#CoverKidsBooks - Chapter Three

It has been some time since we brought you a summary of some of the responses we have received regarding the #CoverKidsBooks campaign. You may have noticed that there has been a short break in S.F. Said's interview posts, since the Teachers post on the 14th March. Have no fear, S.F. will be back on 25th April with a series of interviews he carried out with parents, and we have also added an 'Experts' post to the schedule for 9th May.

At the moment we have no additional news we can give you regarding future plans to take the campaign to the next level, but we hope to be able to reveal more in the near future. In the meantime, we continued to be overjoyed and heartened by the responses and support we continue to receive online. It is very rare that a day doesn't go by without a handful of tweeters using the #CoverKidsBooks hashtag, and for that we are very grateful.

Thanks to a couple of wonderful vloggers, the #CoverKidsBooks has made the leap on to YouTube. First up there is this fab mention by Victoria Addis (@VictoriaAddis) on her YouTube channel, A Hermit's Progress:

A handful of days later Andrew Hall (@PewterWolf13) had a "full blown rant" about a topic very close to our hearts, on the Bookish Brits channel:

Writer Sinéad O'Hart (@SJOHart) wrote this very thoughtful piece on her blog:

"We need to #CoverKidsBooks on the radio, on social media, in traditional media, on the television, and get it going as a topic of conversation. An adult looking for a gift should know straight away where to find advice and recommendations. A child looking for their next read should have no problem finding just the right book for their needs, and should be able to access a library (with knowledgeable staff) and/or a bookshop (also with knowledgeable staff) without trouble. Children’s books are so important, and within their covers they contain multitudes; worlds full of magic, imagination, heart and intelligence, tightly plotted and expertly written stories of love, loss, adventure, danger, exploration, and discovery – to name just a fraction of the treasures you’ll find if you look – and they deserve to be respected."

Writer, comedian and screenwriter Catie Wilkins (@Catiewilkins) gave the #CoverKidsBooks campaign a fabulous mention during an interview she did for The Muse, when asked what one thing she would like to change about her industry/working life:

"Firstly, more review space for children’s books. Children’s books currently get 3% of all book review space in newspapers, even though they account for 30% of the UK book market. A brilliant campaign called #CoverKidsBooks has been launched by children’s literature critic, Imogen Russell Williams to help rectify this. Everyone would benefit if children’s books were more fairly represented. Parents would be able to buy more than the same Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton and David Walliams, if they knew more about what was available."

Primary PGCE lecturer Alison Baker (@AlisonBaker01) voiced her support for the #CoverKidsBooks campaign over at her blog, Nerds In Space:

"The Guardian, for example, has an amazing children’s book section on their website– but it is not on the app, let alone in the print paper. Weekend editions of papers may review one or two books a week. So what? you might ask, but reviews lead to buzz lead to shops stocking books leads to readers buying them, or ordering them from the library. The big best selling authors are best selling because they already have buzz and publicity. Most children’s authors have no publicity beyond a kind local bookshop stocking some signed copies."

And finally, we have been absolutely delighted that #CoverKidsBooks has been the topic for two recent Twitter chat sessions, specifically #MGiechat (transcript here) and #ukteenchat. Our heartfelt thanks go out to the organisers of these Twitter chat sessions.