My favourite children’s book
23rd March 2022
‘It’s such a moving, powerful story but it’s also beautifully written. It’s about kindness and compassion, about how what we’re like on the inside should matter so much more than what we’re like on the outside.’
I’ve been talking to the Royal Literary Fund about my favourite children’s book: ‘Wonder’ by RJ Palacio.
‘I love it so much that when my daughter’s gone to school I sneak ahead & read a little bit further…‘
I have to admit, I cried every morning when my daughter was reading it to me. I cried for little Augie, for all the children who believe they are different and are bullied and I cried for my childhood self and the bullying handed out to me at all ten schools I attended – bullying for being mixed race in Britain, for being other, for being different.
Luckily, being a novelist, I fictionalised my experiences and turned them into my first psychological thriller, ‘Bone by Bone‘, and still, to this day, donate a percentage of my royalties to anti-bullying charity, Kidscape.
What’s your favourite children’s book? Is it one you read as a child or as an adult?
