Meet Leanne Hall, our new online children’s and YA specialist! Leanne works at our new soon-to-be-open Readings Kids shop, and also writes books for teenagers and younger readers.

Describe your taste in books.

My taste in books has always been broad and wandering. As a kid I was a hungry reader. After my weekly library books were done, I would attack my parents’ book shelves, reading anything bar the phone book. These days I’ll still read any genre, but if I were to pin my tastes down I’d say magic, mystery and mythology. Because I’m a children’s specialist and a writer for young people, I do read a lot of young adult and middle grade fiction. I’m also a sucker for beautiful new illustrated editions of folk tales, fairy tales and myths.

Who is an Australian author who made you sit up and take notice as a young reader?

My first vivid Australian reading moment came after I was reading independently. At around eight, I became obsessed with Colin Thiele’s Sun on the Stubble (now out of print), a series of funny short stories about a German immigrant family living in South Australia. Life on a farm in the 1930s was very exotic to a suburban 80s child, and I wished I could be as naughty as Bruno. I also appreciated reading about a migrant family – there weren’t many in kids’ books back then, and still not enough now. I’m a third generation Australian but I still related strongly to many of the Gunther family’s experiences.

What would you like to see more/less of in children’s books?

I would be pleased to see less gendered marketing of books for children, and a less gendered attitude overall. It’s a huge topic to discuss, but in a practical sense, when I’m working in the shop and trying to give my best custom-made recommendations to delightful young readers, I wish there were less barriers to me freely handing the best and most appropriate books to them. If a reader tells me they like rabbits, climbing trees, dressing up and code cracking, I want to be able to recommend the book they’d enjoy the most, without worrying about the colour of the cover putting them off.

What would be the first book you buy for a baby?

Undoubtedly, and without hesitation, Where the Wild Things Are. Sendak opened up a world of imagination and thrills for me. But I would also buy a stack of amazing, colourful board books for the baby to chomp on and put sticky fingers all over. Some of my favourites right now are Millie Moo, Sing Along With Me: If You’re Happy and You Know It and I am the Wolf, and Here I Come!.

What are you reading right now?

I’m doing some guilty pleasure reading at the moment: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line. This book is a spin-off of a crowd-funded movie, which is a spin-off of the cult TV show, Veronica Mars. I know I’m not supposed to read and enjoy novelisations of TV shows or movies, but Veronica Mars (the TV show) is probably in my top five best shows of all time, so… It’s an easy, breezy read, so far.