The Pirate Mums

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This is one of the smartest yet most relatable children’s stories you’ll ever read, and another tale that can be read in different fun ways. With main character mums who are strong, kind, and clever, this laugh-out-loud picture book (with optional sea shanties!) will help children understand that being different is what makes you special and that all families arrrrre worth telling stories about. Win The Pirate Mums! And so we learn, through gesture and allusion, that it is OK to miss somebody, to feel an aching gap, for things to unravel in the wake of loss, for grown-ups to find things difficult too, and for anger and upset to rear up through the emptiness. Author Jodie Lancet-Grant shares the inspiration for ThePirate Mums,her debut picture book with illustrator Lydia Corry- and why it's so vital that children see a diverse and equal world in the books they read.

With main character mums who are strong, kind, and clever, this laugh-out-loud picture book (with optional sea shanties!) will help children understand that being different is what makes you special and that all families arrrrre worth telling stories about. In so tenderly capturing Luna’s library day with Dad, Joseph Coelho bears witness to a little girl navigating parental separation, missing her father and finding closeness to him through the books they choose together.For School Diversity Week (20-24 June), Grant has recorded a reading of her new book as a video resource that primary schools can watch with their pupils. Grant will also be visiting primary schools to read from her new book and answer questions from students. UK residents only. Entry closes at 11.59pm on Sunday 27th June 2021. Terms and Conditions apply (PDF). As soon as I heard that my story was going to be published, I knew that I’d want teachers in particular to take it to their hearts. And there are a number of reasons for that. There isn’t yet a huge array of great resources that children will enjoy to help teachers counteract centuries of homophobia – I’m hoping that The Pirate Mums can be one of them. These LGBTQ bedtimes stories to read right now are all glowing examples of the varied queer experiences so many of us go through.

Lydia Corry studied painting at the Royal College of Art. Her first book, Eight Princesses and a Magic Mirror by Natasha Farrant, was nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2021. She has illustrated several picture books.There are many, many lessons taught at primary school. Surely one of the most important is to respect and accept those who are different, however that difference may manifest. The first, unsurprisingly perhaps, is so that children like mine, with two mums or two dads, see themselves and their lives somewhere other than in their home setting.

One of the most important tasks that primary school teachers have is to impart the practicalities of reading and writing – phonics and digraphs and spelling and grammar. But it’s at least as important that they also instil a love of reading in their pupils. Norman’s wings can easily be a metaphor for gender or sexual orientation. It can also be a metaphor for a curious new hobby or interest; something that sets a child apart from the usual.

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The free educational resources also include ideas for PSHE, PSED and lessons across the curriculum as well as worksheets, drawing exercises and discussion prompts. But the final, and, perhaps most personal reason I so fervently want teachers to read and use The Pirate Mums at story time, in projects and as a core part of their teaching, is because, when I was at school they wouldn’t have been able to. A huge thank you to Jodie and all at Oxford University Press – we hope the resources will help many more primary schools celebrate diverse families.” Lesbian mother and children’s author Jodie Lancet-Grant has released her new children’s book, The Marvellous Doctors For Magical Creatures. To my surprise, I found a dearth of choice. And when I spent the next few evenings moaning about this to my wife, she – in the friendliest possible way – told me to shut up and do something about it.