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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

Summer sizzlers for Young Adults – the best YA novels set in summer

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!

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Latest Reviews By Joanne Owen

Feminist History for Every Day of the Year

Opening with an absolutely brilliant, tone-setting framing quote from writer Rebecca West (“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat”), Kate Mosse’s Feminist History for Every Day of the Year brims with the wisdom and wit of hundreds of “trailblazers who refused to accept the limitations put on them, who campaigned and marched, battled and challenged the status quo to change the world for the better”, as Mosse writes in ... View Full Review

Mythic in scope and futuristic in style, Sarah Holding's Chameleon is an inventive work of YA climate fiction that will appeal to readers who have a keen interest in tackling climate change, and love pacey, complex sci-fi style contexts. Conjuring Atlantis as it teeters on the brink of catastrophe Chameleon is powerfully set-up: “With each day that passes, there will be ever more violent climatic, seismic, volcanic and meteoric activity, and you will soon exhaust all possible means of preventing or holding off the kingdom’s demise”. Into this urgent crisis, scientists create ... View Full Review

Presenting all three books in a trailblazing time-travel cli-fi trilogy to mark its 10th anniversary, Sarah Holding’s SeaBEAN is fast-paced, thought-provoking and driven by the courage of a crew of kids who live on a remote Scottish island. The action opens on St Kilda in 2018, when Alice is just ten and has lived on the scarcely-populated island for five years. Everything changes when she finds a mysterious black box on the beach. A box Alice opens with a small sheet of metal bearing the words “C-Bean Mk. 3” and “a hologram image of ... View Full Review

The grown-up themes of Sarah Holding’s Road to True North are handled with empathy in an edgy, edge-of-your-seat coming-of-age story that sees a troubled father and son undertake a life-changing road trip around Iceland, where dramatic landscapes serve as a metaphor for the emotional journey of its protagonists. “Of all the places in the world, why had his father brought him to this desolate place?” Such is Olly’s first impression of Iceland as the plane lands and he wishes his dad had taken him to a more exotic work trip location to “... View Full Review

Elizabeth's Legacy, first book in Victor Kloss' six-strong Royal Institute of Magic series, melds magic and long-held family secrets to craft an atmospherically engaging Middle Grade adventure. With an opening chapter set in the 16th-century setting a suitably intriguing tone, the action swiftly moves to the present-day, two years after Ben’s parents vanished without trace. While the police have failed to make any headway, and as Ben and his friend Charlie continue their own investigations, they find a mysterious letter that leads to the Royal Institute of Magic. After taking a journey on ... View Full Review

Sin Bin Island sees Doug Naylor, co-creator of Red Dwarf, make a memorably flamboyant first foray into writing for children. Thrilling, funny and filled with magic, mystery and maritime mayhem, it takes the classic trope of an orphaned child embarking on an adventure to unexpected, exhilarating extremes. After finding himself orphaned, Digs comes into possession of a Russian nesting doll with the power to advise, protect and predict the future just ahead of being sent to Cyril Sniggs's Correctional Orphanage for Wayward Boys and Girls — “a school founded on disciple and order. Many think it is ... View Full Review

Centred on a devilishly entertaining premise, Charlotte Ingham’s A Match Made in Hell is YA romance at its most grown-up and comes recommended for readers who relish quirky, lusty novels that build to flaming-hot climaxes. “There’s a five-minute window, in between living and dying, that I can’t quite recall”. Beyond this brief window, twenty-one-year-old Willow realises she’s died and gone to the demon-infested realm of Asphodel — a place presided over by a hot young guy who goes by the name of King Sathanas (Sath to ... View Full Review

Delivered in a stirring first-person voice, Catherine Johnson's Dance of Resistance does dazzling justice to its subject — a truly remarkable woman whose talents, determination and sense of justice saw her shift from growing up on the poor side of the tracks in East St. Louis to become one of the world’s wealthiest entertainers, and make waves as a civil rights activist and French resistance fighter during WWII. “Some people say I changed the world. I like that. I reckon this world needs a heap of changes”. So begins ... View Full Review

Ruth Mary Flanagan’s The Last Song of the Mistle Thrush presents a stirring cautionary tale that’s both suffused in timeless charm, and very much of our times. Alongside inviting young readers to bathe in the glory of the natural world, it also shares messages around the need to treasure and protect planet Earth, and all its creatures. The rhyming narrative takes the form of a cycle through nature’s seasons, enhanced by bucolic, folk-art-esque illustrations that speak to nostalgia-loving grown-ups as much as they do to children’s imaginations — think ... View Full Review

Brimming with dark secrets, Alastair Chisholm’s Blitzers is an edge-of-your-seat tech thriller that’ll have gamers gripped as it tackles big topics — big-tech abuses of power, toxic masculinity, and aggression versus empathy — in a relatable, readable fashion. Everyone in Danny’s school is crazy about Blitzers, Tamagotchi-style virtual creatures with a notable difference — rather than being super-cute characters that need to be fed, Blizters are definitely “not cute. You don’t feed them, you train them to fight”. After finally getting his ... View Full Review

First book in The Cloud Witch Chronicles series, Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick’s The Museum of Lost Umbrellas is an enchanting joy. Exuding all the hallmarks of a classic adventure story, this tingles with magic and delicately-tuned peril. After losing her mother, Dilly is sent to live on the island of Ollipest with a great-aunt she’s never met. Thankfully, though she appears strict, Aunt Florence is a joy — a wise woman who extends her great-niece’s bedtime, and allows her to decide when to turn off the light after reading. And, ... View Full Review

Conjuring an un-put-down-able brew of climate-change impact and unlikely friendship bonds, Polly Ho-Yen’s When the Storm Comes comes especially recommended for 9+-year-olds who love school-centred stories and adventures that inspire them to imagine “what if that actually happened?” Mali is a small girl who encounters big problems when she starts a new school, beginning with having her real name (Amaryllis) mocked by Petey, a bully with “piggy eyes”. After bonding with a boy called Shiyoon, his move to America leaves Mali adrift again, until she decides to continue creating the comic she ... View Full Review