writing

Glasgow Worldcon Notes (2024)

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I attended Worldcon in Glasgow (2024) as a virtual attendee. That means everything was watched through streaming. I wasn’t physically there. I took detailed handwritten notes, but I also put short summaries on Bluesky. Most panels or talks got one post giving an overview of what was said and an optional second post if there were examples, recommendations or other additional comments.

These are those notes, with some small changes to formatting (like removing hashtags) to work better in a blog post format.

I tended to watch things I thought would inspire stories or result in reading recommendations. I will be watching some of the other panels on replay, but I won’t be doing public notes for those.

Overall, my favourite panel (with multiple people) was Languages of Scotland. My favourite talk (single person) was Fighting Fungi in Space.

It’s time for Worldcon in Glasgow, which I’ll be experiencing from the comfort of my own home. This thread’ll have comments on the panels I watch and stuff. My desk is below, so you can imagine me drinking tea and writing notes in my zebra book.

My writing desk. Details below.

Image Caption: A black writing desk photo taken at an angle. A keyboard with rainbow lights is on the keyboard shelf and a monitor showing my author website is on the main desk. Other items include various colourful stim toys, plushies, dowsing pendulums, a fiberoptic flower ball, a rusty steampunk lamp, sweets and a mug of tea with owls on it. Work items are pots of pens, pencils, paint brushes and feathers, plus various notebooks. A cuddly owl sits in the in-tray because he hasn’t been processed yet. It’s tidy and free of dust. The bookshelf in the background is not.

This is made possible because I sold a story to Clarkesworld and got paid. It’s about pod people! Read it here!

Story Link: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/blake_07_24/

Timekeeping on Mars: I have very little concept of time, but here I am! Months named after the zodiac in several systems. Sun dials not very accurate, but still neat. Captions turned the Martian sols (days) into souls. Very goth.

Disability Representation in Middle Grade and YA Fiction: Interesting comments on publishers hiring sensitivity readers and not passing on feedback/allowing time to use it. Not as many SFF examples for younger audiences. One panelist was very unaware and was called out by the audience.

Magnetism – the Force of the Future: Basics of magnets. Social/political issues as rare earth magnets mostly from one place. Some current/future tech. I like the space cannon that fires satellites into orbit!

Dinner break time for me, but the streaming has worked fine so far. Can’t always hear audience questions though (and neither can the autocaption system), so it helps if the speaker answers in a way that sums up the question.

Languages of Scotland: Mainly talking Gaelic and Scots. Languages reflect migration history. Fiction using Gaelic as magic words and Scots to signify poor/working class is not ideal. Importance of modern writing in languages and more respectful handling in fiction.

Autocaptions was faced with languages that sounded close enough to English, so decided to give it a go. The highlight was “come in to the body of the Kirk” which was on theme at least.

More seriously, a lot of similarities to what happened with the Sussex dialect.

I’m now watching the Morrow’s Isle opera, which’ll be the last thing I watch tonight. I can’t really explain what’s going on, but there are dancing rabbits. 🐰

Interview: Wole Talabi interviews guest of honour Nnedi Okorafor. They discuss how she got into writing, common story themes and africanfuturism. A novella series and metafiction novel are upcoming. As a publisher, she’s looking for people doing something weird.

Nnedi mentioned this blog post: http://nnedi.blogspot.com/2019/10/africanfuturism-defined.html

Writing Diasporas in SFF: Being from a diaspora means pressure to be authentic, get it right. But can also be a trap, as trying to represent a whole culture is impossible. Even stories not directly about it often have themes of alienation / outsiders when written by diaspora writers.

Diaspora recommendations (that I managed to catch, I might have missed some) were Salman Rushdie’s early novels, “Speculative Fiction for Dreamers” anthology and “Letters to a Writer of Color” essay collection.

Fighting Fungi in Space: Fungi are everywhere! They’ve caused equipment failures on ISS (eating plastic/rubber) and killed plants. Solutions can’t kill all fungi, as humans need them on their skin. Mainly looking at resistant materials, such as synthetic diamond coating.

“Entangled Life” by Merlin Sheldrake was recommended for learning more about fungi. 🍄

Worldcon Philharmonic Orchestra: A classical music concert. The orchestra was joined by a singer and piper for some pieces. Themes were science fiction, fantasy, games and Scotland. The streamed version was good, so worth watching on replay if you’re a member and missed it.

Neurodivergent Approaches to Stories: Writing helps explore own identity. Characters often have neurodivergent traits even if unintended. Reading helps understand neurotypical people, see self in books, feel part of found families. Need to be flexible about writing advice/rules. Stay weird.

A non-fiction book recommendation was “Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Thanks to the Discord chat for figuring out which book was meant.

The Many Legs of SF: Creepy Crawlies in Space: Often seen as the villains. Aspects in non-buglike aliens, like the Borg hive. Empathy with the alien other in making them the protagonists. Transformation themes. Sometimes not that deep: they’re cool and we’re used to having them around.

Authors mentioned include Kafka, Victor Pelevin, Adam Roberts, Octavia Butler, Tiptree, and the Brothers Čapek. Some examples were Nurgle, Lord of Decay, in Warhammer (flies), xenomorphs in Alien (parasitoid wasps), the Borg (eusocial insects) and Starship Troopers (various).

Through an African Lens: Issues with Western publishers using a quota system. Being pigeonholed into writing certain things. Many stories don’t make it outside Africa. Genre boundaries not as strict. Can be dark due to lived history of writers, but also hope, survival and fun.

Too many recommendations to list them all, but the panelists will be putting together a list (added note: this was placed on the Discord chat). The shared universe – Sauútiverse – mentioned. Also the African Speculative Fiction Database (see link).

Database Link: https://www.africansfs.com/resources/list-of-published-african-sff

Surrealism in Fantasy: From the art movement after World War One. A time when nothing made sense, so veering into dream logic. Explores the weirdness of reality. Often more flexible and freeform. No need to explain why/how things work. Has seen a recent resurgence, often in indie presses.

Authors mentioned included: Jet McDonald, Jeanette Winterson, A. S. King, Vajra Chandrasekera, Anna Kavan, Kelly Link, Amos Tutuola and Leonora Carrington. Some mainstream examples were Tanith Lee’s flat earth series and 2000AD Indigo Prime stories by John Smith.

I was apparently mentioned on the panel The Rise of Cosy Fantasy and Science Fiction but that one isn’t online. The book is Werecockroach, so mid-thread shameless promotion!

Book Link: http://www.polenthblake.com/words/cockroach.html

I’ve also been recognised on the Discord. I am a mix between Mike in Monsters Inc being thrilled to be on the cover of a magazine when someone remembers I exist to, “Oh no, I’ve been perceived.”

Found Family in SFF (Online): Cultural aspects as family is broader than Western nuclear in many places. Found family hierarchy can be more flexible and situational. Can be comforting for marginalised readers. The trope of rugged person drawn slowly into family was a favourite.

Chemistry in SF: The study of materials. Starting with tool making and pigments in the stone age, through alchemy, to modern chemistry. Accurate chemistry is unusual in SFF. Many handwavium elements, such as Cavorite (anti-gravity), coaxium (Star Wars hyperfuel), and scrith (Ringworld).

Highlighted examples were Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein using (real) chemical means to generate electricity, and Isaac Asimov’s “The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline”, a short story structured as a paper about an element that dissolves before it’s put in water.

The Influence of Scotland on Fantasy Worldbuilding: Landscape in hills, glens, mist, castles… but often neglecting modern. Folktales like kelpies and fairy groves. Exact stories vary between areas. Stereotypes of dwarves, groundskeepers and exaggerated accents not so great.

Mentioned books were T.L. Huchu’s The Library of the Dead series (Scottish writer) and “Castles in Their Bones” by Laura Sebastian (outsider writer who researched). The film “Under the Skin” was guerilla filmed in Glasgow.

30 Years of MYST: Starting with Myst. Followed by Riven, which felt more like a place people lived. There were related novels and there’s a convention called Mysterium. The games have a sense of strangeness and deep lore. Similar vibes to real world backrooms / liminal spaces.

Some games with similar feelings mentioned were Abducted, The Witness, Heaven’s Vault, Quern and the second Talos Principle. For novels, “Piranesi” by Susanna Clarke. The first Myst novel is “The Book of Atrus” by Rand Miller.

Premee Mohamed Reading: Premee reads from “The Butcher of the Forest” using a mic in a mug. Sneaky cat cameo in the back.

Book Link: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250881786/thebutcheroftheforest

LitRPG and Progression Fantasy: Progression where problems are solved by getting stronger. LitRPG is a gamified world. Very indie. Little big pub stuff. Audiobooks and serial fiction are popular formats. Many of the book games are broken on purpose and would make terrible actual games.

“Dungeon Crawler Carl” by Matt Dinniman is one that’s become very popular. Royal Road, a web story site, has many examples. (They didn’t mention many specific examples, so I’ll add a rec from me. I enjoyed “Sufficiently Advanced Magic” by Andrew Rowe.)

Fantasy Noir and Other SFFH Mashups (Online): Early noir often had light fantastical elements. Building on that can produce something unexpected. Best tackled from a place of loving all involved genres/tropes. Mashups they’d like to see more: romance and hard science fiction.

A few of the genre mashing authors mentioned: Aliette de Bodard, Wilhelmina Baird, Randall Garrett, Lara Elena Donnelly, Joe Lansdale and Kurt Vonnegut.

(The panel mentioned games, but didn’t give examples. So in my game rec: “The Vanishing of Ethan Carter” is a noir cosmic horror.)

Appropriation Versus Inspiration: Don’t write viewpoint characters outside your culture. Research for non-viewpoint characters. I’d note this doesn’t work for those of us where it’s complicated. For example, an audience member asked how to deal with not being properly in any culture.

My take as someone in that unbelonging category: embrace being an outsider/writing about outsiders and do your best to research the rest. I don’t think people actually intend to sound like us folk shouldn’t write. We just weren’t part of the assumed audience.

Finding Story in the Landscape: Landscape is shaped by people. Layers of story and history. It can be a character in the story, interacting with characters and narrative. The panel would like to see more land as main character and how migration influences land connections.

Writing Future Scotland: Everywhere has a future! Could include themes of Scottish independence and climate change altering landscape. History and present can be explored through the future, such as past colonialism, folklore and the modern/future co-existing, and language changes.

Works mentioned were the anthologies “Gallus” and “Nova Scotia”, “The Library of the Dead” by T.L. Huchu, “Bucket List” by Russell Jones and SF Caledonia (an online magazine).

Magazine Link: https://www.sfcaledonia.scot/

The Impact of Textiles on the Built Environment: The impact is everywhere (like farming, buildings for fabric work, furnishings as class signifiers). In science fiction, hard surfaces are cheaper for TV, but the future would have comfort. Tech/magic fabrics could do amazing things.

This is the last post in my thread of mini summaries of the panels/other stuff I watched at Glasgow Worldcon 2024. It’s also the beginning, because the best way to view a thread is to load the last post (this one) and then scroll back to the beginning. It’s been fun!

2023: Aliens

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In a year that was terrible for a lot of people, I’ve seen improvements and actually have some plans for next year. It’s an odd place to be, but I’m making the most of my improved health, because I don’t know how long it’ll last or what else will happen. Food still has random shortages and the government is threatening more right wing laws, so it’s not like it’s going well locally. But right now, I’m relatively safe.

 

Health

At the beginning of the year, things were stable, both the good and bad. I’d improved a lot, but still had some additional executive dysfunction issues. I’d attributed these to needing to relearn to do stuff and having an overwhelming list of things to do, but now I’m not so sure. Basically because I started taking Astragalus membranaceus and the issues pretty quickly resolved. One person can be a coincidence and all that, but it was a rather sharp and well-timed coincidence if that was the case.

I caught nothing at all. Since starting to use regular nasal spray (Viraleze) in addition to a mask, that’s stopped being a thing. This has meant there were no relapses and I could get out more with reasonable safety. I visited the local museum and saw a play.

During this time, I also got a walker (it’s purple!), so I could get out for more walks. The extra support helps me to walk better and it means I can sit down anywhere. Though I prefer the stick if I’m going inside or will need to use steps.

Towards the end of the year, the inflammation/arthritis in my joints faded completely and I was able to stop taking antihistamines (this caused some itching and sneezing, as I’ve been on them for years, but it wasn’t that bad). The knee with issues straightening has something else going on, though that’s also seen some improvements.

At this point, things are likely to be where they stay, other than possible improvements in the one knee. It’s pretty clear that my joints will remain fragile. I get headaches and motion sickness if I overdo things. But it’s all very manageable. I can get outside to fill the bird feeders and go for short walks. I can make plans and work on projects.

 

Writing

I’d initially planned to publish single short stories with notes. This didn’t happen, but for the best reason. The first I was working on was “Rewilding Nova”, which had been accepted for the Rosalind’s Siblings anthology before that fell through. As I was working on the notes, that anthology found a new home with Atthis Arts. So I was paid, the story went into the world, and I included a few highlights from the notes on the release announcement. I still think the single stories idea would be neat, but the money meant I didn’t have to rush it.

Photo of Rosalind's Siblings

Image Caption: A paperbook book on a purple cloth. The book is Rosalind’s Siblings and shows a person with short hair looking into a microscope in shades of purple. A small paintbrush and a bowl with two jammy biscuits are next to the book. These items relate to my story.

I also ended up writing a whole bunch of flash fiction. As long as nothing terrible happens, this will be out next year. It’ll be a novella-length collection of stories on the theme of really alien aliens.

I have no idea what I’ll end up working on after that, but I am writing again more regularly.

 

Art

My tale of multiple art shops starts with Zazzle. Sales were down, but it didn’t appear to be due to any of Zazzle’s recent changes. Product views were fine. People just weren’t buying as much. But they were buying enough to keep my website going, so this carried on being solid. All is not well in the POD world though, so the story doesn’t end there.

Society6 has been my backup art shop for many years. I didn’t sell much and the uploader for products was the worst I’ve ever used, but customers liked the quality of the products. Until this year, when they decided to introduce subscription fees for artists. I reduced my designs down to the ten allowed for the free plan, but this shop will most likely be removed in the future unless sales really pick up.

Threadless was one I’d looked at, but hadn’t tried until now. It has some things in its favour, including being able to donate some profits to charity and a commitment to wanting to promote marginalised creators. Unfortunately, they have a curated marketplace and only really seem to like a certain busy style that I don’t have. I wouldn’t recommend this one to anyone starting out, because if you’re not in the main search and don’t have fans, you’re unlikely to sell stuff. It’s a pity they don’t allow customers to search the extended marketplace if they want.

Inprnt needs an invite from a current artist or submission of three pictures for current artists to vote on. I submitted my rainbow cat, rainbow squid and fungi meadow. I was voted in on my first attempt, so that was great. This is mainly a site for art prints, and the shipping costs mean mainly for people in the US, but the quality looks nice. I’ll aim to add more stuff over the coming year.

Ko-fi is not really a shop. It’s a tip jar. Though it does allow some selling, they don’t handle the VAT, which is too much of a nightmare for a small creator. So this will remain as tips only.

 

Blogging

I reviewed a game, wrote a post about book covers and reopened my review requests. I set up Ko-fi so that people could tip me if they liked the content. My brain is back in the game.

My old posts on subjects tended to get death threats, but more people would read them over a longer period of time compared to reviews. The threats weren’t the only issue though, as the trouble with posting early thoughts on something is that things change, and the posts aged badly. So my focus this time is more on roundups of things that happened with a focus on my experiences.

Another possible is discussions of themes or tropes that could do with a roundup. I’ve often ended up describing these in reviews, but that could be turned into a more general article that I could then reference.

This means reviews won’t be as common as the height of my reviewing. I’m trying to find more of a balance of content. Whether people will read any of it, who knows. Blogging and long reviews went heavily out of fashion. But I hate email newsletters, so I’m still blogging for now.

 

Social Media

The positive side of social media is I found a new microblogging site that works for me. Bluesky is now my main microblogging site, where you can hear how sink spider is doing, how my knee is doing today, and whether I saw a cat when I went out.

Bluesky needs invite codes to join, which are handed out to current members. I got as many out as I could before Twitter stopped being useable. I donated a few to code handout schemes. I used Reddit and Second Life to send out more. There are still holes in the community, but the creative side is getting established over there. What it could do with are more readers and fans, who aren’t necessarily writers and artists.

It’ll be a long time before my social media recovers. I built up followers over many years and I won’t get them back quickly. I’m not famous enough for that. It’s also harder to get people to repost silly little things now, which is basically how I grew my early Twitter audience.

 

Short Version

My health is stable and I’m working on things again. I had a story out in the Rosalind’s Siblings anthology. I have new art shops on Threadless and Inprnt. You can tip me on Ko-fi and follow me on Bluesky. As long as my health holds, I hope to be blogging more and also publishing a flash fiction collection about aliens.

On Self-Published Book Covers

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Work in progress of a chalk pastel squid drawing.

The Same

When I started out self-publishing, there was a lot of pressure to use covers that looked like the ones big publishers would use. What a terrible thing it would be if people noticed the book was self-published. They might think it was different in some way. Different is bad.

I’d often had my short work rejected for being too different, too weird, too unlike what we’ve published before, not the direction we’re going in, and many other ways of saying it’s just plain odd. This raised the question of whether I actually wanted a cover that looked like I was writing something I wasn’t. The stories were different and maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. The cover should surely reflect that.

It turned out that big publishers didn’t disagree. There were covers that stood out from the crowd as being different, because that’s how the book was being marketed. One that stuck with me was The Perks of Being a Wallflower, where the majority of the cover is a solid colour. There’s a small picture of someone’s legs and feet in the top corner. The text is pushed to the edges.

A lot of online critique means well, but without context about the book and the publisher, that cover would be slammed. The elements shouldn’t be at the edges. Make the picture fill the whole space. Look at covers in your genre, because they don’t look like that. Indeed, some versions of the cover are more typically laid out. But it’s the one with the tiny picture that I noticed.

 

The Different

People talk about professionalism and quality, as though they’re carved in stone and never subjective. This is usually the artistic equivalent of a generic business suit, as though that would be suitable for every job and situation.

The Garden Gang books were written and illustrated by Jayne Fisher. She was a child and you can tell that from the drawings. The pen lines are clearly visible where the characters are coloured in. These books are not bad, low quality or unprofessional. The art and writing is just right for them. They were also published by Ladybird Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Yayoi Kusama dresses in bright polka dots. She’s an artist known for her work with patterns. There’s nothing unprofessional about that.

In a creative industry, there’s a very big range in what is acceptable. If it works, it works. Sometimes there’s no way to know if it will work without trying it.

 

The Unchoice

In the end, I didn’t really have a choice about doing my own covers. I couldn’t afford anything else. But thinking about these issues helped me break away from trying to make covers that looked like other people’s covers. I made covers that fit my books, with a focus on the styles I was best at doing. The result was people have bought my books based on the covers and I started selling art as well.

The one people most often talk about is Werecockroach, because I drew it in wax crayons. It was a bit of a dig at people who complain about self-published covers drawn in crayon, though it’s also a scene in the book. This has worked when I’ve run adverts, because it really stands out in a line of book covers (crayon covers are not actually the most common sort outside of jokes). It marks the book as being extremely self-published in a way some readers want.

 

The Twist

That hasn’t been the end of the story though. There’s a plot twist, because the issue of AI generated covers is at the forefront. Suddenly, it’s become an advantage to have a cover that doesn’t have a style that screams AI.

My humble crayon drawing is very difficult for AI to get right, because the AI is not one of Asimov’s robots. It copies things based on probabilities, with no understanding of how a tool might be used to create it. Smooth finishes are preferred over brush marks and sketchy wibbles where someone’s hand shook. Attempts to copy these things never look quite right. More like a digital filter put over the top.

I visited the Tate Modern’s exhibit on Matisse some years back. Viewing his cutouts up close, the pencil lines can be seen, along with the pin marks where the paper was held. It’s something AI is currently unable to accurately copy.

It’ll be interesting to see what this means for self-published covers. In a world where readers will increasingly judge anything that looks like it might be AI, and there’s no guarantee that hired cover artists will be honest, there’s a bigger push for self-published authors to make their own covers. An author might be better off with a cover that’s simply a nice typeface on a plain background.

 

The Future

For myself, it’s clear that I’m better off producing art by hand as much as possible. It’s going to be an advantage to show the sketchy lines and other marks, to the point of thinking of ways to make them more obvious. Embracing the imperfections that show thought behind them rather than being the result of mathematical mistakes.

There’s a sadness to this though. I like doing my own covers. It’ll be fun to see if more authors go that route. But I wish it wasn’t something that was forced and going to make it harder for artists who do cover art commissions.

Maybe the future will end up more balanced, but until then, it’s time to break out the pencils.

2019: Death

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The previous year was difficult due to the heat, meaning I was behind on everything. I started to catch up in the beginning of 2019 and my air conditioner arrived. Then one of my family died. During those events, I also injured my knee, which continued to cause issues throughout the year. Just as things started to settle later in the year, another family member died. About the only good side is Brexit was delayed, so I didn’t have to deal with everything at once.

The result was I didn’t do very much at all when it comes to business things. I mainly focused on family and recovering from the injury.

 

Art

I had little time to make products for my Zazzle store. I made a few things and cleaned up a few things, but it was minor. My sales continued to increase without having to do anything. This is a great form of passive income and I’m glad I had this set up before this year. I’ll work on getting some new designs done and increasing my overall number of products.

 

Writing

I sold two short stories during the year. “Rewilding Nova” sold to Rosalind’s Siblings, which is an anthology about marginalised scientists. “Busy Little Bees” sold to Common Bonds, which focuses on aromantic characters. These were the short story submissions I mentioned in my previous yearly update, so it was great to end up selling both of them. I believe both anthologies are due in 2020.

I didn’t have time to finish Conduit with everything else happening, though this is still in the queue to be released. This wasn’t only due to me, as one of my family helps with editing and wouldn’t have been in a state to do that either.

This is where the tough choices come in. Longer work can potentially mean decent income for a long time, but this hasn’t really happened for me. I make more selling a short story for a single payment than putting longer work up for sale for several years. A short story usually takes a few months at most, but long work can take several years to write, so this is completely out of proportion. I can earn a tiny bit for several years of work or a reasonable sum for a few months.

The obvious conclusion is that it isn’t a good use of my time to write novellas and novels. I do still have ideas and want to work on them at some point, but I need my income to be more stable, as they’re basically passion projects. They don’t pay for themselves. So once Conduit is out, I’m not setting any deadlines or making any public plans for other longer work. It’ll happen if I can afford the time to write.

I will be writing some short stories if I can find some suitable submission calls. This isn’t in as good a place as this time last year, as I’d already been asked to submit to the two where I ended up selling work. They were good fits for my sort of work. So far, I don’t see anything on the horizon that looks suitable, but there might be a surprise call at some point.

I’m also hoping to do some video readings of some of my existing work, which leads on to the next thing.

 

YouTube

I put a few videos on YouTube years back, with the thought that it’d be a good idea to do something with it. Years went by and I didn’t do anything, but that first video (of a wild bee swarm) managed to get an average of 500 views every year for ten years. I probably really should have done something to build on that earlier.

I needed something I could work on in small doses, so I decided it was time. I started uploading videos in October. I went through older videos and uploaded those, as well as working on some new content. My aim was to do relaxing videos of various sorts, including nature, art, my pets and some sensory/ASMR videos.

Getting to the point of being able to run adverts on YouTube is not easy. It requires 1000 subscribers (and a certain amount of view time, but that’s the easier part). Even without adverts though, I’m planning on some videos that tie in with other stuff, like showing art and reading stories. It could be a good way to reach new people, even if I don’t reach the point of running adverts.

So far, I’ve been enjoying making the videos. My plan is to put out content regularly for a year and then review how it’s going. I’m open to video requests (within the sort of stuff I can do).

 

Other Things

I spent most of the year not reading anything or playing any games, though did get a couple of book reviews done. Patreon got a short story and some tank friends photos. It was a quiet year on those fronts.

In good news, I did get money from Amazon Associates and they’ve recently added the ability to get electronic payments for UK people. No more cashing foreign cheques.

 

Short Version

It was a difficult year with two deaths in the family and an injury. The release of Conduit was delayed, though should be out in 2020. I sold two short stories, which should also be out in 2020. Zazzle sales continued to do well with little input from me. I started a YouTube channel and will spend a year working on that before reviewing my progress.

Malala’s Magic Pencil – Malala Yousafzai (author), Kerascoët (illustrator)

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Malala's Magic Pencil CoverFirst Published: 17th October, 2017
Genre: Children’s Memoir / Picture Book
Available: Amazon.com | Amazon UK

Malala has a comfortable life playing with her brothers and going to school, until the Taliban takes over her town.

This is not the story of a girl and her magic pencil. It’s the true story of Malala Yousafzai for younger readers. I do have some doubts about this title choice, as the context is not necessarily going to be clear for children picking this up. An adult will hopefully recognise the name and realise what it’s about.

The focus is on Malala wishing she has a magic pencil to change the world, then slowly coming to realise that she could do a similar thing through her writing. I did like the way this storyline tied together, as it makes it relatable for a younger audience. It does also highlight how reading and writing can be used in a practical way, which reluctant readers can sometimes find difficult to see.

The pictures are fairly realistic watercolour paintings with black ink outlines. The details help to make the settings clear. There are also swirly patterns in places, examples of which can be seen on the cover, which invoke a sense of imagination and creativity.

There are obviously violent aspects to the story, as Malala’s town was taken over by the Taliban and she was shot. This is handled in an age-appropriate way. There are some images with men carrying guns and it’s clear people are scared, but there are no scenes showing the guns in use. The attack on Malala is very glossed over. It cuts from saying they want to stop her to her looking out of a window with a hospital bracelet on. I do think this image could have been clearer about being a hospital, as the small details would be easy to miss, particularly if the reader hasn’t stayed in a hospital before. It wouldn’t have needed to show all the gory details of the attack to do that.

The text is better suited to older picture book readers. There are some longer paragraphs and pages with multiple paragraphs. There is also a lot to take in, even in this simplified form. That said, I think the framing of the story does make it understandable for the intended age range. It’s a difficult story to simplify and it mostly succeeds in that.

[A copy of this book was received from the publisher for review purposes]