LoveReading4Kids Editorial Experts

Andrea Reece has spent almost her entire working life in children’s books, first as publisher, latterly as consultant, project manager and critic.

She has reviewed for LoveReading4Kids since 2015, is editor of the leading children’s books review journal Books for Keeps and administrator of the Klaus Flugge Prize and Branford Boase Award.

She was children’s programme director of the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival until 2023, spent three years as manager of National Poetry Day and works with CLPE on the CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Prize) and with The Full English on the Poetry By Heart national competition. She has judged children’s prizes including the Costa Children’s Book Award and Alligator’s Mouth Award.

Joy Court is co – founder of All Around Reading, having previously managed the Schools Library Service in Coventry, where she established the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards and the Literally Coventry Book Festival, as well as being the Reviews Editor of The School Librarian and Chair of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals. She now just concentrates on books and libraries as a freelance consultant while continuing to be an activist with the Youth Libraries Group and sits on the National Executive of the Federation of Children’s Book Groups. She has chaired and spoken on panels at festivals and conferences around the UK as well as delivering keynotes and workshops.

She is a Trustee and member of the National Council of the United Kingdom Literacy Association, where she sits on the selection panel for the UKLA Book Awards, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of The English Association and an Honorary Fellow of CILIP. Author of Read to Succeed: strategies to engage children and young people in reading for pleasure (2011) and Reading by Right: successful strategies to ensure every child can read to succeed (2017) FACET.

Joanne Owen is a writer, reviewer and workshop presenter whose lifelong love of books began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, Wales. An early passion for culture, story and folklore led her to read archaeology and anthropology at St John’s, Cambridge, after which she led the UK children’s book team for a major international retailer, going on to market books for Bloomsbury, Macmillan, Walker Books, Nosy Crow and Rough Guides. She now divides her time between writing, travel writing, reviewing and hosting writing workshops.

Joanne is the author of several books for children and young adults, among them the Martha Mayhem series, the Carnegie Medal-nominated Puppet Master, and You Can Write Awesome Stories, a how-to guide to creative writing. She’s also worked on a major community story project for the National Literacy Trust (Story Quest), and a number of travel guides, including The Rough Guide to Responsible Wales and guidebooks to the Caribbean region. In additional, she’s an occasional chair of LoveReading LitFest events, and judge for the 2023 Branford Boase Award.

Amy is a knowledgeable, innovative and enthusiastic school librarian, living and working in Cumbria.  Amy is a past UK School Librarian of the Year.

With over 17 years’ experience in school libraries and over a decade as the Yoto Carnegies National Coordinator she has a vast knowledge of children’s literature. She is a familiar face at festivals and has judged numerous book awards, including the Blue Peter Book Awards and the Nibbies.

Amy loves nothing more than sharing her love of books and reading, connecting young people with the authors and books that will enrich their lives for years to come.

Originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, Lucas Maxwell grew up on Nintendo, comic books and Dungeons and Dragons. He has failed at many jobs throughout his life, including fisherman, door-to-door salesman and slaughterhouse droid.

As a librarian, he has been working with youth for over fifteen years and is passionate about promoting the freedom to read and providing safe and welcoming spaces for everyone.

In 2017 he was named the UK's School Librarian of the Year by the School Library Association. In 2022 he won the UK Literacy Association's Reading For Pleasure Champion Award. In 2024 he was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for his services to libraries & education.

He is the winner of the 2024 Times - Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition. He is very proud to be a neurodivergent writer and very grateful to be adding his voice to the world of children's literature. He currently resides in the UK with his amazing family and the laziest chocolate lab in the world.

Julia Eccleshare has a lifetime of working within children’s books as a critic, an editor, an author and a commentator. Apart from her current role with LoveReading4Kids as Editor-at-Large and as one of our editorial expert reviewers, she is Director of the Children's Programme at the Hay Festival and Chair and founder of the Branford Boase Award.

She is also Head of Policy and Engagement for Public Lending Right at the British Library. She is also the author or editor of a number of books including the Rough Guide to Teenage Literature, the fascinating and insightful Beatrix Potter to Harry Potter: Portraits of Children’s Writers, which is a celebration of a century of children’s literature, as well as Treasure Islands: the Woman’s Hour Guide to Children’s Books. She also spent some considerable time as a children’s fiction editor in UK publishing.

Louise is the Chief Executive of The Kids Network, a charity supporting children through mentoring to feel happy and confident about themselves and their futures.

Previously, she was the Chief Executive of the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, where she worked for ten years to promote the importance of literacy and literature highlighting the importance of access and high quality reading provision to tackle disadvantage. She was part of the HMIP team who conducted the review of reading in prisons in 2022.

Louise has also been the headteacher of two London schools and worked in national education policy. Louise serves on the board of Brixton House Theatre, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, Oscars Book Prize and is a founding governor of Kings Cross Academy.

She continues to share her love of children’s literature by reviewing books for Books for Keeps and LoveReading4Kids.

Charlotte Hacking is a teacher, primary literacy consultant and speaker. She currently works in a 2-7 setting, investigating the role of Early Literacy, Creativity and Play in early education.

With Professor Dominic Wyse at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy, she co-authored The Balancing Act: An evidence based approach to teaching reading, writing and phonics, which shows, in vivid detail, how phonics, reading, and writing should be taught through the creativity of some of the best authors of books for children. By describing lessons inspired by ‘real books’, it showcases why the new approach is more effective than narrow phonics approaches favoured in current curricula.

She formerly worked at, and still acts as a consultant for, the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), developing their learning programme and research, in particular around Early Literacy and the use of picturebooks and poetry to develop children's attainment and engagement as readers and writers.

Charlotte also works as a children's poetry editor. Alongside author Matt Goodfellow, she was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award in 2025, for the verse novel The Final Year.

As a professional librarian with more years’ experience than she cares to mention – Tricia has worked in several sectors including government libraries and as a self-employed information specialist but has reverted to her favourite – of working with children, in various guises, for the last 20+ years.

This has included a spell as a primary school librarian, before moving back to public libraries in her home county of Northamptonshire, where she was Head of Children’s and Young People’s Public Library Services and the manager of the Schools’ Library Service – Learning Resources for Education. 

She was then Director of the School Library Association (an independent charity) between 2008-2018.  She had the honour to be Chair of the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway judging panel and Youth Libraries Group during 2008 and 2017. She now fills her time with volunteering for the Federation of Children’s Books, is Chair of the Federation of Children's Book Groups and the Northamptonshire CBG. She continues to lead training sessions, as well as reviewing for several organisations.

A lifelong love of reading and collecting children’s books, amongst other topics, has created a collection so rambling that the house has to be extended every few years!

Rosie Watch has taken her childhood passion for literature from classrooms in Cusco to Chelsea. With over 30 years of teaching experience and hundreds of books later, Rosie is still as eager as ever to get her hands on her next tome. Alongside a career in education, Rosie has also raised three boys and is well accustomed to separating the literary wheat from the chaff.

While running various English departments in schools across the country, Rosie has also had the chance to meet and run workshops with many children’s authors and poets including Nigel Hinton, Roger McGough and Michael Morpurgo. A firm believer in the importance of a willingness to look beyond what we already know and embrace change, Rosie has, in her teaching, maintained that elusive balance between the sharing of best practice and having a few lesser known ‘secrets’ up her sleeve in order to keep both children and her fellow teachers engaged.

Lily Lindon (Billy) is a writer, editor, and bookseller living in London. Their queer romcoms Double Booked ('the bisexual novel of your wildest dreams' DIVA magazine) and My Own Worst Enemy ('read for fun, charm, and butch lesbian romance' Kate Davies) are published by Bloomsbury. They host the Queer Joy podcast and are on instagram @billylindon.

Deborah is a book reviewer, passionate literacy advocate, regular speaker and presenter about the power of books and the importance of reading for pleasure.

MD of LoveReading and LoveReading4Kids since 2018, Deborah has led the brand into a new world, filled with brilliantly bookish content and the launch of an online bookstore with social purpose. Their mission to share book love and to get more people reading is a daily reality.

Deborah’s ten years governing in schools has given her a strong perspective on the issues facing our education system and she feels passionately about doing more. Deborah has been a Fellow of the RSA since 2020, she is a trustee of two children focussed charities and a judge of several awards including The Week Junior Book Awards, Coram Voices and The Shine Media Awards. She adores sharing book love.

Dr Becky Fisher is the Chief Executive Officer of the English Association.

Her interests include early English language and literature, playfulness in education, and bringing academics, independent scholars, and the public together.

Liz has been an Editorial Expert writing reviews for LoveReading since 2014. Reading has always played a huge part in her life and she can quite happily chat books all day. She previously spent twenty years working as a member of police support staff, including roles as Criminal Intelligence Analyst, Briefing Officer, and Crime Reduction Advisor. She relishes her time spent exploring all genres of fiction and non fiction. She video reviews her selections for the LoveReading LitFest Festival Favourites and is also a Presenter for their events. Liz has previously judged the Romantic Novelists’ Association Goldsboro Romantic Novel of the Year Award, the Chiddingstone Castle Literary Festival Short Story Competition, the LoveReading Very Short Story Award, and the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Gold Dagger Award. Her next judging stint sees her joining the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Award 2023-2025. She describes herself as a reader, a lover of all things books, and can be found on twitter as @LRLizRobinson.

An avid crime and thriller reader when younger, Greg is now more interested in non-fiction and in particular books which explain the natural world and our relationship with it. You will also find the biographies of extraordinary people propping up his reading list which is unsurprising as his career has mostly been in live events where he has had the opportunity to hear many remarkable human stories in person. Most recently Greg has founded the London Mountain Film Festival which shares the inspiring experiences of remarkable people doing amazing things in incredible places. He is also a publisher of gifts for hill-walkers and an enthusiastic but challenged home-brewer.

Lindsay Quayle was always that child pleading for an extra half an hour of reading time before lights out. It was no surprise to anyone that she went on to study English Literature once she’d worked her way through every book she could lay her hands on at home and at school.

After a spell of time in Finance, the draw of books brought her back to her real passion; she finished her masters in Publishing Studies and spent time working as a bookseller before landing a role at non-fiction publisher, Mainstream. Several years later, she went on to work for Scottish Book Trust and had the enviable job of writing about the life-changing benefits of reading and stories. She was also responsible for curating book lists for organisations including Children in Scotland, Education Scotland and LGBT Youth Scotland, as well as writing regular reviews for Children’s Books Ireland and other internal publications.

Lindsay is now a freelance writer and editor with her own company, Pencil Press. She has never lost her love for a good novel, and still wishes there was an extra half an hour at the end of each day for one more chapter.

Victoria Goldman has always had a passion for reading and writing, with a childhood dream of becoming a crime fiction author. She gained a Biomedical Science BSc degree, planning to follow this with a PhD in Forensics, but then became sidetracked, realising she loved writing too much to spend the rest of her life in a lab. She gained an MSc in Science Communication instead, and became a freelance health journalist and editor, specialising in consumer health. 

Twenty-five years on, as well being Freelance Health Editor for Bupa, Victoria contributes to various consumer and pharmacy magazines on a monthly basis. She is the author of a book on children’s allergies and, over the years, has contributed to (and edited) other health and science books for adults and children.

Victoria has recently updated the bestselling baby health book Your Baby: Week by Week by Dr Caroline Fertleman & Simone Cave for Ebury/Vermilion (Penguin Random House UK). She is represented for non-fiction (health) by the Barbara Levy Literary Agency.

In her spare time, Victoria runs a successful books website called Off-the-Shelf Books and can often be found tweeting her book love (@VictoriGoldma2). She is also writing crime fiction, still intending to fulfil her childhood dream. She is married with two teenage sons and loves relaxing at the end of a busy day by diving into a good book.

http://off-the-shelfbooks.blogspot.co.uk/