About Me

My name is Emily Marbach and I live in London. Junior Book Worm was formally called The Picture Book Quarterly which started in the high tech form of fax, when it first started in 1996. When the internet appeared, it seemed the perfect format for my book reviews.
Why do I review books? I was trained as an English teacher. I studied and wrote poetry for years. I become a mother four times over and one of our favourite things to do together is listen to stories. I write and paint and read and visit art galleries. But most importantly I love children's books and there are so many great ones. But when I first had a child, twelve years ago, people were reading Spot and other unenlightened crap to their children because "they like it". I was determined to discriminate between the good, the bad and the ugly. Most children's book reviewers are swayed by what they receive each quarter. They can't say nasty things about the lot. So, they find themselves finding redeemable qualities in the worst books.
The Junior Book Worm grew out of a need to mature. Slowly we are getting away from picture books and moving into chapter books. The problem is that I still love picture books (and so do the children).
This is turning out not to be about me, but I hope you can get a sense of what I am like and where my heart is.
My motto is never buy books (that you intend to read multiple times) with children under six.
To be continued, Emily