It is a truth universally acknowledged that the first post on a new website or blog is always the hardest. This is certainly no exception, and so, I have chosen to break the ice with a bit of an introduction.

My name is Helen and I’m the owner of Wonderland Bookshop in Retford, North Nottinghamshire. A specialist children’s bookshop with an upside down tea-party on the ceiling (no, really), I have been fortunate enough to have been living and breathing children’s books since November 2019. Not eating though, I’m not The Incredible Book Eating Bookseller.

I have always loved children’s books and back when I was living in London and commuting to work, I would surreptitiously read them on the tube, attempting to hide the cover, or read them on my Kindle where no one could see. In short, I was an adult who thought that she shouldn’t be reading children’s books. Now? I don’t care. I read them everywhere and I don’t care who sees. I know how lucky I am to own a bookshop and it is a real privilege to curate the shelves and help children access books. I sit on the World Book Day Strategic Advisory Group and the Bookseller Association’s Children’s Group, and have been fortunate enough to be part of judging panels for various book awards, including The Week Junior in 2024. It’s an absolute joy entering the worlds that books provide, and being able to discuss books with our young readers is an honour that never gets boring.

Encouraged by a friend, I applied to study an MA in Children’s Literature. I don’t have an undergrad (or even A-Levels), so this was a huge leap. My dissertation, an 18,000 word research project titled “Beyond the Panel: A Study of Toxic Masculinity in British Children’s Comics from Post-War to the New Golden Age” received a distinction.

I am now excited to share my musings about children’s literature, comics, and bookselling with the wider world. Stick around for more.