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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

How to craft truly terrifying tales - three fearsome tips and techniques for writing spooky stories this Hallowe’en (and through the year).

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

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Latest Reviews By Joanne Owen

Originally published in 1978, Errol Lloyd’s Nini at Carnival is a joyous picture book classic that we’re delighted to see available in this beautiful new edition. Guaranteed to spark a warm glow of nostalgia in readers who remember it from their own childhoods, this timeless treasure will also charm a whole new generation of readers. In his afterword, author-illustrator Errol Lloyd shares the personal story that sparked his creation of Nini at Carnival, relating how he moved from Jamaica to London as a young law student in the mid-seventies, just as Notting Hill Carnival was bursting into ... View Full Review

Created in partnership with Historic Royal Palaces, Ghosts in the Walls showcases eleven spooky stories penned by an impressive roster of writers, among them Faridah ÀbíkéÍyímídé, Alexia Casale, Joseph Coelho, Catherine Johnson, Jasmine Richards and Sam Sedgman, with a foreword from Yvette Fielding, paranormal investigator extraordinaire, setting a fittingly foreboding tone. Between these pages, readers are treated to the arresting tale of the phantom Birdwoman of the Tower of London, accompanied by the creepy “click, clack” of ghostly ravens. Then there&... View Full Review

Steeped in mystery and slow-simmering suspense, Curtis Jobling’s Wyrdwood melds the menace of rural folklore (meet Twig Man, if you dare…) with a relatable modern-day context. In this case, when Kiki returns home from school to surprise her writer dad (who’s known as “The King of Creepy”) ahead of the Christmas break and finds a strange woman in her deceased mother’s place. An edgy ambience is evoked from the off, when Kiki’s train pulls into the end-of-the-line village of Merryweather-by-the-Sea and ... View Full Review

Miranda Moore’s A Beautiful, Terrible Thing is devastatingly impactful as it shares a story of beautiful life-changing first love and the ravaging emotional dilemmas that come in the wake of terrible loss. Nathan is smitten when he first see Cara in a café. Shattered by causing the death of a boy after running a red light and fiddling with his phone, her “fresh natural look” and “easy posture” immediately make him “feel a kilo lighter”. In the same ... View Full Review

Boasting beautiful, bright, characterful illustrations, Carly Gledhill’s Pencil’s Best Story Ever invites little ones to join Peanut on a joyously colourful adventure, as directed by Pencil the author. After Peanut packs his backpack with “all sorts of useful adventury things”, he embarks on a BIG ADVENTURE, with Pencil promising that this will be “my BEST STORY EVER”. As for the story within a story that unfolds, it begins with a very useful map that tells Peanut to head to THE SUPER SPOOKY FOREST. ... View Full Review

Angie Thomas’ Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Book of Anansi sees Remarkable girl Nic issued with an excruciating ultimatum. Filled with witty one-liners, fast-paced action and dazzlingly-conjured characters (not least Nic’s president Grandma and flock of flower- festooned aunties), it’s also powerfully propelled by African American history, folklore and lived experience. All of which amounts to an absolute slam dunk of a book. While preparing for the all-important exam that will see her start being schooled in using her Gift, Nic is haunted by dreams of being hunted ... View Full Review

Evocatively illustrated by Ross MacRae, Simon Lamb’s Mat o' Shanter: A Cautionary Tale is a wondrously unique reimagining of Robert Burns’ Tam o’ Shanter poem. Transposing the Scottish bard’s “middle-aged man drinking alcohol with his friends down the pub” to a boy drinking Irn-Bru with his mates, and replacing the original risqué witch with a girl named Lily, it dances with invention, and rounds off with a new cautionary twist on Burns’ original tale. We meet Mat o’Shanter, a Prestwick lad who&... View Full Review

Billed as a “seek and find adventure”, Haluka Nohana‘s Welcome to the Penguin Cruise is a work of multi-layered picture book joy. In part the story of a penguin family taking a dream cruise aboard Oceano Penguino, it’s also a fun interactive adventure that invites little ones to search for missing treasure. Throughout, detailed cross-section illustrations offer windows into the Oceano Penguino’s five storeys — much like classic Richard Scarry books, there’s so much to spot across the vessel’s twenty-four rooms, which include ... View Full Review

This tite is available directly as an audiobook, e-book and paperback here Created by consultant neurodevelopmental paediatrician Dr Susan Ozer, who’s written a number of books that harness the magic of storytelling to make medical concepts easier for kids, carers and parents to comprehend, Little Caterpillar’s Big Surprise is specifically aimed at 4-7-year-olds with developmental or learning difficulties. Framed in the context of the fact that children who are struggling to learn, or are developing at a slower pace than their peers, often suffer from low self-esteem and feel like they don’t ... View Full Review

The Thief of Time, second book in Sam Copeland’s Alex Vs Axel series, sees Alex and Axel, the accidental place-swapping heroes, embark on a race-against-time quest to save Earth from the effects of time being frozen. Fast-paced and funny, it’s a blast of fresh fantastical air, albeit air with a whiff of something decidedly dangerous. The stage is suspensefully set in the Prologue when a “man who had once been dead raised his arms and whispered ancient words”. Words that summon Time-Eaters to devour planet Earth in order for the once-dead man ... View Full Review

Laying bare the rawness of grief, the unfairness of death, and a longing to find meaning in life, James Dixon’s Crow Children is a remarkably well-written novel. Boasting a beautifully lucid style, every word works wonders as it sees a girl navigate coping with the sudden death of her father while witnessing her beloved grandmother lose her memories. Ava never got to say goodbye to her dad. He dropped down dead at work and that was that. Sometimes, this “made her shake with rage.” Other times, “she felt so incredibly unhappy. The sense ... View Full Review

Wrapping up Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s Geomancer trilogy in sweepingly lyrical style, The Ship of Strays is steeped in storytelling magic that will surely satisfy the devoted readers awaiting its release. Indeed, Ysolda’s journey of self-discovery continues to see her grow and take some unexpected turns, with a focus on Eira adding further depth. As potent earth magic swells within Ysolda, she must find a way to work with it. A seminal moment comes when Eira brings her to realise that the threads “reaching from my mind” connect ... View Full Review