As a writer and a reader, I'm always on the lookout for great children's books. This is because I firmly believe children's books aren't just for humans under the age of 18. They are a unique form, with deliberate audience requirements, and they offer readers of all ages a special way of engaging with story and content. It is true that children's books don't always have to be serious. Sometimes they are just good fun stories. Both are great! But when I'm hunting for a really top quality children's, or sitting down to write one myself, there are several things I keep my eyes open for:

The Compassion Storybook Bible is a new release storybook Bible for young children and I was drawn to review it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, one of the authors is Crystal Bowman and, as some of you already know, I love her children's books. Secondly, it was a children’s Bible that claimed to focus on compassion as it’s driving theme. This immediately drew my interest as I wondered how the authors would approach the Biblical text through this lens and what it would offer children and their families. ​

This is a post for writers. It is about our attempts to build an author platform and the challenge to stay small. Or at least, that's what I thought it was going to be about when I first started...

Attempt #7:
​I've written this post six times already, and each time I've sighed, deleted and stared again at the blank page. It would be easy to blame it on writer's block. But I don't think that's it. It's more like a stubborn inability to get into words what has been buzzing around in my brain.
If you've been following my journey this year, you'll know it has involved a lot of slowing down. Just before the middle of the year, I took a break from social media and the impact of that decision continues to reverberate through my writing life. It's as if I've been having a staring competition with my author platform and my platform isn't winning...