NATION’S FAVOURITE CHILDREN’S AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS HEADLINE PROGRAMME TO CHAMPION EMPATHY SKILLS
Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell, Noughts and Crosses author Malorie Blackman, and award-winning illustrator Rob Biddulph are amongst the names announced today to spearhead a powerful Empathy Day programme on 9th June 2020. The day is organised by not-for-profit EmpathyLab, which uses books to help children experience empathy’s transformational power. For the first time the programme will be delivered online to inspire children and families with brilliant events and home or school-based celebrations to be enjoyed anywhere, and will be preceded by a fortnight of family activities, empathy-themed online readings, illustrations and specially written stories.
Returning at an uncertain moment in 2020, this year’s programme looks forward to a future society in which empathy is much more central. Led by Miranda McKearney OBE, EmpathyLab partners with schools, libraries, publishers, authors and illustrators to inspire a new story-driven empathy movement. A specially crafted Empathy Day package of toolkits, activities and reading lists all help children develop and use their empathy skills. Founded in 2014 against a backdrop of rising hate crimes, the movement continues to gain momentum, backed by scientific evidence showing that empathy can be learnt and that we can train our brain with stories.
Commenting on the launch, Miranda McKearney said: “Empathy is a vital human force, and in these past challenging weeks we’ve seen its power to fuel community and generosity. Empathy Day is all about understanding people’s feelings and acting to help. Since the science shows reading’s power to build real-life empathy, it’s fantastic to see leading authors and illustrators step up to lead a new empathy drive just when it’s needed most. We hope that children and families will be inspired by the programme we’ve created.”
The day’s activities introduce children to the idea of empathy and how to put it into action. Events begin at 9.30am with Waterstone’s Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell introducing Empathy Day, followed by a themed draw-along with Rob Biddulph, Empathy Charades with Joseph Coelho, a poetry challenge with Sarah Crossan, and listening exercises with Jo Cotterill and Robin Stevens. Authors Onjali Rauf and Sita Brahmachari round off the day with a session on putting empathy into action, inspiring everyone to make Empathy Resolution posters for their windows. Finally, an evening event with Cressida Cowell, Muhammad Khan and psychologist Professor Robin Banerjee aimed at parents, teachers and librarians will address the science that drives EmpathyLab.
A greatly expanded offer this year includes the Countdown Fortnight from 26 May with a creative Family Activities Pack featuring 14 writing, drawing, crafting, listening and reading activities to complete in the two-week countdown. Access to stories is ensured by author video Empathy Read Alouds and six brand new Empathy Shorts, exclusive empathy-boosting short stories by authors including Bali Rai, Sam Copeland and AF Harrold. The #ReadforEmpathy Illustrator’s Gallery and Blog Tour are also returning, with contributions from Jessica Love, Dean Atta and many more. Finally, schools and libraries across the country will be offering a wide range of home learning and storytime activities.
All the day’s events will take place on www.empathylab.uk and via their Twitter @empathylabuk, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/EmpathyLabUK/ and Instagram @empathylabuk. Families can also access a list of thought-provoking reading suggestions for primary and secondary school children to enjoy beyond Empathy Day. The 2020 Read for Empathy Book Collection includes picture books Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love and Ravi’s Roar by Tom Percival, graphic novels Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai and Me and Mrs Moon by Helen Bate, and novels and poetry such as Hopscotch in the Sky by Lucinda Jacob and Ghost by Jason Reynolds.
Notes to Editors
ABOUT EMPATHYLAB
EmpathyLab is passionate about the power of stories to build empathy and the power of empathy to make the world a better place. The not-for-profit organisation has founded Empathy Day and is developing an empathy, literature and social action programme for young people. It was started in 2014 by Miranda McKearney OBE, who also founded The Reading Agency.
www.empathylab.uk @EmpathyLabUK
ABOUT EMPATHY DAY
Empathy Day was founded in 2017. It aims to drive a new empathy movement, inspired by research showing that humans are not born with a fixed quantity of empathy – our plastic brains can develop new empathy skills at any time in our lives. In 2020 Empathy Day is on 9th June and is a lightning rod for a new story-driven empathy movement. A wide range of organisations are joining forces to harness books’ empathy-building power, inspired by scientific evidence that in identifying with book characters, we learn to see things from other points of view.
Schools, libraries, young people’s organisations, publishers, prisons, booksellers, TV producers are working with EmpathyLab to emphasise empathy’s importance and create story-based activities which help us all understand each other better.
Participating authors:
• Empathy Read Alouds: Elina Ellis, Wendy Meddour, Sophia Thakur, Joseph Coelho, Jessica Love, Moniza Alvi, Tony Bradman, Catherine Johnson, Tom Percival, Ieva Flamingo, Patrice Lawrence, Cath Howe and Steve Camden
• Illustrator’s Gallery: Elina Ellis, Helen Bate, Katie Hickey, Jayde Perkin, Alice Oseman, Nasaya Mafaridik, Amrit Birdi, Sophy Henn, Sarah Horne, Jessica Love, Feronia Parker-Thomas, Robyn Wilson-Owen, George Ermos, Daisy Hirst and Binny Talib
• Empathy Shorts: Jo Cotterill, Bali Rai, Lucinda Jacobs, Marcia Williams, Gill Lewis, Sam Copeland and A.F. Harrold (illustrated by Emily Gravett)
• Blog Tour: Richard O’Neill, Ness Harbour, Alice Oseman, Zanib Mian, Dean Atta, Polly Ho-Yen, Muhammad Khan, Rebecca Westcott, Lucy Popescu, India Desjardins and Stewart Foster
ABOUT THE EMPATHY CIRCLE
EmpathyLab’s empathy drive is supported by a new publisher collective called The Empathy Circle. The group meets three times a year to accelerate the four strands of EmpathyLab’s strategy: an annual national Empathy Day; a Read for Empathy Guide made freely available to adults living and working with young people; the Empathy Explorers schools programme; and Empathy Authors and Illustrators, a programme that equips authors and illustrators to drive forward a book-based empathy movement.
The Empathy Circle children’s publishers are Andersen Press, Bloomsbury, Bonnier Books UK, Hachette Children’s Group, Macmillan Children’s Books, Nosy Crow, Penguin Random House Children’s, Usborne and Walker Books.
ABOUT MIRANDA McKEARNEY OBE
Miranda is a social justice entrepreneur who has spent 35 years turning kitchen table ideas into nationwide campaigns, culminating in founding The Reading Agency, a national charity, in 2002. The charity’s Summer Reading Challenge now involves 800,000 children every year. Having “retired” to go trekking, she became fascinated by the building body of research showing that reading builds empathy. This has led to her founding EmpathyLab.
@MirandaMcK
