About The Book
Go all in for the National Year of Reading 2026 with this inspiring, accessible and powerful collection of words that matter.
Featuring a stunning cover and inside illustrations by best-selling illustrator Axel Scheffler and expertly selected extracts with accessible, thoughtful commentary by Nicolette Jones, children’s book expert for The Sunday Times. The perfect gift for every occasion.
Celebrate the joy of reading with this inspiring collection of poetry, prose, letters, song lyrics, speeches, quotations and more! From Shakespeare to Stephen Hawking; Greta Thunberg to Galileo; Malala to Martin Luther King, Jr.; and Lin-Manuel Miranda to Alfred Lord Tennyson – these are all in turn powerful, funny, moving, wise, and thought-provoking.
Reading age: 9 – 12 years
About the Author
Nicolette Jones, writer, literary critic and broadcaster, has been the children’s books reviewer of The Sunday Times for more than two decades. She is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, and a nominee for the 2012 Eleanor Farjeon Award for outstanding service to the world of children’s books. Originally from Leeds, she studied at Oxford University, and at Yale as a Henry Fellow. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a signatory to Authors4Oceans, an honorary member of the Royal Naval Reserve Officers’ Dining Club and is involved in a number of literary, charitable and social initiatives. She is married to fellow writer and journalist Nicholas Clee, and they have two daughters. She lives in London, where she is known as a local community activist and sees a lot of theatre.
