From toxic masculinity to newfound superpowers
Nathanael Lessore’s take on writing draws on his own childhood and a belief that he isn’t writing down to his readers. His books tackle issues around growing up in a social media age, where toxic masculinity is damaging relationships and mental health – but told with a sense of humour that resonates with readers, rather than lectures to them.
BORN and raised in Peckham, Nathanael has remained rooted in south east London, and his books embrace the neighbourhoods and sense of community he grew up with. Prominent too in the stories that Nathanael tells are the relationships that young people form as they move from childhood through the teenage years and into young adulthood. That his male protagonists are often surrounded by incarnations of toxic masculinity is a reflection of the issues surrounding today’s social media and influencer culture that so many young people are exposed to.
His Carnegies Shadowers’ Choice winning book, King of Nothing, focuses on the relationship between Anton, who “wears the reputation of his father, who is in prison, like a badge of honour at the start of the book” and Matthew a “somewhat quirky boy”. Looking at how a single event changes Anton’s perspective and makes him reassess how he lives his life.
The Carnegies Shadowers’ Choice Award is chosen by young readers as part of CILIP’s flagship children’s writing and illustration awards and highlights the strong connection Nathanael builds with his audience. And those connections are not just forged by the themes that he covers, but also in the way he writes – bringing humour and laughter into his words.
Nathanael describes the moment he was announced as this year’s winner as “otherworldly”, saying: “It’s strange because I feel like all I do is just write books. My job is having fun, and I’m blessed that I get to invent silly conversations and scenarios and people pay me for that.”
He describes school visits where “students are excited, and even the ones playing cool… the ones who are potentially going to disrupt an author talk are
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always the first ones to get their books signed and ask me loads of questions. So, I do have that engagement with my readers, but the scale of the Carnegies and actually winning the Shadowers’ Choice award, I can’t really comprehend exactly what it means.” Nathanael points to his writing during COVID
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