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DBA 5 year celebration

Last night at Waterstones Piccadilly, with a bunch of Diverse Book Awards winners to celebrate 5 years of the event. We spoke to an audience about our book themes, influences, work processes and how to cope with perpetual writers’ angst (solutions ranged from drinking copious amount of booze to using the cat as a stress ball – ideally not at same time).

Pictured here are: Marie-Claire Amuah, Nathanael Lessore, Jenny Ireland, Kia Abduallah, me, Naomi Jones, Abiola Bello and Rashmi Sirdeshpande. Shout out to legends, hosts/founders Abiola and Helen, and all the bookstore staff.

Online workshops available

The great thing about online is there’s no end of people who can join the party. Matt, the organising librarian for today’s Leeds primary school sessions told me:

“It by far had the most interaction from the children watching than any of the other webinars we’ve delivered. I counted 56 class log-ins so that’s about 1700 people watching! Amazing!”

My ‘HOW TO…’ Maddy Yip workshops are fast-paced draw-alongs designed to get those creative juices flowing. If your school is interested in a 1hr KS2 inc. Q&A online workshop, get in touch via the contact form on this website.
Ps. You don’t need to be good at drawing, just use your bonce!

Diverse Book Awards winners’ panel

I’ll be joining past winners for an evening of inspiration on 23rd January 2025 as Diverse Book Awards celebrate 5 years. The evening will be hosted by co-founders of one of the UK’s leading book prizes, Abiola Bello and Helen Lewis.

We’ll talk about our latest projects, insights and the  transformative power of diverse stories over the past five years. Don’t miss this celebration of literature that challenges, empowers, and inspires!

Tickets are available here. 

From order pads to manuscripts

2 Chinese takeaway kids, 2 very different futures! We both started off behind the woks and counter, me in The Midlands 70s/80s and Patrick in Northern Ireland 80s/90s.

Now I’m a kids’ author/illustrator and Patrick Tsang is an international investor/philanthropist. But when we met to do a book swap, we found we had much more in common than we thought from our shared experiences in the family kitchens.

These Rights Are Your Rights – LAUNCH DAY

‘These Rights Are Your Rights’ officially goes free range today and we managed to get the whole team together at the publishers to celebrate!

A massive heap of thanks go to Amnesty and Andersen Press for asking me to be PROUD illustrator for this important project. I would absolutely love it if every kid in the world got a copy of this. ‘Cause unfortunately, not everyone knows that whoever and wherever they are, they have an equal right to the best possible childhood.

You can buy ‘These Rights Are Your Rights’ here. Please share far and wide to create next generations with BIG 💗💗💗

Laugh Out Loud Awards – SHORTLISTED

The announcement that ‘Maddy Yip’s Guide to Holidays’ was shortlisted for Lollies Book Awards 2024 was made while I was actually on MY holiday – so I treated myself to an extra flake in my 99.

This is so much more than about being chosen for an award. It means that all that time spent crafting words and sentences to make them funny actually worked, and that I am making kids laugh, which is pure magic. Thanks to everyone at Lollies, and all the kids that’ll be judging. Enjoy the lols!

A bright new book on the horizon

I got an advance copy of Amnesty International’s ‘These Rights are Your Rights’, and it looks totally wicked!

I was really lucky to be asked to illustrate this one-stop guide, written by Amnesty’s Nicky Parker with contributions by Zahra Joya and Angelina Jolie. It’s an important book that shows kids how everyone’s equal, gives them the confidence to speak up and encourages them to reach their potential, no matter what life chucks at them. There’s inspiring stories too, about children who are out there right now, making a difference.

Some of the content is hard going, but it’s been balanced out with just the right amount of humour, which is where I kind of helped out with my cartoons and doodles.

‘These Rights are Your Rights’ is for ages 8+, out 5th September 2024 and you can pre-order here at Bookshop.org 

Shortlisted for Lollies 2024

I’m cracking open a celebratory Fanta ’cause ‘Maddy Yip’s Guide to Holidays’ (the blue un) has only gone and been shortlisted for the LOLLIES Awards. The ‘LOLLIES’ I tell thee!

It’s what us comic writers dream of, as the winners get picked by kids and as we all know, they ain’t shy about telling us what’s what. The Laugh Out Loud Book Awards celebrates the best and funniest children’s books in the UK and Ireland, so I can’t quite get over Maddy being on the list. Good luck to everyone else on it and in the meantime, LOL!

These Rights Are Your Rights

A new book I’ve illustrated is in the publisher’s Autumn catalogue. I’m loving how the cover turned out (the green’s going to be fluorescent when printed) and there’s over 100 cartoons and doodles inside.

‘These Rights Are Your Rights’ is an essential guide for kids to know their rights, but that means it does get a bit heavy in places. It was my job to add art to the facts and stories, but also a touch of lightness with my comic style cartoons. A tough combo, but if any of you have read my illustrated book ‘Chinglish’ you’ll see I already had a good go at it.

It means a lot to be part of this project, so I want to thank Amnesty UK (especially Nicky Parker) and Andersen Press for choosing me as their artist.

‘These Rights Are Your Rights’ is out September 2024.

Screen time

I went for a meeting at the BAFTA headquarters – dead posh for me. I’m only just getting over imposter syndrome being a book writer, so to be here as a screenwriter was a bit of a daze. It was good to see my co-writer in the flesh at last though, and have a nose around the inside of this newly refurbished building on Piccadilly. Just crossing fingers the team gets to the next stage now!