Less…
- Strong Female Characters Who Are Strong In One Way Only.
- Strong Female Characters Who Are Violent And Thus Strong And That Is About All You Get.
- “I read Harry Potter once…”
- Looking into the mirror scenes.
- Lists from headteachers of Approved Literature saying that they read Boccaccio when they were two days old, and why haven’t you?
- I Write For Print Media And Bloggers Are Killing Critique.
- Sexual agency being used as a negative character trait (tbf, this applies to pretty much all the media I consume).
- Woe, The Children Are Not Reading articles.
- Woe, The Children Are Not Reading What I want Them To Read articles.
- Critical comment being legitimised from those who do not engage with what they critique.
- The male gaze.
More…
- Thicker paper quality.
- Exploitation of endpapers.
- Festivals paying authors.
- Authors, in general, getting paid a realistic wage.
- Regionally influenced content.
- Illuminated first letters in chapters (my god how I love this).
- Diversity, particularly with focus towards race, sexuality and social class.
- Recognition of what is done well, when it’s done well.
- Debut books.
- Risk.
- Poetry.
- Public library advocacy.
- Big, ambitious, world-shaking stories.
- Alternative family structures.
- Connection between the academic world of children’s lit, and mainstream publishing.
- Unconventional heroes.
- Pony stories.
- Disruption of the canon.
Daisy May Johnson 
I like the way you slipped in pony stories there, maybe to check if we were reading all the way to the end? š But yes, pretty much all of this.
It’s my new attentive reading test š
With you on this, and hoping that wishes do come true… one thing I would alter slightly? Iād like more diversity if all kinds but for it to be just there, not flagged up and not there to make the book worthy!
Definitely! Totemic diversity is NOT what I’m after š