Dionne Lakey - Independent Usborne Team Leader

04/08/2024

Visited Charlie Spring's bookshelf in his bedroom yesterday

02/08/2024

Lark and Kasim's voices are already so distinct and I adore Birdie five chapters in on this train ride. has created another compelling story in
Stunning cover art by

02/06/2024

Reading with pride

01/06/2024

Happy Pride Month! Reading to reflect realities. My shelf of stories that include lgbtq+ authors and/main characters

07/05/2024

Sunset books

21/10/2023

Love
Have been subscribing to this weekly magazine for the past four years, and there have been so many iconic issues that I have saved as a diary of our times.
Whenever adults ask me why I read mostly books aimed at children and young adults- a magazine like this comes to mind. Inside this week's issue, the middle-east conflict is succinctly explained so that even I can understand it.
As it is with most modern children's literature of every genre. If you're still only reading or providing classic children’s books for your kids, you're missing out on learning about our world as it is today and all the complexity and beauty of it.
Widen your horizons. Oh, and if you're going to get any print media in your home, I highly recommend this one.

10/11/2021

Congratulations to and Ace of Spades who've won the YA Readers' Choice Award at !!!
A book that combines thriller with social criticism in the Faridah has done it is always gonna win awards. Definitely the first of many.

Cover artist
Book Bag illustrator

Available to order from the shop link in my bio.

Have you read Ace of Spades? Do you have a favourite character?

10/10/2021

I will be sending schools across the UK information this week about

how to get book piles as big as these for their libraries, even with low budgets;

how to arrange one of these amazing author visits to help bring books to life;

free teaching resources to aid library lessons and book clubs.

So excited!

12/09/2021

This baba💜

Congratulations to 18-year-old Emma Raducanu for winning the US Open! The British teenager, who came into the tournament ranked 150th in the world, is the first qualifier since the Open Era began in 1968 to win a Grand Slam title. She defeated 19-year-old Canadian Leylah Fernandez, who also entered the tournament as an unseeded player ranked 73rd, in the first major final between two teens since Serena Williams played Martina Hingis at the 1999 US Open. Raducanu, who had a plane ticket to return home right after the tournament's early qualifying rounds stunned both the world and herself when she didn't drop a single set over the entire tournament, becoming the first British woman in 44 years to win a Grand Slam singles title.

To introduce kids to several inspiring women who made tennis history, we recommend "Billie Jean King” for ages 5 to 8 (https://www.amightygirl.com/billie-jean-king-little-people), "Sisters: Venus and Serena Williams" for ages 5 to 9 (https://www.amightygirl.com/sisters-venus-and-serena-williams), and "Martina & Chrissie: The Greatest Rivalry in the History of Sports" for ages 7 to 10 (https://www.amightygirl.com/martina-chrissie)

Fans of Billie Jean King, who famously defeated Bobby Riggs during the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match, will love the Inspiring Women doll based on her for ages 6 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/billie-king-doll

For two inspiring books about girls and women breaking athletic records throughout history, we recommend "Girls With Guts!" (https://www.amightygirl.com/girls-with-guts) for ages 6 to 9 and "Women in Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win" (https://www.amightygirl.com/women-in-sports) for ages 9 and up

And, for one of our favorite t-shirts for sports-loving Mighty Girls -- young and old -- that proudly states "I'm not strong for a girl. I'm just strong.", visit https://www.amightygirl.com/strong-t-shirt

Thanks to BBC One for sharing this image!

30/08/2021

Thank you so much to everyone who I met and who visited my stall at The Community Action Trust Group Jamboree in Towcester yesterday.

This trust raises money for the elderly and vulnerable in Zimbabwe by galvanising the Zimbabwean diaspora across the UK. So great seeing so many familiar faces (including my lovely uncle ❤) and such impressive support.

It was such a pleasure to share my favourite books with you all - loving all the adults who bought children's books for themselves because a good read is a good read!
Seeing the kids walk away with their favourite books and their eyes light up was priceless!

Really enjoyed recommending my inclusive bookshelf to my community, ones you may not normally come across. They're available from my favourite independent bookshops online:

thisisbooklove.com
Round Table Books
Sevenoaks Bookshop
thecornrow.com

Or request them from your local library.

Happy reading!

19/07/2021

Namina Forna has revealed the US cover for the sequel to The Gilded Ones!!

🎩 off to artist Johnny Tarajosu for these covers. I love how grown up Deka looks in the eyes in THE MERCILESS ONES.

I'm sad for the innocence lost in The Gilded Ones, but she looks so ready in this second book of the Deathless Trilogy to take whatever Namina Forna's got coming for her in 2022!

Order your signed copy of The Gilded Ones from me and read the full synopsis to the sequel on my website.

09/07/2021

"Since the 2nd grade when I started being bussed in to white schools, I've spent my entire life proving that I belonged in elite white spaces that were not built for Black people. I got a lot of clarity through what happened with the University of North Carolina. I decided I didn't want to do that anymore. That Black professionals should feel free and actually perhaps an obligation to go to our own institutions, and bring our own talents and resources to our own institutions and help to build them up as well.

This is not my fight. I fought the battle that I wanted to fight which is - "I deserve to be treated equally and have a vote on my tenure". I won that battle.

It's not my job to heal the University of North Carolina. That's a job for the people in power who created the situation in the first place."

This is Nikole Hannah-Jones Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist announcing to Gayle King on CBS News that she has declined a tenured professorship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and will instead take a position as the inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Reporting at Howard University, an Historical Black University (HBCU). See Instagram feed for the full interview.

This is a real world scenario echoed in YA fiction in both Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (set at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where Bree deals with racism and exclusion at her new school while grieving the loss of her mother); and in Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (set at a fictional elite all white high school Neveus Academy where the only two Black students are subject to increasing instances of racism and physical threat).

That young adult fiction is speaking to current times in different genres, especially those written by Black voices, is so exciting and enriching to all readers.

Which YA books are you reading that are also saying something new about the zeitgeist?

Usborne YA