books
A BIG SHOUT OUT to Children’s Books Ireland
My day job is Director of Literacy and Oracy at a secondary school and my whole life is about encouraging children and young people to read, write and express themselves well vocally. It’s not easy, so I’ll tell you who are my absolute heroes.
The aim of the team at CBI is to get books in the hands of children. They advocate for libraries in schools; raise funds, organise and run initiatives like book gifting so all children have access to books; publish the Inis magazine on children’s literature, reviewing upcoming titles, interviewing artists, and showcasing cover artwork by Irish illustrators; support artists, writers, illustrators, poets, publishers, translators, and storytellers; run loads of events in schools (I’m doing four online this week with schools in Northern Ireland); have established a fellowship to support underrepresented young artists; work with other organisations to create bursaries for writers and illustrators to go on residential professional development trips; advocate a culture of reading across Ireland; run book clinics around the country; administer the Laureate na nÓg to honour an exceptional writer or illustrator for children; undertake important research into reading; and run annual awards for the best of children’s writing (sponsored by KPMG: see the shortlist here).
You may recognise one of them. it’s pink so you may not. It kind of blends in to the background. It’s to the left of Solo, up from Skipshock, right of Jenny Peckles Lays Eggs with Speckles (great title).
I’m so honoured to have been shortlisted for this award, and ineffably grateful to the team at Children’s Books Ireland for championing me and My Name is Jodie Jones. But beyond me and my little pink book, I’m so in awe of all CBI does, and want to shout their praises from the rooftops because in an age where schools are losing funding, libraries are closing, artists are struggling, kids have less and less access to books, and reading is becoming a thing of the past, a team of excellent, driven, passionate people are doing mighty work that should be at the forefront of every government’s agenda. I can’t express how important this is, and I’m a Director of Oracy.
Follow them on social media, support them if you can, recognise the outstanding work they’re doing, send them a shout out. They are the loveliest bunch as well. How could they not be? Look at what they value.
Two days to go …
I’m delighted and excited. My Name is Jodie Jones will be published this Thursday 11th September, and the pre-publication reviews are astonishing. I have been bowled over by the positive energy and love for this book. Thank you to all the reviewers for taking the time to read and review it.
Sarah Webb on Instagram wrote the one that made me squeal:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DN5J5AzDIRs/
Brilliant book alert 🚨🚨🚨
I am undone. What an extraordinary book! I’ve just finished reading My Name is Jodie Jones and I am beyond impressed – one of the standout books of 2025. @emmashevahauthor has created one of the most complex, interesting and unique characters in any book I’ve ever read. …The whole novel is a literature lover’s dream! But it’s so much more than that, it’s an examination of trauma, a mystery story, and an ode to friendship – Jodie Jones’ best friend, Becca is magnificent. The plotting is fiendishly clever, towards the end of the book I gasped when I realised what Shevah had managed to do. And some of the scenes made me sob for little Jodie Jones.
When I have time I’ll craft a review worthy of Jodie Jones and Emma Shevah’s rich, muscular and clever language, but for now I’ll simply say BRAVO!
A whopping 10/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
And then Erin at My Shelves are Full …
And Veronica Price at V’sViewfromtheBookshelves
And the Ireland vote, which means a lot to me, being half Irish: thank you, Children’sBooksIreland.
https://childrensbooksireland.ie/our-recommendations/my-name-jodie-jones
A reader review is a wonderful thing as well: this one is by a reader called Willow Brown.
https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/reviews/25341/My-Name-is-Jodie-Jones-by-Emma-Shevah.html
Thank you, all. I might need a little sit down on Thursday.
Debut Teen/YA out this September.
I lost my writing mojo a few years back. It happens. I think it might happen more to those of us who have full time jobs, kids, homes to run, and barely time to brush our teeth, so writing and editing books seems an unnecessary add on. Writing them is fine. It’s fun. It’s hard. It involves hours of laptopery and screenery. But it’s fine. Not quite so fine are the seemingly endless days, weekends, half terms, holidays, evenings and sunny beach days spent editing and rewriting – that is a massive pain. You think to yourself, I swear, if something significant doesn’t materialise from this, like enough income to give up the day job so I can enjoy this writing malarkey as my main and only gig or … actually, no, just that … then I’m making life harder for myself for no reason and that, in English, is known as masochism and I, in English and in all other languages, am known as a giant idiot. So I stopped. Gave myself and my hurting arm a break. Maybe forever.
Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash.
But in October 2023, I went on an Arvon course with sixteen kids (none of them mine: I have lots but not quite that many) and continued writing a chapter I’d started years before. I came home, tentatively carried on, went to Thailand over Christmas and kept writing it, and I dunno, a book materialised from the ether, as they sometimes do. My agent loved it, which is always a happy scenario. The rest of the year, my beach days, weekends, half terms etc etc were eradicated with editing and rewriting.
Last year, something exciting happened, which is leading to something even more exciting happening this year. Three publishers were interested in my I-am-not-writing-anymore-possible-never-but-somehow-a-story-has-materialised-from-the-ether novel, and I signed a contract with one of them. This September, my debut teen/YA My Name is Jodie Jones will be published by David Fickling Books.
This is honestly a glorious feeling and I’m so grateful to Jessica, my agent, and to the team at DFB. Can I give up my full time job to write? No. Not yet anyway. Maybe never. Can I go down to four days? Risky. Do I love the new book? Am I thrilled? Was it worth it? Am I keen to introduce Jodie Jones to the world and the world to Jodie Jones? Definitely.
Emma Shevah 