Poems & books & things
National Poetry Day 2024 is on Thursday 3rd October. To help everyone get ready, the organisers have curated three brilliant lists of new and exciting poetry books for their National Poetry Day Recommendations - one each for Children (0-8), Young Readers (8-14) and adult Book Groups. I'm delighted that my book You Are Not Alone has been …
Continue reading "‘You Are Not Alone’ is a National Poetry Day 2024 Recommendation"
"Right now the need for connection, understanding and standing up against hate has never felt more urgent," says Empathy Lab as it launches a set of free resources to help teachers, parents and other educators to grow an empathy-educated generation. You'll find the resources at http://www.empathylab.uk/don-t-hate---educate At the heart of the campaign is the charity's …
Continue reading "Empathy Lab creates ‘Don’t Hate, Educate’ resources in response to UK riots"
In an earlier blog for the Children's Poetry Summit I wrote about Making Poetry Films which sparked quite a bit of interest so I thought I’d look at poetry film-making again, this time from a slightly different angle. My poetry collection You Are Not Alone (Troika, 2023), on teen and young adult mental health and wellbeing, has …
Continue reading "Poetry films & empathy: a guest blog for the Children’s Poetry Summit"
I love playing around with video and have pulled together this trailer for my latest book - see what you think? With thanks to Pie Corbett, Maggie Still at The Scotsman, Tricia Adams at LoveReading4Kids.co.uk and Sue Wiltshire at ThroughTheBookshelf.com for their kind words about the book which are quoted here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHH9FDzsmIA
My new poetry collection for teens and young adults, You Are Not Alone, is all about mental health and wellbeing. I'm creating a series of resources / guides to accompany the book, offering ideas and suggestions for using the poems in therapeutic, school, community or family settings to help explore different aspects of mental health …
Poetry can be a great resource for exploring our thoughts and feelings, providing a ‘way in’ to help us connect with different parts of ourselves and communicate with others, particularly when it comes to challenging conversations. Sometimes it can be helpful to explore a topic from a ‘safe distance’ using scenarios or characters in a …
"From uplifting verses to ancient curses, these YA books offer something for everyone", writes Maggie Still in The Scotsman newspaper. Maggie has very kindly included You Are Not Alone, my new poetry collection for teens and young adults. "A book of poems that are reassuring and hopeful, sometimes heartbreaking yet also uplifting, inspiring and accessible. …
'Buy books, change lives' is more than just a tagline on the brilliant website LoveReading4Kids. The site's online bookstore offers 10% off RRPs and gives 25% of the cover price of all books sold to a school of your choice to buy more books! I'm thrilled to have my new book, You Are Not Alone, …
Continue reading "80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health"
My new collection of poems for young people is launching this week, just in time for Children’s Mental Health Week 2023 (6-12 February). The book, called You Are Not Alone, is aimed at teen and young adult readers and it’s all about young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing. The 70+ poems in this collection …
Shauna Darling Robertson 