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Happy Here
With an introduction from bestselling author Sharna Jackson, HAPPY HERE features stories and poems by 10 Black British authors for readers aged 7+. Exploring themes of joy, home and family through a wide range of genres and styles, each author has been paired with a different illustrator to spotlight Black British artistic talent. With stories by Dean Atta, Joseph Coelho, Kereen Getten, Patrice Lawrence, Theresa Lola, E.L. Norry, Jasmine Richards, Alexandra Sheppard, Yomi Sode, and Clare Weze.
256 pages, Paperback
Published August 5, 2021
6 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
Sharna Jackson
24 books74 followersSharna Jackson is a best-selling author and curator who specialises in developing and delivering socially-engaged initiatives for children and young people across culture, publishing and entertainment.
Her debut novel High-Rise Mystery (2019) won numerous awards and accolades including Best Book for Younger Readers at the 2020 Waterstones Book Prize and Sunday Times Book of the Week. The sequel, Mic Drop, was released in 2020. Sharna also develops books to encourage participation in the arts, with two activity books released with Tate in 2014 (which won the FILAF award for Best Children’s Art Book in 2015) and Black Artists Shaping the World in 2021. She was Southbank Centre’s Imagine A Story Author in 2019/20 creating London/Londoff with over 1200 school children in the capital.
She was recently the Artistic Director at Site Gallery, an international contemporary art space in Sheffield, UK, and was formerly the editor of the triple BAFTA-nominated Tate Kids website.
Sharna was a member of BAFTA’s Children’s and Learning and New Talent committees and the Children’s Media Conference advisory board. She was also on the board of Sheffield Doc/Fest, New Writing North and Upswing. Every year she curates Playground – an exhibition showcasing work that blends digital play with physical objects and Ensemble – a show highlighting ethnic minority talent and achievement in the UK games industry.
Her debut novel High-Rise Mystery (2019) won numerous awards and accolades including Best Book for Younger Readers at the 2020 Waterstones Book Prize and Sunday Times Book of the Week. The sequel, Mic Drop, was released in 2020. Sharna also develops books to encourage participation in the arts, with two activity books released with Tate in 2014 (which won the FILAF award for Best Children’s Art Book in 2015) and Black Artists Shaping the World in 2021. She was Southbank Centre’s Imagine A Story Author in 2019/20 creating London/Londoff with over 1200 school children in the capital.
She was recently the Artistic Director at Site Gallery, an international contemporary art space in Sheffield, UK, and was formerly the editor of the triple BAFTA-nominated Tate Kids website.
Sharna was a member of BAFTA’s Children’s and Learning and New Talent committees and the Children’s Media Conference advisory board. She was also on the board of Sheffield Doc/Fest, New Writing North and Upswing. Every year she curates Playground – an exhibition showcasing work that blends digital play with physical objects and Ensemble – a show highlighting ethnic minority talent and achievement in the UK games industry.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 21, 2021
five stars because Dean Atta is a genius
January 13, 2022
I will never stop saying that representation is important and this is a wonderful collection of short stories and poems by black authors and illustrators.
I will be adding this to my class library and hope that other educators will do the same so that we continue to improve the representation of characters and authors within our learners' experience!
I will be adding this to my class library and hope that other educators will do the same so that we continue to improve the representation of characters and authors within our learners' experience!
May 22, 2022
A beautiful celebration of Black childhood, with a mixture of prose and poetry’s coupled with amazing illustrations. Everything about this screams joy. Stand outs for me include Dean Atta’s poem about a trans girl rockstar and her best friend Josh who raise money for his younger brother Ruben’s new wheelchair through a concert at their church.
June 14, 2022
Each Youth Fiction book I pick up has so many gifts and this one is awesome.
I love the way this genre grabs each issue by the throat and shakes it up and examines it and talks and shared without hidden words and judgements and adult learnt agendas and this collection of 10 stories is no exception.
I had many favourites, the ones with magic are wonderful and one in the middles challenged me. It is a “create your own story” and the subject matter and the way it is presented troubled me after the last 2 covid years we have had and the stresses that come with that. But I am still thinking through my response to this story. I recommend this to anyone with an open mind and open heart.
I love the way this genre grabs each issue by the throat and shakes it up and examines it and talks and shared without hidden words and judgements and adult learnt agendas and this collection of 10 stories is no exception.
I had many favourites, the ones with magic are wonderful and one in the middles challenged me. It is a “create your own story” and the subject matter and the way it is presented troubled me after the last 2 covid years we have had and the stresses that come with that. But I am still thinking through my response to this story. I recommend this to anyone with an open mind and open heart.
September 24, 2022
A collection of 10 short stories written by various authors in different styles. This edition features an introduction by Sharna Jackson who outlines some of the stories' themes and highlights the importance of having these stories, and ones like them, published. At the end of the book, there is a short description of the charity, CLPE. The description outlines the annual survey (since 2018): Reflecting Realities which analyses how representative the characters in children's books are in relation to their readers.
'A House Like No Other', 'Where is Home' and 'You're the Boss' were particular favourites of mine.
'A House Like No Other', 'Where is Home' and 'You're the Boss' were particular favourites of mine.
March 27, 2022
Review of the audio version.
I've given this read 2 stars mainly because of the formatting. There's a 'choose-your-own-adventure' style story in here, but due to the audio copy I had not being split into the correct chapters, it was impossible to enjoy as intended. I love the idea of that inclusion, as I used to really that style as a child, but it doesn't work well on audio. I also found a lot of the other stories hard to follow.
Overall, I think this is a good collection for children, but I'd recommend in print format only.
I've given this read 2 stars mainly because of the formatting. There's a 'choose-your-own-adventure' style story in here, but due to the audio copy I had not being split into the correct chapters, it was impossible to enjoy as intended. I love the idea of that inclusion, as I used to really that style as a child, but it doesn't work well on audio. I also found a lot of the other stories hard to follow.
Overall, I think this is a good collection for children, but I'd recommend in print format only.
May 27, 2023
An admirable collection of short stories focused on black kids! Most are set in the real world, but one or two are fantasy, and one is a choose your own adventure (which doesn't work at all in the audio version.) I really liked that the stories were over a range of topics and held a range of emotions.
You can really feel that the authors wanted to make black children feel represented by the stories they read. In a time where kids of colour are more likely to read about an animal protagonist than one sharing their skin colour, I wholeheartedly support this effort to make a change to that.
You can really feel that the authors wanted to make black children feel represented by the stories they read. In a time where kids of colour are more likely to read about an animal protagonist than one sharing their skin colour, I wholeheartedly support this effort to make a change to that.
August 5, 2021
Man, this is so full of brilliance! So many incredible black authors and illustrations telling wonderful stories - from fairytale characters, to magical bracelets, to gorgeous stories of friendship. I adored this! So full of colour and love! Bravo to everyone involved! There’s stories in here that I think could make glorious books and illustrations that I’d love to see more of!
September 30, 2021
I really enjoyed this book. I liked the fact that it was made up of short stories and poems and that they were about people of colour and written by black authors. The shorts were very creative and entertaining. I've already recommended it to my class.
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April 19, 2022This book was supposed to represent black kids for them to feel recognised or so, but how can I when whenever their home country was mentioned they all were from the Caribbeans!!! Black people come from countries in Africa too!
June 8, 2023
These stories were fun and different. Some were fantasy and some modern, but all were worth reading!
Not sure I can give a real rating since it's multiple stories, but the compilation is probably worth 8/10.
Not sure I can give a real rating since it's multiple stories, but the compilation is probably worth 8/10.
March 20, 2022
A beautiful collection of short stories.
May 1, 2022
A whole heap of happiness and adventure in this lovely book
Want to read
October 18, 2023In Oct 2023 copies of this book were delivered to all primary schools in Southend-on-Sea as part of Jacqson Diego Story Emporium's "Book Elves" initiative.
May 3, 2024
My favorite story in this book is A House Like No Other
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews