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Joanne Owen - Editorial Expert

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.

Latest Features By Joanne Owen

20+ Brilliant Books Featuring Unforgettable Deaf or Hard of Hearing Characters for Deaf Awareness Week

Get creative with creatures! 3 awesome animal-themed writing activities for National Pet Month

Christmas creations — four festive writing prompts sparked by the season of sparkle!

Witchy words and potent potion poems - writing activities inspired by witches

View All

Latest Reviews By Joanne Owen

Pitch-perfect for 11+-year-olds who enjoy accessible stories rooted in real life struggles, Karen McCombie’s My Perfect Cousin makes impactful use of an ingenious tale-of-two-halves structure to tell an empathetic story of misplaced assumptions and a teenager’s journey to selfhood. From Ruby’s perspective, her “perfect” cousin Yasmin has it all — beauty, brains and a lush lifeguard boyfriend, Max. As a result, Ruby always feels “small and helpless” around Yasmin, not least at family gatherings when Yasmin always seems to steal the show. Then, as Ruby’s ... View Full Review

With a classic closed-room set up (in this case, the setting is a creepy closed motel, and an ever-decreasing circle), Kate Francis’ Circle of Liars is an addictive edge-of-your-seat YA thriller from intriguing start to unexpected end. A group of high schoolers thrown together in the depths of the Californian desert get a whole lot more than they bargained for when they arrive to discover that Motel Loba is run-down and deserted. They’re here thinking they’ve won the top prize in their annual school raffle, but this dive couldn’t be further from the ... View Full Review

Back of the net! A new book by Eve Ainsworth is always cause for celebration, and Seeing Red sees the author embrace a subject she tackles like a true playmaker — young female footballers battling struggles on and off the pitch. While football was once Amelia’s way to feel happy and free, and to forget the pain of hearing her parents argue, her entire world seems to be imploding in the wake of her dad leaving the family home: “He had abandoned her and Mum. He’d left them both when they needed him most”. ... View Full Review

Daffodil is back in bobby-dazzling style in The Worst Show Ever, the second book in Joanna Nadin’s mayhem-packed Disaster Diaries series. “Usually on a Sunday it is NORMAL SERVICE at 43 Bean Street”, Daffodil explains, which means “Dad is busy enjoying not being a postman, Mum is busy enjoying not being at Glory Days Care Home with all the old people, Lupin is busy wearing black and smelling of STALE, Madrigal is busy being ANNOYING, and Grandma is busy MINDING HER OWN BUSINESS”. But on this particular Sunday, Daffodil is feeling “full of GLOOM&... View Full Review

The Worst Birthday Ever, the first book in Joanna Nadin’s funny, family-centred Disaster Diaries series, is driven by the energetic, free-flowing narrative of almost-eight-year-old Daffodil — a girl who’s as cheery as her name, and chockful of “bobby dazzlers” i.e. in her words, “brilliant ideas”. Trouble is, Daffodil is also very prone to disaster, usually as a result of thinking up said bobby dazzlers! Presented as Daffodil’s diary, readers of The Worst Birthday Ever are given engagingly- amusing insights into the inner workings ... View Full Review

No one can deny that Harry Hill’s writing style and brilliantly absurd outlook is eminently attuned to younger members of his audience, as embodied by How to Be Silly Every Day of the Year, a nugget of 366 nutty activities that’ll keep 7+year-olds entertained for an entire year, with the 366th entry thoughtfully included to cover leap years. Featuring illustrations and doodles by the huge-collared man himself, the silliness begins with an all-important self-assessment, preparing readers for their personal journey to finding success at being silly. By day eight, silliness-seekers will be ... View Full Review

After making a big claim (“read one fact from this book every day, and in just 365 days you’ll go from a regular person to a full-on intellectual powerhouse, and take your Genius-O- Meter from Low to WOAH!”), Mike Rampton’s Become a Genius in a Year certainly delivers big when it comes to engaging 7+-year-olds through attention-grabbing information on a vast array of topics. Divided into months, each chapter is jam-packed with fascinating “on this day” facts and arresting material across the fields of science, medicine, history, natural ... View Full Review

Marvellously melding a classic quest adventure with steam-punk vibes, Vashti Hardy’s The Amulet of Hath, second book in the Relic Hunters series, sees the Greystones family race to retrieve an ancient relic. Written to appeal to 9+-year-olds, the pitch-perfect style and formatting make it ideal for those with a younger reading age to become fully engaged with an action-and-peril-packed escapade. As for the escapade, it revolves around famous relic hunter Aunt Lucy requiring the cunning support of her niece and nephew, Mabel and Will, when the Amulet of Hath, which “held the clues to a hidden stash ... View Full Review

Sunnily illustrated by Katie O’Rourke, Jenny Clark’s Imagine a World picture book is an inspiring ode to the preciousness of planet Earth. Taking the form of a little girl’s journey through her imagination, it also encourages little ones to open their minds to the magic of creative flights of fancy. A rainy day indoors sees Emily unleash her imagination when she dreams up “the most brilliant, beautiful, bamboozling world she could” — a wonderful world she shares with her imaginary mermaid friend, Freya. Throughout her imaginative journey, Emily encounters shimmering night skies, ... View Full Review

Though Eoin McLaughlin’s Frank the Pizza might be stuffed to the crust and slathered with cheese, it certainly isn’t cheesy! Rather, this picture book is fully-loaded with originality. “It’s hard to tell who your friends are when you’re a pizza. Some people want to meet you. Other people want to eat you”. As a result of this hard truth, Frank the Pizza’s mum has concerns when he’s invited to a birthday party. But Frank is set on going, and already picking out his party outfit, opting ... View Full Review

Alex Latimer’s Gordon Wins It All sees “the meanest goose on earth” return for more comic-book-style capers fuelled by messages around realising that actions have consequences. Delivered in an energetic style that’s perfect for 6+-year-olds to read for themselves, the characterful illustrative style is perfectly paired with the story. With the help of his friend Anthony the piglet, egotistical Gordon has resolved to make amends for being the “the meanest goose on earth” through being kind and becoming “the Nicest Goose on Earth”. Unfortunately, though, Gordon’... View Full Review

Feeling the stress of her parents’ divorce and consequent move to a new house (actually, her deceased grandmother’s old house), Federico Ivanier’s enchantingly gripping Sword of Fire sees 12-year-old Martina embrace her destiny to embark on a quest to redress the balance between darkness and light. Though Martina has long encountered the Wanderer in the Darkness (“She’d always had these nightmares, ever since she could first remember”), it’s only after finding a strange glowing golden box in her grandmother’s house that her destiny ... View Full Review