The author of Orangeboy, Indigo Donut and Is That Your Mama? plans to use her two-year term to ensure children isolated from reading get involved<\/p>\n
When Patrice Lawrence got the call asking her to become the UK\u2019s next children\u2019s laureate, her first response was disbelief. \u201cI was in absolute shock,\u201d she says, laughing. She is only just beginning to process what it means to join a lineage that includes Jacqueline Wilson, Quentin Blake, Michael Rosen, Julia Donaldson, Malorie Blackman and, most recently, Frank Cottrell-Boyce.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many people who\u2019ve gone before have had such an influence on my life,\u201d she says. \u201cWithout Jacqueline Wilson, I wouldn\u2019t write the kind of books that I do. She was such a trailblazer in social realism for children. And Malorie \u2026 well, Malorie only needs one name.\u201d<\/p>\n
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