Crocombe is the Readings Prize and Readings Foundation coordinator and a senior buyer for Readings Kids. She is also the author of two books on sustainable living, A Lighter Footprint: A Practical Guide to Minimising your Impact on the Planet and Ethical Eating: How to Make Food Choices That Won’t Cost the Earth.
Blog post — 27 Oct 2021
Children's books for big thinkers
The release of the extraordinary new book by Brian Selznick got us thinking about books that defy easy categorization and are suitable for readers who like to question everything, consider…
Blog post — 10 Nov 2021
New (and favourite) Christmas books for children
It’s nearly Christmas again (where has the year in lockdown gone!?) and it’s time to start sharing with children our beloved seasonal stories. They’re fun, they’re festive and this year…
Blog post — 8 Nov 2021
Classic WWII stories for children
War stories have a perennial fascination for children, perhaps because even when life is challenging, a story about a child overcoming adversity in wartime shows that a happy ending is…
Blog post — 25 Oct 2021
Recent children's books in translation
Translated children’s books are a wonderful opportunity and a pleasure for children to experience very different perspectives on the world. We are blessed with a number of absolutely stunning translated…
Review — 2 Nov 2021
Margot Mertz Takes It Down by Carrie McCrossen & Ian McWethy
After her uncle loses her entire college fund in a shonky business deal, Margot Mertz starts her own side hustle doing what she does best: removing embarrassing content from the…
Blog post — 17 Oct 2021
Spooky reads for Halloween
October is traditionally the month for spooky stories, decorating pumpkins and dressing up in wacky costumes. While the trick or treating may be a little more socially distanced this year…
Blog post — 20 Oct 2021
Books on climate activism for young adults
Young people are understandably worried about one of the most pressing issues of our time: the climate emergency.
Rather than portraying dystopian futures, the following four novels and one non-fiction…
Review — 4 Oct 2021
Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu
Author of Moxie, Jennifer Mathieu, has written a compelling re-imagining of one of the greatest books about teen rebellion of all time: S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders.
Set in…
Review — 4 Oct 2021
A Year in Fleurville by Felicita Sala
The previous children’s cookbook by author and illustrator Felicita Sala, Lunch at 10 Pomegranate Street, is extremely popular in my household, inspiring many of our favourite recipes, so I…
Review — 29 Sep 2021
Wandi by Favel Parrett
This beautiful children’s novel by award-winning adult writer Favel Parrett is an animal rescue story told from the perspective of an alpine dingo. When the young dingo is swept away…
