Category: Activities.

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Allies: Real Talk About Showing Up, Screwing Up, And Trying Again by Shakirah Bourne and Dana Alison Levy

I’ve spent the last month highlighting books about LGBTQIA+ issues and/or by LGBTQIA+ authors:

The Secret Sunshine Project
Jamie
Glitterboy
Boy Like Me
Cottonopolis
Bloom

And while all of these books are AMAZING, I wanted to close out the month with an action – something that people could do in the face of the increasing demonisation of – specifically the trans community but also in general all – LGBTQIA+ people.

I first came across Allies: Real Talk About Showing Up, Screwing Up, And Trying Again by Shakirah Bourne and Dana Alison Levy in a shorter format, as one of the £1 World Book Day books. The title of the book generally explains what it does – it speaks about the need to sit with discomfort and let it move us to change, rather than to anger.

So often, so much of the discord we see in the world comes from peoples’ own discomfort at being wrong, where instead of listening and saying ‘sorry, I made a mistake’, they double-down on their previous assertions. This book teaches young people how to move past those feelings, and how to decentre themselves and their hurt in these conversations.

So, now that Pride month is over, what are we going to do going forward?

If you read no other books that I’ve recommended over June, I’d love it if you’d read this one – or even the £1 World Book Day abridged copy. In times like these, allyship is vital – especially for the trans community.

As for me, I’m going to continue seeking out books by LGBTQIA+ authors, so that I can continue to highlight them throughout the coming 12 months. If you’re an author or a publisher, and you have a book with queer themes for children and teens that you’d like me to review, please get in touch – especially books past their first flush of youth – I know how important sustained publicity is.

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I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of Allies this way, please just click here. If you’d like to support me without buying a book, you can do so here. Thank you.

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Today’s ideas…

Another round up of things I found on Twitter and thought looked cool, plus an activity relating to maps that we’re going to be doing with my youngest later.

So, to start off, here’s some lovely ideas from the Woodland Trust. Obviously some of them rely on access to the outdoors, but it’s easy enough to replace the natural materials in activity 4 (‘Create Natural Art’) with things you might have at home – scraps of fabric, old buttons, even pillows and blankets. Think Giant Art Attack (those of you who remember the 90s TV show).

Another really exciting thing I saw was creative writing classes, delivered via YouTube. As someone who’s led writing workshops before, I can whole-heartedly recommend these. They’re all about enjoyment and love of the craft. Absolutely worth having a go at.

If you’ve got the wood, the tools, and the space, then making a bird box is a fabulous family project. Instructions are available for free on the RSPB website.

Cressida Cowell of ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ fame has been uploading videos of her, reading her books onto YouTube. You can watch them here.

Today, we’ve been drawing maps of the different rooms in our house as maps were something that nursery was working on when we were all sent home.

I gave the maps to my youngest child, along with three egg-shaped buttons. The task was simple – hide the buttons somewhere in the room, then mark the location on the map and have me find them. Once I’d found them, it was my turn to hide them and mark them on the map.

It’s been a lot of fun for him – less fun for me because I’m not a fan of repetition, but of course, even less fun is him taunting his older sister while she tries to do her school work…

That’s my offering for today – I hope it helps some of you stave off boredom.

Please stay safe, stay at home, and be kind to one another.

And if you can, let me see what you’ve been up to – maybe your quarantine stories will help inspire other people!

With love.
– Farn ❤