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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

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

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

Word-themed walks on the wild side - taking creative inspiration from enjoying autumn in the great outdoors.

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

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Latest Reviews By Joanne Owen

Fuelled by a fabulous concept — a magical school within a school, a missing dad, and two super-sleuth kids, Siddy and Zadie — Erica Gomez’s School for Fireflies is delivered in a wittily lively style. It’s also energetically characterful, as demonstrated by Zadie’s amusing, endearing quirk of speaking in punctuation — “Ampersand” when she needs more info, “EXCLAMATION MARK” when something weird or funny happens, “Question mark” when she needs more answers. More answers are definitely needed when the friends’ everyday life ... View Full Review

Fast-paced and outrageously funny, James Davis’ Scarlet debut sees its eponymous heroine embark on a madcap intergalactic adventure that fizzes with energy and visual verve. After amusing preamble around whether the reader might be “fantasising about bamboo” and “huge and cute and cuddly-looking” (in which case, they’re directed to “put this book down, because you are a panda, and this is not a book for pandas”), nine-year-old Scarlet’s story kicks off with a tap-tap-tap at her window. When she goes to investigate, she’s met by the strange ... View Full Review

Written and illustrated by Greg Stobbs, Cloud Boy is a soul-stirring beaut of a book that will chime with little ones who struggle to find their feet in a world that all-too often overlooks imaginative magic, and thinking differently. While Bobby tries his very best to pay attention, he’s forever distracted from one thing to the next, and who can blame him? “Ooh, a snail! Ooh! A very smelly smell! — the world is simply full of fascinating phenomena. Bobby’s brilliant imagination also sees him ponder all manner of big questions that trigger chains of ... View Full Review

Inspired by the real-life Rainhill Trials, Susan Brownrigg’s Wrong Tracks is a rip-roaring ride of historic fiction. A thrilling, characterful, well-plotted adventure story that reels with subterfuge and sabotage, it also brilliantly evokes the energy and sweeping changes engendered by the industrial era through the lens of its endearing — and daring — protagonist, Edward Entwhistle. In 1829, a chance encounter sees working-class Edward offered a job at the Stephensons' Steam Locomotive Manufactory miles. Being an ambitious lad, he jumps at the chance, thoroughly determined to make his mark on the Stephenson father and son ... View Full Review

One of the beautiful things about Frances Tosdevin’s The Really Beautiful Thing is the empathetic, age-appropriate manner in which it imparts its anti-consumerist, anti-greed message i.e. it’s far better to value what you have, and what really matters, than to always want more. While Squirrel “loved sharing his home with friends”, with its big bouncy bed and fridge full of food, he has his eye on something more. Something really beautiful that sparkles! He’s not even sure what it is, but still he longs for it — such ... View Full Review

Second book in Jennifer Bell’s Magicalia series, Thief of Shadows is a fabulous feast of fantastical fiction for Middle Grade readers who relish richly-imagined worlds, characters you can really root for, and the thrills and spills of high-stakes high jinks fuelled by a gripping race-against-time plot. Fresh from their riddle-packed quest to save her dad, Bitsy (a wonderful heroine who possesses the remarkable power to conjure weird creatures known as magicores) and her best friend Kosh find themselves embroiled in fresh trouble when Kosh is wrongly accused of stealing magical shards from their secret academy.. Compelled to go ... View Full Review

A sure-fire reminder that books shouldn’t be solely judged by their cover, at first glance Larry Hayes’ The Nightmares of Finnegan Quick had me thinking I was in for a rollercoaster ride of zany spooky fiction for younger readers. While it definitely is a thrilling ride of scary fiction, the arresting narrative voice sets an older, 10/11+ context from the terrifically tense opening pages, when Finnegan shares his big secret: “my dreams don’t just stay in my head. They change the world. They leave wounds and scars”. Among the ... View Full Review

Boasting an introduction from quiz queen Sandi Toksvig, bold full-colour illustrations, and smart design, Kids Vs Adults is a cracking Christmas gift to crack open for post-lunch family fun on the big day. That said, Kids Vs Adults is also a boredom-busting book that’ll keep giving around the year — it’s sure to keep folk entertained during long journeys and rainy holiday afternoons. With twelve rounds of categories covering nature and wildlife, film and TV, art and literature, festivals and celebrations, sport, science, space, and more, ... View Full Review

Written and illustrated by Fabiola Anchorena, Waiting for the Dawn tells a poignant tale of forest fires and renewal that will cast a stirring spell over swathes of readers, adults included. It’s a wonderful conversation-starting book to share at home, or in a classroom context. The story is powerfully poetic, and told from the perspective of animals whose Amazonian habitats have been rendered sunless, moonless and rainless. In these pages, as the spectacular illustrations shift from darkness to burnished orange, we witness creatures of both day and night — creatures that swim, soar, roar and scuttle — ponder ... View Full Review

Timeless and philosophical, Together is one of those special picture books that speaks to all ages. Exploring the joy of friendship, and the infinite quest to find answers to big questions, Daphne Deckers’ text is at once beautifully evocative and compellingly measured, while Joey Holthaus’ illustrations conjure emotional states quite exquisitely. While Lev loves witnessing the fiery sunrise, he wishes he had someone to share the experience with: “If you couldn’t share it with someone, how could you know it wasn’t all just in your mind?” He tries to share the moment ... View Full Review

The result of an international project that invited children from around the globe to ask questions about death, Dying to Ask is an enlightening, thought-provoking work. Written by Ellen Duthie and Anna Juan Cantavella, whose honest, marvellously child-centred words take the form of wonderfully considered replies to children’s questions, Andrea Antinori’s elegantly bold illustrations add to the book’s special value. Thirty-eight questions are addressed in all, ranging from metaphysical and philosophical matters (“What is there after death?”; “Before I was born, where was I? Was I dead?”), to the physicality ... View Full Review

Opening a magical Middle Grade series in spellbinding style, Dominique Valente’s Witchspark really does sparkle with witchy wonder, adventure and invention. London, 1883, and a mysterious advertisement for Miss Hegotty’s Course for Aspiring Witches appears in newspapers across the Magic Isles. Despite being prohibited, “It was always the same after one of Miss Hegotty’s advertisements appeared — children were the only ones brave enough to apply for something that was banned”. At the same time, above a Suffolk village, a “once-grand gothic house” by the name ... View Full Review