The Lokifesto: Read Like a Bad God - The Rights of the Reader

At LoveReading4Kids, we’ve long adored Louie Stowell’s mischievously funny Loki: A Bad God’s Guide series, so when, at The Bookseller Children's Conference last week, we saw that she'd created her own Lokifesto: A Bad God's Guide to Reading - we had to ask her to talk to us about it.

The chaos-loving Norse god in the body of an 11-year-old boy who’s stolen so many readers’ hearts - is now on a new soap box, and we couldn't be happier. At LoveReading4Kids, we’ve long championed the importance of choice in nurturing a lifelong love of reading. Because reading is reading is reading - whether it’s a comic, a classic, a graphic novel, a fantasy series, or the back of a cereal box. What matters most is that a child feels agency and joy in what they pick up.

When children have the freedom to choose, they read more, they read widely, and - most importantly - they read willingly. Choice builds confidence, curiosity, and a genuine connection to stories and ideas. That’s why we celebrate the full spectrum of reading experiences, from the silly to the serious, from picture books to page-turning adventures.

Every book can be the spark that turns a reluctant reader into a passionate one. And at LoveReading4Kids, that’s the magic we’re here to ignite. In this Q & A, Louie shares the spark and inspiration for the Lokifesto and why reading, in all its forms, is valuable. Should be rewarded. Should be fun.

A Q & A with Louie Stowell

Q. What first sparked the idea for creating the Lokifesto?

A. It was a response to the majority of online and media discussions about reading for pleasure. So much of it focuses on the benefits of reading. On how reading develops empathy, or helps you get on in life. That triggered a rebellious response in me - since when has something being good for you made you want to do it? We need to show kids the wild joy of reading, the subversive potential of it.

Q. Was there a particular moment or frustration that made you want to flip the script on traditional “reading advice” for kids?

A. The announcement of the National Year of Reading definitely had an impact. I’m glad that the government is focussing on it but my mind immediately jumped to the joyless potential of “government-sanctioned reading”. But it was also the drip drip drip of worthy advice about reading. I grew up reading Oink and Uncle Pigg and he’s my ultimate authority on what is suitable for children - biting political satire and bottoms, that’s what. Or rather, anything a child wants to read about.

Q. Why did you choose Loki, the god of mischief, as the voice to deliver this alternative reading manifesto?

A. It’s easier to avoid being worthy when you’re speaking with the voice of a bad god. Also, there’s deniability. If I’m advising kids to yeet boring books across the room in disgust, that could get me in trouble. Loki doing it? I have cover. He’s fictional. I endorse nothing.

Q. How does Loki’s mischievous perspective help children feel freer about how they read?

A. He has zero shame and is not afraid to claim pleasure for pleasure’s sake. He’s at least 80% Id, and Id gravitates to pleasure. I wouldn’t hold up Loki as a moral role model, but being around him can help - I hope - children feel that they can relax and break the (reading) rules. Or rather recognise the absurdity of rules, and make your own rules.

Q. The Lokifesto cheekily subverts the rules adults often impose about reading. Which “rule” do you feel most strongly about challenging?

A. COMICS. ARE. LITERATURE. Please enjoy this doodle of me with a tattoo along those lines on my forehead.

Comics are not a “gateway to reading”. They’re not something to read until you’re ready for “proper” books. They’re a medium, with all the variety that implies. Sure, comics can be shallow and silly. But so can prose. Comics have vast potential to express profound ideas, to tell stories in innovative ways. They’re not less-than pure-text books. Visual storytelling has value. I’m glad you gave me a word limit for this article because I could write a lot of very long essays on this topic. (I did actually do my undergraduate thesis on comics-as-literature, back in the early 2000s when, to quote comics, you had to photocopy panels, print them out and stick them into the essay.)

Q. Do you hope children (and parents!) will see reading differently after encountering it?

A. I hope children will see it and feel freer to enjoy what they enjoy. And I hope parents will feel safer giving their children more freedom in what and how they read. Not feel like bad parents for giving their kids audiobooks/comics/books that are lists of football stats. The non-illustrated prose novel only became the dominant literary form relatively recently, in the context of history. It’s not the be-all-and-end-all. Take the long view. Oral culture was the core storytelling mode for thousands of years - and still is for many people. Story is listening to your friend tell you a story as well as reading words on a page. I hope parents will see - even through the window of this little provocation - that there are wider vistas and exciting possibilities for their children.

Q. How do you hope children will feel when they read the Lokifesto?

A. As I said, I hope children will feel free to enjoy reading on their own terms. I want them to feel as though a weight’s been lifted from their shoulders. I get a lot of messages from children who relate to Loki - the way he gets into trouble and makes mistakes. I hope this can do the same for them in terms of reading - by taking away shame and judgement and injecting a spirit of resistance to What Is Proper And Good. Resistance is the grit in the oyster of joy that creates pearls of delight.

Q. Have you heard from children or teachers about how they’ve used the Lokifesto in classrooms or at home?

A. Not yet as it’s only just gone out there but I have seen a lot of pictures of it up on library walls in schools and teachers and parents and librarians planning how to use it to cause a little chaos. It seems to have struck a chord with a lot of adults already - I think everyone has their own inner rebellious child reader, the one that stayed up late with a flashlight under the duvet! May Loki be the light by which you read at forbidden times.

Q. How does the Lokifesto fit into your wider mission as a children’s author and illustrator?

A. My duty to readers is to entertain them, first and foremost. To make them laugh. But a secondary purpose, for me, of writing and illustrating, is to create something that gets children to question the status quo. Whether that’s a moral status quo (why DOES Odin get to punish loki, who made him arbiter of all that’s good?) or a literary one (who says you can’t doodle bums on a page when discussing ethics). But duty is a dull word. So is purpose. I mostly make books to please myself, and try to explain what it feels like inside my head on the page. I believe - not in a supernatural way, but an emotional way, perhaps - that there’s a web of story that surrounds us all. We can all share in it, and add to it. Being a writer and illustrator is about making parts of that web visible.

Q. If you could add one more “rule” to the Lokifesto, what would it be?

A. Read for schadenfreude: sometimes, hate-reading is fun! Reading about characters you want to see suffer! Read about awful people having their comeuppance!

But most of all I’d like kids to come up with their own rules and take the reins of reading. It belongs to them.

Enter our competition to win a set of Loki books and a LoveReading4Kids gift card!

We now challenge you all to enter our competition to Make-your-own Lokifesto: Three reading rules for your class/home. The winning creative will win a set of Loki books for their home or classroom and a LoveReading4Kids gift card.