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Joy Court - Editorial Expert

About Joy Court

Joy Court is Reviews Editor for The School Librarian journal and Co-founder of All Around Reading.

Previously she managed the Schools Library Service in Coventry where she established the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards and the Literally Coventry Book Festival, but now just concentrates on books and libraries as a freelance consultant.  She has chaired and spoken on panels at festivals and conferences around the UK. She is also a Trustee and member of the National Council of the United Kingdom Literacy Association where she sits on the selection panel for the UKLA Book Awards and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of The English Association.

Author of Read to Succeed: strategies to engage children and young people in reading for pleasure (2011) and Reading By Right: successful strategies to ensure every child can read to succeed (2017) FACET and author of several Riveting Reads annotated booklists for the School Library Association, most recently, with Daniel Hahn, Riveting Reads- a world of books in translation (2017).

Latest Reviews By Joy Court

An unknown painter has the temerity to enter the Grand Contest of Art. At first scorned for the simple realism of his styleand subject matter (not a portrait of the King!) he is crowned the winner when his Duck actually quacks. An overnight sensation, his paintings were in high demand until the realism became a little too real with volcanos erupting, waterfalls gushing over the carpet and a boa constrictor attacking its rich owner in the bath. Clousseau is thrown into jail and all his paintings confiscated except for the one of a guard dog on display in the palace. ... View Full Review
Published just before Holocaust Memorial Day this book could not be more important or timely. Author Keren David has talked about her own challenges bringing up Jewish children and about Jewishness only being reflected in Holocaust literature. She wanted to write a story in which young Jewish people could see themselves as well as hopefully giving all young people something to think about. She has done a remarkable job with this immensely readable and authentic story.   The short, dark and curvy extrovert, Evie, could not be more different from the tall,blonde ,willowy, anxious Lottie. They go to different ... View Full Review
What’s the T? is street talk for ‘tell me the truth’ and this is exactly what Juno Dawson sets out to do. This Book is Gay by the same author became a staple purchase for school libraries and this new title absolutely deserves the same treatment and indeed should be purchased for the staff shelf too. This reader is paranoid about the correct language and terminology and I feel far more confident in my understanding now. The excellent glossary is worth the purchase price alone. Although it sets out to answer all the possible questions that ... View Full Review
The Branford Boase prizewinning author has produced another winner with his second book. This is the thrilling story of Queenie de la Cruz, an ordinary girl who happens to be a big fan of world’s most popular fizzy drink. When a bottle washes up at her feet on the beach near her run-down house, this is not unusual- the beach is so covered with rubbish she hardly notices it. But this bottle contains the top-secret recipe for her favourite drink. Priceless information that the big corporation wants back at any cost!  The way they manipulate the media ... View Full Review
Following the success of her debut book How to be Extraordinary, which focused on inspiring children to be the very best that they can be, this important companion title shows the impact of people working together and what results they can thereby achieve. Once again this demonstrates that the author has a real gift for narrative nonfiction making these true stories really come to life with the selection of salient facts and lucid explanations setting the scene and explaining the issues so very clearly. The fifteen stories range from the origins of democracy in Ancient Greece and the mystery of ... View Full Review
Both Clara and Nancy are very much the victims of a pre-World War 1 society dominated by men. Clara the eldest has fought her way out of the family home and out of the clutches of an abusive father but cannot escape her guilt at leaving Nancy to take her place and face an unwanted pregnancy, a painful birth and the wrench of giving her child away. Clara is proud to have found a job which also provides accommodation and now sees this as the solution for her sister too. Life as a prison guard in Holloway is certainly challenging not ... View Full Review
Stewart Foster has made an award-winning name for himself as an author who writes stories which provide real insights into other lives, often with characters who must negotiate some quite challenging emotional territory. This fourth novel takes him into some very personal history having been a foster carer himself, and tells the story of Sam McCann, a boy who longs for a permanent home and a real family. Sam is an unforgettable and not always likeable character and the Perfect Parent Project he launches with his best friend Leah may be genuinely funny in Sam’s almost wilful bad ... View Full Review
Fans of the blockbuster crime thrillers like One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus would like no better Christmas treat than this, another novel full of fascinating characters and a plot full of family secrets, jaw-dropping twists and a touch of romance. Narrated in the first person by the three eponymous cousins and occasionally by their parents at the same age, we can see the secrets they are keeping as well as watching the Story story gradually unravel. The original quartet of Story siblings were brought up in the lap of luxury on a glamorous tiny resort island off ... View Full Review
Dedicated to his own ‘utterly bonkers’ grandma’s and demonstrating his relish for all things Christmas related, Alex T Smith and Macmillan have lovingly produced this top-notch seasonal offering. In a lovely author note at the end we are told he started humming the tune and could not remember all the words and started making them up and so the carol starts traditionally up to five and from there things get more outlandish than even the original. I cannot decide which is my favourite: the eight bears a-balancing or the eleven penguins parping! Set firmly in the ... View Full Review
Forty-three years after the publication of Dogger, where we first met Dave and his very precious toy dog, 93-year-old Shirley Hughes has gifted a new generation of children an equally beautiful story, which I am quite sure that parents and teachers who grew up with Dogger will relish reading to their children. Dogger of course was a huge success and won not only the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal but was voted by the public in 2007, their favourite winner of the medal in 50 years of the annual award. In this sequel we see that the family has increased to include toddler ... View Full Review
Very hard to believe that this is the 25th anniversary of Philip Pullman’s ground-breaking fantasy, now getting legions of new fans through the BBC adaptation. Northern Lights not only won the Carnegie medal, but in 2007 was voted by the public as the Carnegie of Carnegies to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the medals. Then The Amber Spyglass, part three of His Dark Materials trilogy, of which Northern Lights is of course the first part,  became the first ever children’s book to win, what was then, the Whitbread book of the year and so this series ... View Full Review
The fragility of life underpins this heart-warming story from the start. Louie was born prematurely “a pitiful, scrawny, struggling thing”. Newcomer Nora lost a premature baby brother and this experience has left her anxious and slow to trust. The two children bond over Winslow, a frail orphaned baby donkey, not expected to survive, whom Louie adopts despite his poor track record with saving bugs, worms or goldfish. For both, saving the adorable Winslow helps them to feel less powerless about underlying anxieties, such as Louie’s fears for his beloved brother serving in the army ... View Full Review
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