Main content

Juno Dawson and Dean Atta: Taking pride in storytelling

Juno Dawson and Dean Atta on writing celebratory stories for LGBTQ+ teenagers

This week, we go inside the world of children’s books and teen fiction.

What were your favourite books growing up? What stories were you drawn to? We hear from the prize-winning authors Juno Dawson and Dean Atta about creating celebratory stories for LGBTQ+ teenagers of coming of age and coming out.

In Japan, there’s one tradition that can take a story from the pages of a book and bring it out on to a street corner for crowds of children to enjoy. It’s called Kamishibai which means β€˜paper play.’ The picture book author and illustrator Satoshi Kitamura tells the story of this unique performance art.

We meet the author and activist taking on US immigration policy through the power of a children’s story. The Mexican-American writer Aida Salazar talks to the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ’s Mugabi Turya about how the recent detention of child migrants and her personal memories living as an undocumented migrant led her to write her new book, The Land of the Cranes.

Has a film, a song or a book ever changed the way you see the world? We hear from the illustrator of The Gruffalo, Axel Scheffler, on how his love for the work of French-German artist Tomi Ungerer set him on a path of artistic expression.

Presented by Tina Daheley

Available now

27 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Sat 23 May 2020 01:32GMT
  • Sun 24 May 2020 04:32GMT
  • Sun 24 May 2020 08:32GMT
  • Sun 24 May 2020 10:32GMT
  • Sun 24 May 2020 21:06GMT

Podcast