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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

20+ Brilliant Books Featuring Unforgettable Deaf or Hard of Hearing Characters for Deaf Awareness Week

Get creative with creatures! 3 awesome animal-themed writing activities for National Pet Month

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

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

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Latest Reviews By Joanne Owen

Packed with page-turning peril and the power of hope, Sarah Merrett’s A Place of a Thousand Wishes melds magic, mystery, friendship and courage to conjure a classic tale of good versus evil. While Mason and his dad make marvellous ice cream, times are tough — production is tricky in their pre-refrigeration era (to say the least), and then a stranger creates a commotion that ruins his dad’s ice cream cart. Into this, the legendary Darlington the Miraculous comes to town — a man who claims to possess the power to grant wishes ... View Full Review

With an incredible talent for conjuring voice, Meg Rosoff is an outstanding writer whose work is always 100% authentic, and utterly free from cliché and the clutter of well-trod YA paths. This is joyously apparent in Almost Nothing Happened, which transforms a classic scenario (a life-changing summer) into a fabulously fresh and funny story of a teenager’s unforgettable 48 hours in Paris. A rash decision to not board his Eurostar back to London after a lonesome summer exchange programme in rural France leads Callum to one hell of an experience in Paris. Callum’s bizarre adventure ... View Full Review

First book in a flaming-hot duology, Jessica S. Olson’s Den of Liars is a jamboree of deception and desire that comes in the wake of a fateful pact, all played out on the stage of an enchanted glitzy casino, where the gowns are as glamorous as the dice are loaded. Lola’s life has long been dictated by her father losing a magical Liar's Dice Tournament. Though she was saved by the Thief (Enzo, the Liar’s brother), this came at a cost — the Thief will offer her protection for ... View Full Review

Perfectly crafted, and singing with authenticity, Abena Eyeson’s Running My Own Race tells the jubilantly inspirational story of a boy who finds his way through multiple challenges, conflicts and set-backs to follow his own path. Everything changes for Kofi when he wins a scholarship to a posh “mega-expensive private school” as a result of his talent for athletics. Coming from a working-class background and a state school, Kofi quickly feels like he doesn’t fit in anywhere — he’s called “state-school boy” at his new school and &... View Full Review

Pitch-perfect for 11+-year-olds who enjoy accessible stories rooted in real life struggles, Karen McCombie’s My Perfect Cousin makes impactful use of an ingenious tale-of-two-halves structure to tell an empathetic story of misplaced assumptions and a teenager’s journey to selfhood. From Ruby’s perspective, her “perfect” cousin Yasmin has it all — beauty, brains and a lush lifeguard boyfriend, Max. As a result, Ruby always feels “small and helpless” around Yasmin, not least at family gatherings when Yasmin always seems to steal the show. Then, as Ruby’s ... View Full Review

With a classic closed-room set up (in this case, the setting is a creepy closed motel, and an ever-decreasing circle), Kate Francis’ Circle of Liars is an addictive edge-of-your-seat YA thriller from intriguing start to unexpected end. A group of high schoolers thrown together in the depths of the Californian desert get a whole lot more than they bargained for when they arrive to discover that Motel Loba is run-down and deserted. They’re here thinking they’ve won the top prize in their annual school raffle, but this dive couldn’t be further from the ... View Full Review

Back of the net! A new book by Eve Ainsworth is always cause for celebration, and Seeing Red sees the author embrace a subject she tackles like a true playmaker — young female footballers battling struggles on and off the pitch. While football was once Amelia’s way to feel happy and free, and to forget the pain of hearing her parents argue, her entire world seems to be imploding in the wake of her dad leaving the family home: “He had abandoned her and Mum. He’d left them both when they needed him most”. ... View Full Review

Daffodil is back in bobby-dazzling style in The Worst Show Ever, the second book in Joanna Nadin’s mayhem-packed Disaster Diaries series. “Usually on a Sunday it is NORMAL SERVICE at 43 Bean Street”, Daffodil explains, which means “Dad is busy enjoying not being a postman, Mum is busy enjoying not being at Glory Days Care Home with all the old people, Lupin is busy wearing black and smelling of STALE, Madrigal is busy being ANNOYING, and Grandma is busy MINDING HER OWN BUSINESS”. But on this particular Sunday, Daffodil is feeling “full of GLOOM&... View Full Review

The Worst Birthday Ever, the first book in Joanna Nadin’s funny, family-centred Disaster Diaries series, is driven by the energetic, free-flowing narrative of almost-eight-year-old Daffodil — a girl who’s as cheery as her name, and chockful of “bobby dazzlers” i.e. in her words, “brilliant ideas”. Trouble is, Daffodil is also very prone to disaster, usually as a result of thinking up said bobby dazzlers! Presented as Daffodil’s diary, readers of The Worst Birthday Ever are given engagingly- amusing insights into the inner workings ... View Full Review

No one can deny that Harry Hill’s writing style and brilliantly absurd outlook is eminently attuned to younger members of his audience, as embodied by How to Be Silly Every Day of the Year, a nugget of 366 nutty activities that’ll keep 7+year-olds entertained for an entire year, with the 366th entry thoughtfully included to cover leap years. Featuring illustrations and doodles by the huge-collared man himself, the silliness begins with an all-important self-assessment, preparing readers for their personal journey to finding success at being silly. By day eight, silliness-seekers will be ... View Full Review

After making a big claim (“read one fact from this book every day, and in just 365 days you’ll go from a regular person to a full-on intellectual powerhouse, and take your Genius-O- Meter from Low to WOAH!”), Mike Rampton’s Become a Genius in a Year certainly delivers big when it comes to engaging 7+-year-olds through attention-grabbing information on a vast array of topics. Divided into months, each chapter is jam-packed with fascinating “on this day” facts and arresting material across the fields of science, medicine, history, natural ... View Full Review

Marvellously melding a classic quest adventure with steam-punk vibes, Vashti Hardy’s The Amulet of Hath, second book in the Relic Hunters series, sees the Greystones family race to retrieve an ancient relic. Written to appeal to 9+-year-olds, the pitch-perfect style and formatting make it ideal for those with a younger reading age to become fully engaged with an action-and-peril-packed escapade. As for the escapade, it revolves around famous relic hunter Aunt Lucy requiring the cunning support of her niece and nephew, Mabel and Will, when the Amulet of Hath, which “held the clues to a hidden stash ... View Full Review