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Joanne Owen - Editorial Expert

Joanne Owen is a writer, reviewer and workshop presenter whose lifelong love of books began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, Wales. An early passion for culture, story and folklore led her to read archaeology and anthropology at St John’s, Cambridge, after which she led the UK children’s book team for a major international retailer, going on to market books for Bloomsbury, Macmillan, Walker Books, Nosy Crow and Rough Guides. She now divides her time between writing, travel writing, reviewing and hosting writing workshops.

Joanne is the author of several books for children and young adults, among them the Martha Mayhem series, the Carnegie Medal-nominated Puppet Master, and You Can Write Awesome Stories, a how-to guide to creative writing. She’s also worked on a major community story project for the National Literacy Trust (Story Quest), and a number of travel guides, including The Rough Guide to Responsible Wales and guidebooks to the Caribbean region. In additional, she’s an occasional chair of LoveReading LitFest events, and judge for the 2023 Branford Boase Award.

Latest Features By Joanne Owen

Carnegie and Greenaway 2019 Nominations

We explore the powerful themes in Wrecked with Louisa Reid

Five flash fiction activities to inspire writing for pleasure

Three steps to transforming awesome objects into sensational stories

View All

Latest Reviews By Joanne Owen

Part of the nattily-named Poo Crew Adventures series, Journey to Poo-Topia sets out to put paid to the notion that poo stinks! Created by comic book dream team James Turner and Steve May, it’s a gloriously graphic novel that’s also gloriously (or should that be gorily?!) graphic when it comes to the (literal) ins and outs of poo, as a scatological science adventure is splattered (sorry not sorry) with fascinating facts that reveal why poo is, in the words of Professor Poo, “the most interesting and important substance in the entire ... View Full Review

The Wild Life of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals

Just when it seemed like all fresh avenues for dinosaur-themed non-fiction for children might have been exhausted, along stomps The Wild Life of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals to knock less mighty mortals out of the (Jurassic) park! Delivered with much energy — courtesy of Mike Barfield’s lively text and Paula Bossio’s brilliantly characterful, comic-style illustrations — it’s a feast of facts and fun as it invites readers to voyage back millions of years to meet the very first ocean-floor-dwelling lifeforms. We then undertake a journey through ... View Full Review

Yomi and the Curse of Grootslang, the third action-packed book in Davina Tijani’s fantastical Nkara Chronicles series, sees Yomi and her brother Kayode venture to South Africa with their wise Uncle Olu, who works as a researcher of Nkara creatures for the Sacred Beast League. On arrival, the siblings are praised by a group of children — the Vilha Treasure Hunters — who’ve heard how they rescued a Senegalese dragon king and saved a city, showing courage and wit that serve them well when they join the Treasure Hunters’ quest to break a ... View Full Review

Seventeen-year-old physics prodigy Gottie has experienced much loss in her short life. One summer on from losing her grandfather and being rejected by her first love, Gottie finds herself free-falling, like Alice down the rabbit hole, but through time, back to when these experiences happened. These time-slips intensify when Gottie’s childhood friend returns after being away for five years, and so she works on the “The Gottie H. Oppenheimer Principle” to try to figure out what’s happening to her. This bold, soulful debut about loss, the black hole of grief, friendship - and physics ... View Full Review

Brimming with drama — of both the emotional and musical theatre variety — and threaded with a fun “What would Freddy Mercury do?” mantra, Rachael Fernandes’ The Mercury in Me is an inspiring ode to being unapologetically yourself. Alongside tackling universal themes — first love, family conflict, fallings-out, and school bullies — it’s also brilliant on the British Indian experience, and fist-pumpingly uplifting. Though studious sixth-former Maya is set on becoming a doctor, she also has a talent for music that comes to the fore when handsome Harry ... View Full Review

Like his previous novel, Darkhearts, James L Sutter’s The Ghost of Us boasts brilliant dialogue, and presents an authentic, alternate take on YA romance. In this case, The Ghost of Us is a comic, quirky, coming-of-age story that tackles grief, friendship and romance in an utterly unique, page-turning style. Cara’s voice had me in its hold from the off: “While only sociopaths are completely proud of themselves, at eighteen, I’d spent plenty of years learning the hard way not to give a shit what anyone ... View Full Review

The Life Changing Magic of Skateboarding A Beginner's Guide with Olympic Medalist Sky Brown

Penned by Olympic Medallist Sky Brown, with dynamic illustrations from Shaw Davidson, The Life Changing Magic of Skateboarding is a brilliant, tip-packed autobiographical handbook for 6+-year-old aspiring skater champs. Kicking off with the story of how skateboarding changed Sky’s life through illustrated comic-book-style panels, the book also shares insights into everything from the make-up of skateboards and how to get started, through to more advanced moves and tricks. Alongside being an infectious introduction to the magic of skateboarding and an inspiring autobiography, The Life Changing Magic of Skateboarding also shares valuable life lessons, like the importance of not ... View Full Review

First novel in Antonia Maxwell’s Terra Electrica trilogy, The Guardians of the North is an absolute treasure. Set in the near-future, when the Arctic’s ice caps have melted, this is dystopian fiction at its finest, with lyrical folkloric flair to the writing, and ecological themes threaded through the enchanting action-packed story. As for the story, we meet our remarkable protagonist, 12-year-old Mani, wishing “more than ever that her father would return”. She and her dad have been alone in the world since the terrible Terra Electrica disease claimed her mother&... View Full Review

With its stellar storytelling, and unique, unforgettable characters, Tania Unsworth’s Nowhere Island is a fresh, thought-provoking survival-in-the-wild adventure. Both nuanced and immediate, Nowhere Island gets to the heart of human bonds in an arresting voice that speaks of, and to, young minds. It also transcends age boundaries, and really is a wonder for all ages. “Gil was five years old when his parents were drowned in a kayaking accident.” Now twelve, after spending “his whole life being taken to one place after another” in the foster care system, ... View Full Review

Created by a husband and wife duo — acclaimed fantasy artist Rodney Matthews and writer Sarah Matthews — Oddney's Otherland is a madcap magical mystery that kicks off when retired naturalist Professor Oddney discovers a strange secret realm at the end of a tunnel beneath his shed. Accompanied by his trusty sidekick, Magnus the talking magpie, Oddney enters Otherland and embarks on a quest to find The Two-Headed Firedrake — a seemingly impossible task, given that the firedrake is said to reside on “a volcanic island surrounded by a lake full of ferocious fiends”. Presented as a fancy ... View Full Review

“This was Hawthorne House. There would always be another mystery…This was the beginning…and I was ready to be bold”. So ended the previous novel in the enigmatic, dripping-with-wealth-and-mystery Inheritance Games series, and The Final Gambit picks up the baton in edge-of-your-seat style. Avery’s year in Hawthorne House has almost come to an end, which means she’s on the verge of fulfilling the condition of Tobias Hawthorne’s inheritance. On the cusp of becoming the richest teenager in the world. Over the past year, she and the handsome Hawthorne bros ... View Full Review