Liccle Bit: Book 1 (Crongton)

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And that's what I do, so from the age of 5, 6, 7 I still remember those feelings vividly in my head. Wheatle's cellmate, a Rastafari, was the one who encouraged Wheatle to start reading books and care about his education. He was awarded an MBE for his services to literature in 2008, has been twice nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and has won numerous awards including Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Wheatle's life story features in Alex Wheatle, the fourth film in Small Axe, a 2020 anthology of five films by Steve McQueen about the West Indian community in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s.

Very much a young adult book with a look into gang culture based at that reading level and therefore it’s not overly graphic or too depressing. James Ross quit the Tyra Sanchez character and refused and retired from being associated with the show several years ago. JRR Tolkien in 1956: He created new words, new phrases and indeed, two or three different languages.They might not be aware of it, but once they're engaged in a narrative they are actually increasing their vocabulary skills, their empathy, their English grammar. But there is also a sense of progression as we move from the fatricide (black on black violence) of the first novel where the hatred is directed inwards, to the explosive propulsion of violence outwards onto the streets of the city, as the riots with the police unfold.

For me it's a rollercoaster of emotions that I'm trying to manipulate the reader into and I think if you do that you can take them along with you right to the end.

Hopefully in children's fiction and YA that will grow too and I feel encouraged by what I'm seeing in the last two or three years. I didn't realise it was the middle book in a trilogy until I'd finished the book, delighted to say it stands on its own two feet, I didn't feel I'd missed anything by not reading the first book (however, I shall be checking we own all three, such was the power of this book). While serving his resulting sentence, [ clarification needed] he read authors such as Chester Himes, Richard Wright, C. He'd really like to be in the cooking club at school, learning how to perfect his cakes, but he's not quite secure enough for that.

There’s a war going on between the gangs of the North and South, and Lemar suddenly finds himself under the watchful eye of Manjaro, the leader of the South Crongton gang – but also the father to Lemar’s older sister’s baby. Of course I have taken huge risks – conversation is so easy to get wrong and can be quickly dismissed as unauthentic. Despite the often grim subject matter, I laughed at many points in the book - and McKay mostly keeps it light.

Tell us about the world of Crongton, the setting for all of your children's books Liccle Bit, Crongton Knights, Straight Outta Crongton, Kerb-Stain Boys and now your latest book Home Girl? When Caldonia points out the boys' lives don’t seem to be going places, their vague fantasy of robbing a post office is chivvied into reality.

As of writing this, James has just done a big podcast appearance talking about quitting Tyra Sanchez and his experiences in the franchise – you can watch the full thing here. One of my favourite comic was Billy's Boots that used to be in Shoot magazine, I'm going back to the early 70s here. The story follows Mckay, one of Liccle Bits close friends and tells his story of his troublesome brother Nesta (my favourite character), his always working father and his love for cooking.By 1980 Wheatle was living in a social services hostel in Brixton, South London, and he participated in the 1981 Brixton riots and aftermath. At my age I’m hardly down with the kids anymore and I feared that if I attempted to mimic a fast-talking, smart-ass South London kid, I’m only putting myself up for failure. But when badness goes down and a life is left hanging in the balance, Mo has to face her hot urge for revenge . And honestly that's very much different to 'BBC News reading' English, because they are creative, they do want to be cool and express themselves in their own way, so I try to capture that.