Hilariously funny, Noah Can’t Even by @simonjamesgreen.bsky.social sees our titular hero’s world turned upside down when his bestie Harry kisses him at a party.
Out now for YA readers from @scholasticuk.bsky.social
worldssmallestlibrary.wordpress.com/2026/04/20/n...
Thanks so much, Jacqui! That’s a lovely review. And thanks for mentioning the current censorship battles - really important. x
FFS!
Haha, love it! No plans for a new cover on book 2, as far as I know, so it still has the iconic bananas on the front!
Ahh! I’m thrilled! Noah is my first, and in many ways my favourite, and I’m so glad you appreciate my sense of humour! Enjoy the sequel. It’s even more bananas… 🍌 🍌
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Absolutely bonkers.
Great to see widespread coverage of this today - well done, NEU conference!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Totally. And when individuals - who are clearly clueless - get to decide if something is ‘inappropriate’ (and a safeguarding concern!) we have a major problem. Like you, I’m speechless.
They’ve named the school.
A shameful episode - deciding to remove any books at all; the lazy use of AI; the appalling treatment of the librarian; the head’s arrogance and ignorance in deeming certain titles ‘inappropriate’; and the idea that books in a library could be a safeguarding concern…
Would put them on a collision course with some of them, and they’re not interested in opening that can of worms - as I discovered.
And I found the latter to be utterly useless when it happened to me in 2022. Just … hands in the air, ‘Well, what can we do?’ sort of attitude. I suspect this is partly (entirely?) due to the faith school issue - because protecting, e.g LGBT titles… /2
Yes, this is exactly the problem - no formal process; left at the discretion of individual schools which then means it’s they who become specific targets if certain people don’t like a book, conveniently absolving the government and DfE of any direct responsibility. /1
Absolute nonsense, isn’t it?! 🤷♂️
I’ll pass this on to my friend who knows Emily and has been helping her through this - I know she’ll really appreciate it. 💛
Oh my god. 🤬
Ugh. My contempt for that odious man is off the scale.
God, I know! When there are so many brilliant, nurturing schools out there, with amazing staff, it’s so unfair on those students to be in that sort of environment.
Totally agree.
There are a lot of brilliant people who will join this fight. Yes, finish it off now before it’s too late.
Oh, totally. Almost all of publishing, education, and many, many more would sign immediately. And yes, it’ll be disaster if this crap continues to creep.
We can! We will!
Hi Gemma! Oh, amazing! Fingers crossed because yes, this is crazy and something needs to happen at government level to protect everyone. Thank you! Keep me posted. Also, ugh! Here we are AGAIN!
So awful. This is the section which breaks my heart:
“We have the exact same group of children who come in every single day, and a lot of them are LGBTQ+, a lot of them are neurodivergent, and they come into the library because it’s their safe place,” Emily said. That safe place had been removed."
That’s the bit I can’t get my head around - and it feels to me like an abuse of the system meant to safeguard kids from actual abuse.
Oh, I know! And it’s much appreciated! 💛
In this case, the school apparently used AI to make a list of books to remove - which is astonishing and depressing on every level.
Yes, absolutely right, I should have said that really!
UK authors - I urge you to read this article about a school in Manchester who removed hundreds of our books from their library they deemed ‘inappropriate’ and share. This is appalling censorship - and it’s coming from the school’s head and SLT themselves. @indexoncensorship.org
Absolute honour to have A Year of Pride & Joy as a Lambda finalist in LGBTQ+ Children’s books! 🥰