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Joy Court - Editorial Expert

Joy Court is Reviews Editor for The School Librarian journal and Past Chair of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals.

Previously she managed the Schools Library Service in Coventry where she established the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards and the Literally Coventry Book Festival, but now just concentrates on books and libraries as a freelance consultant. She has chaired and spoken on panels at festivals and conferences around the UK. She is also a Trustee and member of the National Council of the United Kingdom Literacy Association where she sits on the selection panel for the UKLA Book Awards and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of The English Association.

Author of Read to Succeed: strategies to engage children and young people in reading for pleasure (2011) and Reading By Right: successful strategies to ensure every child can read to succeed (2017) FACET and author of several Riveting Reads annotated booklists for the School Library Association, most recently, with Daniel Hahn, Riveting Reads- a world of books in translation (2017)

Latest Reviews By Joy Court

January 2025 Book of the Month This is so much more than the love story proclaimed by the title, it is also a remarkable work of historical fiction and a valuable addition to the canon of World War One novels and from an author that we are more used to producing fantasy, dystopia or crime stories. But it is certainly a compelling, lyrical, tender and important queer love story because it depicts so vividly the added dangers that forbidden love brought to the trauma of warfare and life in the trenches. The story is told by 19 year old Lieutenant Stephen Wraxall ... View Full Review

Season 4 of The Escape Room had ended in tragedy with contestant Alicia Angelos found murdered on set, with her fellow teammate and sister Sierra deemed to be the killer who got away with it, since she was never charged. Season 5 has just begun, and Sierra has been brought back to the show and teamed up with Adi, a celebrity's son and cryptography expert; Carter, a maths genius and influencer; and Beck, an aspiring game designer, all of whom have their own hidden agendas that slowly unravel as the competition progresses. They all want to win, but Sierra wants to find ... View Full Review

This remarkable debut and series opener is set in an alternate 1923 where dragons and humans coexist after a Peace Agreement ended their war, but the human regime is authoritarian, with strict class divisions and a rebellion is brewing. Vivien Featherswallow, our narrator fluent in “three human languages and six dragon tongues”, plans to follow the rules, secure an internship as a Draconic Translator and make sure her sister never has to risk growing up third class. However, everything changes when her parents get arrested for being in the resistance and with her sister missing, she is forcibly recruited ... View Full Review

August 2025 Book of the Month This emotive and powerful page turner stunningly depicts the beauty of the South Devon coast, where the author grew up, and the strength of the community that lives there all year round, but also authentically reveals the blight caused to these families lives by second homes forcing up property prices beyond the pockets of local people, the decline of the fishing industry and the availability of only seasonal employment. On a more personal level, it is a searing portrayal of loss, grief, challenges to masculinity in the modern world and the strength of friendship and ... View Full Review

I have no doubt that following a Carnegie Shadower’s Choice and UKLA Book Awards win with your debut novel, Crossing the Line , must be hard, but Tia Fisher has also talked about what a personal struggle this book has been for her, with her new central character Marnie being ‘a lot like the girl I once was’. But the fact that this is a story that really matters to its author, is absolutely palpable in the reading, lending urgency and authenticity to the tale of a life so very nearly wrecked and which is a brilliant ... View Full Review

This is a tender and beautifully written coming of age story, where Sydney also has to come to terms with life after a heart transplant. She had almost forgotten how to live as her life gradually closed down and more and more things were taken away from her while she was waiting for a donor. Her friendship group had shrunk to those comrades like Chloe, sharing the waiting list with her. So, the survivor’s guilt that she feels is not just about the fact that somebody died in order for her to live, but also because of those ... View Full Review

Expertly curated, this beautiful book immerses the reader in the history,landscapes, wildlife, peoples and cultures of the second largest continent in the world. Africa was the cradle of all civilisation and every single human is genetically linked to it. Divided into the five main geographic regions we start each region with a map and interesting facts about each country. Then we follow the trail through time and learn more about the peoples and cultures of the region followed by the highlights in terms of animals and landscape. Changemakers and superstars looks at individuals from history and the present day ... View Full Review

Winner of the UKLA Book Awards 2023: Information Books 3 - 14+ An outstanding combination of musical and Black British history which shows the strength and cultural significance of Black music and reveals the people behind the music, what they’re really saying and why. View Full Review

English Association - English 4-11 Picture Book Awards: 7-11 Non-Fiction Winner The British Book Awards: Children's Non-Fiction Book of the Year Winner UKLA Information Books 3-14 category Winner With her trademark fluidity of language and clarity of communication, Atinuke has written the perfect antidote to the standard “white” view of British history and will ensure that Black History is not confined to a single month, nor entirely focused on Slavery and Empire. Choosing to start from the origins of Homo Sapiens in Africa and explaining how evolution and migration has impacted upon the development of the species, makes ... View Full Review

October 2025 Book of the Month What an apt title for this stunning new verse novel from the multi award-winning Manjeet Mann! This is undoubtedly a book which roars; the author’s shock, passion and outrage can be felt in every beautifully placed word. In the author’s note at the end of the book, she recounts her horror upon coming across a UN report about the rise of witch- hunting in India, with more than 2500 acts of violence associated with it since the year 2000. What was even worse, was to discover that almost all the victims were lower ... View Full Review

School stories have been a popular genre ever since Blyton’s Chalet School, via Harry Potter to what is known in YA fantasy circles as Dark Academia and this is a prime example of everything that fans require. It has rivalries, alliances, romantic relationships and a difficult challenge to win an ultimate prize, where all the main characters must compete against each other. But Blackwood Academy has a unique setting – a boarding school where all the pupils are dead! It is located on the fringes of the afterlife and students are learning magical skills to enable them to ... View Full Review

This is an extraordinary debut - a dystopian thriller which will really get readers thinking about some big issues. Not just a climate changed future, but about medical ethics and what a life is worth. Written in short punchy chapters, in a mix of prose and poetry, it is a fast paced and gripping read that is narrated by two sisters, Calico and Asha. The story opens with Calico, painfully regaining consciousness and we soon realise that she has been cryogenically preserved after death and is now restored to life. But it is not at as she had been led ... View Full Review

Joy Court - Editorial Expert

Latest Reviews By Joy Court

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