“If I have created 10 more animal lovers on this earth, I will have done my duty” said Dr Anjali, a fierce animal welfare advocate based in India. “The most impactful changes are made through altering people’s attitudes.” This insightful learning I gained during my time working with stray animals in Kolkata, India, in the February half-term.
Last weekend, I was truly lucky to have attended the 15-year anniversary of WOW (Women of the World) celebration at the Royal Albert Hall. It was an unforgettable amalgamation of some of the fiercest women who have been and are fighting alongside us in the journey towards gender parity and who, in their individual acts of rebellion within the fields of music, theatre, literature, politics, and more, have helped us to accelerate action for a better tomorrow. And after this spectacular celebration, there was no way I could return empty-handed.
We are surrounded by people’s names, celebrations of their lifelong contributions to the world of science and maths. Euler’s formula, Fermat’s last theorem, and the Higgs boson are all examples of key discoveries after the people who discovered them. But should the scientific community continue to do so?
Children’s literature as a genre is unique in that it is one of few whose audience defines it. Within the genre we find examples of fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction, but all fall under a single umbrella, united by the age of its readers. This complicates defining the genre, made even more complex by the fact that children are a moving target; they are not destined to remain children forever. As a result, children’s literature is one that can never be static; a new generation is constantly growing into it as another grows too old for it. As a result, the genre itself must adapt just as quickly to account for its changing demographic.
We all know the feeling, when when you want to insult a friend, but just don’t quite have the means to do so, or when you’re looking for a particularly creative insult but one just won’t come, and you stand there for a couple seconds looking dumbstruck.
