Read for Empathy Guide 2019 Selection Panel

The 2019 Read for Empathy Collection selection panel

 Our 2019 judging panel featured a careful and powerful balance of cross disciplinary experts: two grassroots practitioners ( teachers from Great Yarmouth and a school linked  to a mental health hospital); a publisher with a strong diversity background; a CLPE expert in diverse literature; a national children's book journalist; a children's librarian and an Amnesty publisher. The panel was chaired by Miranda McKearney OBE, founder of EmpathyLab and The Reading Agency 
Jon Biddle is a teacher at one of EmpathyLab’s pioneer schools, with a passion for developing genuine reading cultures in schools. He coordinates the Patron of Reading initiative, writes a regular blog and talks about books at every possible opportunity.

He recently won the Experienced Teacher Award in UKLA’s Reading or Pleasure Awards.

Read Jon's blog post on the judging process here.

Aimée Felone is co-founder of newly launched Knights Of – a children’s publisher whose main focus is hiring diversely and commissioning writers and illustrators from a diverse range of backgrounds. 

She has previously worked at Eve White Agency, David Higham Associates and Scholastic and has been a supportive voice within the book industry, tirelessly working to promote diversity.

Read her conversation with Miranda McKearney, EmpathyLab founder about this year's  Read for Empathy collections here.

Paul Harris has worked in education for almost 30 years , working across all key stages, in FE, HE, adult education, managing training for the NHS and working in the third sector. 

Since 2014 he has been a teacher at the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital School, an in-patient mental health setting.

Nicolette Jones is a writer and journalist who has been the children’s book reviewer of the Sunday Times for more than two decades.

Nicky Parker heads the publishing programme at Amnesty International UK, with a focus on children’s books and human rights. 

She is also chair of trustees at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.

Her blog post on her experience of being a Read for Empathy judge can be read here.

Farrah Serroukh is the Learning Programme Leader at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. 

She is passionate about promoting every child’s right to quality learning underpinned by access to a rich and varied diet of quality literature.

Read her thoughts about the books that made it into the collections on her blog post here.

Sarah Mears is one of EmpathyLab’s founders whose library background has long convinced her of the power of stories to change children’s lives. 

She is Programme Manager for Libraries Connected, a national development organisation supporting public libraries.  

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