determine the challenges the protagonist would face. Our young illustrator, undergraduate student Anisha Cosgrove, also included children’s visual workshop ideas in the book’s final illustrations.


Encouraging new voices The children also follow each book through the publishing process, editing drafts of the story alongside the author and illustrator and gaining an aspirational insight into the industry. Recently, at our annual Story Makers Festival the children from The Nightmare Catcher project launched their book, signed copies and even had a graduation. They have also been interviewed by a local radio station and reflected on their involvement in co- creating the books alongside some of the children from our second project, saying that:


“I feel proud of myself, more intelligent.”


“It’s about no right or wrong, with Story Makers you don’t think this is a bad idea.”


“You get to show that it’s not only you that has the problem in the story.” “I liked adding all the details” “I write at home now”


“You get to express your feelings and not everyone gets the chance to do that.”


Listen to the full interview on the Sunrise Radio or Story Makers website: https://bit.ly/2mkMQm0


Our second book is currently being co- created with a group of girls from a local school in Bradford and is a retelling of a South Asian folk tale, due to be released in January 2020. The representation of funny BAME female protagonists in children’s comedy was an area of under- representation that we were keen to address and, interestingly, the girls chose a mixture of comedy and horror as a genre for their story – proving a challenge for our young author, Juwairiyaah Ali. Juwairiyaah is an undergraduate writer at the university and this will be her first published book. She is also being mentored by author Sita Brahmachari as part of our new mentorship programme, which we have established in order to further develop the press as an aspirational publishing experience for young people.


Reading between the lines Drawing from our research and other expertise at the Carnegie School of Education, our books are accompanied by helpful guides for teachers and parents on how to explore and interact with these stories further with children, developing emotional literacy and wellbeing through philosophical inquiry. From our interviews with children, the experience


32 PEN&INC. Reading The Nightmare Catcher.


of co-creating stories was clearly linked to emotion, aspiration and a sense of imaginative freedom not often afforded to them. These guides take moments of tension from the story and offer rich opportunities to explore and interrogate more complex parts of the narrative through drama. In this way, stories can be emotionally explored, and they offer a window for philosophical inquiry, imagination and discussion by children. The guides are multidisciplinary in their approach drawing from a range of expertise.


“Too often Mental Health is taught within the context of Mental Illness. This guide is designed with teachers, support workers, and professionals in mind, to help support a positive discussion about how mental health is actually more closely linked to happiness, exploration, critical thinking, and adventure. It runs parallel with the fiction book and picks out key themes that tie in with a school pastoral curriculum, as well as concepts that help build philosophical development and problem-solving skills – the foundation blocks of successful thinkers. It uses drama therapy principles to create safe boundaries around discussions, and scaffolds ideas into meaningful debate.” – Johnny Latham, Yorkshire CAHMS lead.


Reading beyond the lines In September we begin work on a story with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children and following on from that a story on loss with children attending a special education provision school. We will continue to develop our mentorship pathways for young diverse aspiring


authors and illustrators, pairing them whenever possible with a professional author, designer or illustrator. Next year we will also be working with Pop Up on a project to address LGBTQ representation in children’s publishing. Watch this space!


Meet the team Lisa Stephenson: Lisa is Director, a co-founder of Story Makers Press and a research practitioner whose area of expertise is drama pedagogy and children’s wellbeing.


Dr Tom Dobson: Tom is co-founder of Story Makers press and a research practitioner whose area of expertise is creative writing pedagogy.


Ana Sanches de Arêde: Ana is co-founder and the Publisher for Story Makers Press and her expertise is in publishing. PEN&INC.


Sources


1 CLPE (2017) Reflecting Realities – A Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children’s Litera- ture 2017. Available from: https://bit.ly/2LppIdL.


2 Knowles, M., & Malmkjaer, K. (1996) Language and control in children’s literature. London: Routledge.


3 Nikolajeva, M. (2010) Power, voice and sub- jectivity in literature for young readers. London: Routledge.


4 Young-Bruehl, E., 2012. Childism: Confronting prejudice against children. Yale University Press.


5 Dobson, T., and Stephenson, L. (2017) Primary Pupils’ Creative Writing: Enacting Identities in a Community of Writers. Literacy. 51(3), 162-168.


6 Dobson, T. and Stephenson, L. (2019) “I think it fits in”: Using Process Drama to Promote Agentic Writing with Primary School Children. Literacy. Available online from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/lit.12145.


7 Greene, M., 1995. Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. Jossey-Bass.


8 Thomas, E.E., 2019. The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games. NYU Press.


Autumn-Winter 2019


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