Barbara Throws a Wobbler

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Nadia Shireen enjoyed making homemade magazines and comics as a child, and during her time studying law at university and her subsequent career in journalism, she started to sketch again. Her debut book Good Little Wolf received a mention in the Bologna Ragazzi Opera Prima Award, and went on to win the UKLA Book Award. Nadia’s subsequent books have since been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, The Sainsbury’s Book Award and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize. Empathy for earth and all its creatures feels especially important right now. The judges chose Linda Newbery’s powerful non-fiction book to help build understanding and action – as she says “it’s not difficult to realise animals have feelings”.

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The author / illustration has drawn their own interpretation of what a ‘wobbler’ might look like. Can you create pictures of what you think it looks like? Sona’s family are expecting a new baby and her feelings are all mixed up. It helps to talk to a best friend, her toy Elephant. As Sona takes part in the naming ceremony, choosing one of her baby sister’s new names, things start to fall into place. A warm, gentle book which helps explore the universal experience of first-born children, with fascinating insights into life and cultural traditions in India. Yet, rather than just Barbara being cross, an actual red, jelly-like cloud emerges above Barbara’s head and stays there, forbidding any hugs or friendly attempts at talking. The Wobbler threatens to take over Barbara altogether, until she talks to it and realises she’s in control after all. With a little bit of effort, can Barbara make the Wobbler disappear?

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Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - The 7-10+ category features no less than four exciting debut authors and for the very first time a graphic novel. When Stars are Scattered written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson with Omar Mohamed, tells the story of Omar and his brother Hassan and topically depicts the harsh reality faced by refugees. When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten , a stunning debut from Pushkin, tells an evocative tale of memory loss, family and friendships. Bloomsbury have two titles on the list. Lesley Parr’s debut novel, The Valley of Lost Secrets, a powerful story of wartime evacuation to Wales, and the Carnegie shortlisted October October by Katya Balen. Knights Of also have two books in this category. Front Desk the debut novel from Kelly Yang which draws on her own experiences of moving from China to America, and the Blue Peter and Waterstones award winning debut from Elle McNicholl, A Kind of Spark. Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. Elle McNicholl is an important writer. Her events are both fun and powerful and she shares her experience of being autistic wisely and inspiringly. Her books are superb and should be in every home and school library. In Show Us Who You Are the main character is Cora, who is autistic. She gets involved in the dubious futuristic Pomegranate Institute, and is confronted by momentous ethical questions: – what is perfection? Are all humans valued equally? The passionate conclusion affirms the right of everyone to Why does the story end with a question? What does it make you think? Could you use this technique in your own stories?

teachers nominated from the 85 involved in the shortlistingwill now form the final judging panel and have the challenging task of reading all the shortlisted books in all categories. The winner’s announcement will take place at the UKLA International Conference in Birmingham on July 1 st One of the criteria the judges use in choosing books for the collection focuses on titles which can help combat tribal thinking, and prejudice. Front Desk brings new perspectives on racism and injustice, and is an inspiring and very accessible read. The main character is Mia whose hard-pressed immigrant family are running a motel for a greedy, discriminatory owner – she ends up on the front desk. Her parents’ compassion and sense of community leads them to hiding other immigrants in empty rooms…and everything starts to go wrong until Mia cuts through to a solution. Another activist character, determined to make the world a better place.

In the 3-6 age category we have this year’s one and only author to have been a previous winner. Nadia Shireen won with her debut picturebook, Good Little Wolfin 2013 and now appears again with Barbara Throws a Wobbler, an empathetic tale which helps us to reflect on the universal impact of a bad day. Anna Milbourne’s I’m (Almost) Always Kindfollows immediately upon her 2021shortlisting success with I am not (very) afraid of the Darkand similarly successfully relays an important message to young readers. In this case about the necessity to see things from another’s perspective which is a strong theme across this list. In Tom Percival’s haunting tale, The Invisible,he sensitively confronts the issue of being excluded by poverty, while James Catchpole and Karen George’s What Happened to You?gives us the positive viewpoint of a child with a missing limb but no shortage of imagination. Alex Latimer and David Litchfield’s Pip and Eggis a gentlestory of friendship, nature and the circle of life and the final book in this group is the inspiring Freedom we Singby Amyra and Molly Mendoza, published by Flying Eye, which poetically explores what freedom really means and looks like. Thankfully Nadia Shireen isn’t giving us a ‘fix’ for wobblers, she is giving children a way to manage them when they appear - poor Barbara looks like she has a few more lurking wobblers to deal with going forward, just like every little Barbara out there. The books are a brilliant resource to use as part of Empathy Day on 9 June, and any time afterwards too. This year’s Empathy Day theme is empathy, our human superpower and to help everyone build that power there’s a special challenge with nine very practical, creative activities. You can do these at any time, and on 9 June watch an amazing array of authors and illustrators model the same activities, as part of Empathy Day Live!