FINALLY… REPRESENTATION IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IS HERE ‘THE OFFLINE DIARIES’ BY YOMI ADEGOKE AND ELIZABETH UVIEBINENÉ AUTHORS OF SLAY IN YOUR LANE

By Mark Mukasa • On Education

The Off­line Diar­ies is a major new middle-grade fic­tion series from the authors of the ground-break­ing Slay in Your Lane Yomi Ade­goke and Eliza­beth Uviebinené.

Prom­ising one of the most excit­ing middle-grade moments of the year, The Off­line Diar­ies is a fresh, funny and con­tem­por­ary story of friend­ship, told in the cap­tiv­at­ing voices of Ade and Shanice – two utterly unfor­get­table Year 8 girls – who will seize the hearts and ima­gin­a­tions of read­ers everywhere.

Ade is about to start at a new school. She is NOT happy with her step­dad for mak­ing them move here. Shanice has been at the school for a year already. Since her mum died, she’s been liv­ing with her dad and annoy­ing older broth­er, spend­ing most of her time out­side school in her dad’s hair salon. When Ade and Shanice meet in the salon, and spot each other’s diar­ies, an instant friend­ship is formed, and they start to chat online … but off­line is a whole oth­er story!

Yomi Ade­goke and Eliza­beth Uviebin­ené said: ‘It’s been such an excit­ing pro­cess for us to bring Ade and Shanice to life. Nav­ig­at­ing sec­ond­ary school and friend­ships circles is such a sig­ni­fic­ant part of all of our com­ing-of-age jour­neys and find­ing true friend­ships can really help shape who we become. It’s such a priv­ilege for both of us to be able to cre­ate a world and char­ac­ters inspired by this, and we hope to speak to and empower all young girls all over the world.’

Yomi Ade­goke is a multi-award-win­ning journ­al­ist and author. She writes about race, fem­in­ism, pop­u­lar cul­ture and how they inter­sect, as well as class and polit­ics. She has worked at ITN, Chan­nel 4 News and the Pool as a seni­or writer and freel­anced for Vogue, the Guard­i­an and the Inde­pend­ent amongst oth­ers. In 2018 she was lis­ted as one of most influ­en­tial people in Lon­don by the Even­ing Stand­ard. She was awar­ded journ­al­ist of the year by the Woman In Africa awards, named a Mar­ie Claire Future Shaper and was awar­ded the Groucho Maverick.

Eliza­beth Uviebinené is a multi-award- win­ning author and colum­nist at the Fin­an­cial Times. She was named one of Ad Age’s 2021 Lead­ing Women in Europe and one of the most influ­en­tial people in Lon­don by the Even­ing Stand­ard, as well as receiv­ing a Groucho Mav­er­ick Award for being a ‘cul­tur­ally pro­gress­ive innov­at­or, mak­ing the change’.

The Off­line Diar­ies launches in hard­back on the 28th April 2022, with full black-and-white illus­tra­tions through­out and sim­ul­tan­eous e‑book and audio publication.

 

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Mark Mukasa

Mark is a South Lon­don based writer and avid fan of all things hip hop. He’s also an MMA and his­tory enthu­si­ast who tries to keep his love of animé under wraps.

About Mark Mukasa

Mark is a South London based writer and avid fan of all things hip hop. He's also an MMA and history enthusiast who tries to keep his love of anime under wraps.