Oliver Sykes , the lead artist for the project and a former theatre producer, found he had a natural talent for writing, specifically about the experience of kids from single-parent families. This anthology is the culmination of an 18-month development programme designed specifically to coach and inspire other young writers who have had ‘not normal’ backgrounds those who have experienced care, or are from low-income, single-parent or non-traditional families. This week will see the launch of Stories of Care’s second anthology of short stories for children, Tales of the Bold, the Brave and the Beautiful. Stories Of Care, a Manchester-based initiative, is addressing this issue head on. It was founded by writer and comedian Sophie Willan, whose BBC2 sitcom Alma’s Not Normal (for which she just won a BAFTA) was based on her own experience of growing up in the care system. I wonder, would those same stories have resonated as well with kids from backgrounds different to mine? If not, where are their safe, familiar spaces, and are there enough people writing them? Now, I didn’t have a little sister and I definitely wasn’t the naughty one in our family, but they depicted the sort of middle-class family which I saw myself in. Like it or not, we’re often drawn to stories about people we see ourselves in.
The book that I used to stay up late, under the covers, with a torch to read was My Naughty Little Sister by Dorothy Edwards, a set of light-hearted tales about a precocious toddler.
Think about your favourite books when you were a kid.
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