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Lucy & James Catchpole

@thecatchpoles

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Family life, children's literary agency.
More children than working legs.
📚 What Happened to You? 📚 You’re So Amazing! 📚 Mama Car 👇

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What DID happen to James's leg..? Out now in 🇺🇸
Owning It: Our Disabled Childhoods - our anthology - is out today in North America 😊 So here's James reading the first pages of his chapter - Faking It.

Getting 22 disabled writers' essays together has been wonderful and illuminating and exhausting - alongside our co-editor @jenvcampbell. It feels remarkable to have gone from the germ of an idea to this substantial book, full of stories. Nothing can ever be perfect, but we're very proud.

It's an international book - already out in the UK and elsewhere. But today is about the US & Canada -

Some 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦 authors to watch out for:
Imani Barbarin @crutches_and_spice
Rebekah @sitting_pretty
Christa @christacouture
Alex @alexwegman
Steven Verdille of @thesqkywheel
Kendra @kdwinchester
Sora @sorajkasuga
Ashley @disabilityreframed
Leona @drmlgodin

📸 @faberbooks.us are sharing short videos from (most of) these contributors in stories now - in their highlight if you've missed it.

Note: if you want to hear James reading the rest of his story - and some of the other writers' too - you can do that. Because it's available on audio, too.

Owning It is published by Faber, and illustrated by @sophiekamlish 🎨

- Lucy & James

[Video description:
James, a white, disabled man in his 40s, sits in front of a bookshelf and reads from Owning It - a thick paperback book, with a leafy cover design. Behind him, his picture book What Happened to You? - with a one-legged child on the cover - is visible.]
#disabledauthors #disability #bookstagrammers

Links in bio if you'd like to order - or buy it in the best bookshops 😊 taken in Oxford, England - UK by @thecatchpoles

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Mama Car is out 🇺🇸🇨🇦 today! And my daughter Viola seemed like the best person to tell you about it 😊

On the ending - poor dada car. Your day will come. Maybe... 😉

📚 Mama Car is already out in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Turkey.

👉 Find it in all the usual places, or through the links in our bio.

I'm so grateful for all the support, instagram. And for the messages from disabled parents, and from the children of disabled parents.

None of this is just me and my family, it turns out!
A wheelchair is just another vehicle - but a very useful one, associated with so much love and cosiness. Thank you for your memories.
~ Lucy

~~~

#TheFictionFeast is today! There are some utterly delicious bed picnic photos on there in honour of Mama Car, thanks to Ale @readwithriver. Do have a look!

~~~

Illustrated by @karengeorge_books 👩‍🎨 - happy US publication day Karen!
Published by @littlebrownyoungreaders 🇺🇸
@faberchildrens 🇬🇧

~~~

[Video description:
Viola, a 6 year old white girl with light brown hair, narrates:
"This is the mama car, the dada car, this is the big car. When I was little I rode on Mummy's lap in the mama car, and we have expeditions in the mama car. My mummy wrote a book about it, and now it's out in America." (Gesturing to the dada car / cargo trike) "You won't see it in the book because it isn't in the book!"

She shows us her mother's wheelchair, her father's cargo trike, the family car. Age 3, riding on her mother's lap, then now. A family bed picnic. She reads Mama Car sitting on the wheelchair. Viola, her big sister and mother look at the book outdoors. She shows the book to the camera. Finally, we see the cargo trike again. Text reads: Mama Car, Now out in the US! Already out in the UK, find it in bookshops, or the link in our bio.]

#MamaCarBook #disability #wheelchair #mamacar #MoreChildrenThanWorkingLegs taken in Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK by @thecatchpoles

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To craft messily, or... not? Marcie and Giraffe - @_kim_gregory_ 's glorious debut - is definitely one for the paint-splattered crowd. Is that us? Erm...

As an agency for children's illustrators, we've managed to surround ourselves with people who love mess. Good mess, I mean - the creative kind, with all the Ps: paper, pens, pencils, paint...

As a family, we've managed to surround ourselves with the other kind of mess - the bad kind. The clutter. It's a constant, losing battle, only partly caused by our suboptimal children/working legs ratio.

One unfortunate result of the bad mess is that there's hardly ever any clear space (physical or mental) for the good mess. When the whole house is a cascade of books and toys - and now, musical instruments - it's pretty hard to make room for painting.

So Kim Gregory's original and brilliantly sure-footed debut gives me twinges of guilt, along with all the pride and joy. Marcie and Giraffe inhabit a clean white space that just longs to be covered in paint. Their whole existential plane is a canvas. And boy, do they make the most of it.

Marcie, an adorable little barbarian with a total, blissful absence of self-awareness, paints a picture of her friend, Giraffe. It's an ochre blob, but she loves it...until she sees the picture he's painted of her, which has a smiley face and actual limbs...and immediately falls into a dark hole of self-criticism. YOUR ART IS BETTER THAN MINE.

In fact, her rejection of her previous style is so furious and impassioned that she grabs her brushes and her paints and accidentally invents expressionism. We've all been there. Well, no, we haven't....but we all might have, when we were five.

This is one for all those magnificent tiny rage-painters out there. Kim Gregory sees you. And the Violas out there, in their pristine white blouses, whose parents never quite found the space for painting...you'll have to rage-play your pianos and your violas, instead. Sorry!
- James

#talesfromchildrenspublishing
#picturebooks

[I.D
Viola holds 'Marcie and Giraffe', a picture book with vivid colours on a white background, in front of her in the garden. She looks down at the book. Contd in comms.] Viola holds 'Marcie and Giraffe', a picture book, in front of her in the garden. She's 7yo with long hair, and looks down at the book. by @thecatchpoles

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MAMA CAR By Lucy @thecatchpoles is out today in North America and we are ready with our bowl of grapes and all cosy for our bed picnic.
What does life look like for one little person who lives in a family with two disabled parents? The answer is…cosy.

#themamacarbook #thefictionfeast taken in Nova Scotia by @thecatchpoles

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Welcome to my Mama Car live read aloud, from my teatime bed picnic. With accompanying chaos, and seemingly no way out at the end 😳 #TheFictionFeast by @thecatchpoles

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Join us on Tuesday Nov. 4 for #thefictionfeast held in honour of the North American release of MAMA CAR.
#justicenotcharity taken in Toronto, Ontario by @thecatchpoles

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Join me! I’ll be reading Mama Car on Instagram Live on US publication day - Tuesday the 4th of November.

And on the same day, #TheFictionFeast - the so-called flatlay olympics - is bed picnic themed. I’m so looking forward to seeing the photos. There will be prizes ☕🪧✒️📗

Between us (sort of), this is our last publication day as authors for the foreseeable future - we have no new books in the pipeline.

Books like this really do thrive on word of mouth. And Instagram has a lot to answer for - we’re so, so grateful for all the support.
~ Lucy

#MamaCarBook #disabilityisnormal #LucyCatchpole
#MamaCar #disabledparents #wheelchair #disabilityinclusion #ownvoices #bedpicnic

[Video description:
B-roll footage of Lucy, a white wheelchair user in her 40s, and her two daughters. They go to the kitchen, the 6yo on her lap, fill a cup of milk put brioche in a bowl, and then go back and eat in the bed. Picture book Mama Car appears in the garden - on the wheelchair, alongside a tea tray. The girls are wearing white cotton nightdresses. At the end, one of the girls scoots away in the chair.]

Mama Car is written by me - Lucy Catchpole - illustrated by @karengeorge_books and published by @littlebrownyoungreaders (US) and @faberchildrens (UK).

👉 I’ve put links to order Mama Car for the US and the UK in our bio, and to the teaching notes, too. taken in Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK by @thecatchpoles

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"Justice Not Charity" Not my slogan clearly - that's the point. Mary Wollstonecraft said it first in 1792. And disabled people have said it over and over again.
Though I'm not sure the world has been listening.

Well, some of you were, anyway 😊

You never know if you're saying something that'll stick with people, do you? I first posted a version of this in 2022. Then this week Ale @readwithriver made a Justice Not Charity print for the Mama Car launch (it's there if you ⬅️).

🌿🦽👒 Mama Car comes out in the US on the 4th of November, #TheFictionFeast is bed picnic themed in its honour, and the winner of the best food-and-book-themed flatlay will win:

⭐️ Ale's beautiful Justice Not Charity print
⭐️ My favourite mug (elegant vat!)
⭐️ A signed copy of Mama Car

No, Mama Car has nothing to do with this slogan, really. It's not a message book. But telling a simple little story about a child, her mother and her🦽 feels a bit radical in its own way.

Mama Car illustrated by @karengeorge_books
Published by @littlebrownyoungreaders in the US, @faberchildrens in the UK.
Out in the US 4th Nov.

#JusticeNotCharity
#WhenBarbaraMetAlan
#disabled #wheelchairlife #disabilityhistory #disabledandproud

[Image description:
A photo of me in my wheelchair - I’m a white woman with long hair, wearing a bandana in my hair.
Our text reads, on a cream paper background:
‘'Justice not charity'
Sound a bit too radical?’
Contd in comments.]

25th October 2025 A photo of me in my wheelchair - I’m a white woman with long hair, wearing a bandana in my hair.
Our text reads, on a cream paper background:
‘'Justice not charity'
Sound a bit too radical?’ by @thecatchpoles

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Out today! Mandy Is a banana. But Mandy's not comfortable in her leathery, yellow skin. She'd rather be a pineapple 🍍 like Pedro - or better still, a watermelon 🍉 like Wilhelmina, 'huge and round like a green full moon.' Then again, maybe not so much, once she's seen her roll off the kitchen table.

#talesfromchildrenspublishing

What's that Pink Floyd line about the English way? Hanging on in quiet desperation? Because Mandy's been hanging in there for a good while now, and she's STILL a banana. Just look at that face! The Weltschmerz...

We've been on a journey together, Mandy, Zoe, Amy and I. Zoe sent Mandy to me a few years ago. She'd been working on some ideas and then done just want you're NOT SUPPOSED TO DO as an unpublished picturebook author, which is to get together with an illustrator - Amy, in this case - and make a book together, and THEN try to sell it. I should know - I'd done exactly the same thing with Karen George on my own book. So I could hardly blame her! But I knew how hard it might be to sell...

And yet somehow, even without the support of an agent, they'd already managed to sell it at Bologna Book Fair, via an illustration showcase, to a publisher in Korea. That takes some chutzpah. And it's testament to how well Zoe's words and Amy's pictures sparked with each other.

All I had to do was to supply some of the editorial they'd been missing, and then show the new draft to Emma Blackburn, who came and sat in our kitchen, one heady morning, and left with all my best stories. (Come again!). Then it was up to Hachette to bend Mandy into her final shape.

Molly and Goldy, I hereby forgive you for taking out my favourite spread - the CSI money shot aka SPLAT.

Yes, it was too much - the watery, pippy mess that Wilhelmina made on the tiles, and her shocked expression, frozen forever. Yes, Mandy's and Pedro's reactions are enough. And yes, I was secretly delighted to see Wilhelmina return, wrapped in bandages like watermelon Humpty Dumpty. It's a happy ending, after all - for Mandy, who learns to love her bananadom, and for Zoe and Amy, who have a wonderful, and wonderfully unusual debut, publishing today.

Hats off!
- James The text ‘Mandy would like to be a pineapple’ appears on cream paper, over a photo of Viola - partially obscuring her face. She’s sitting at the kitchen table with a fruit-decorated bagel and the new picture book ‘Mandy is Still a Banana’. The cover is bold and blue. It features Mandy - an illustrated banana with a face, alongside other anthropomorphic fruit, plums and strawberries. The author’s and illustrator’s names ‘Zoe Arena & Amy Evans’ are printed at the bottom. Viola’s dress is 50s-ish, white cotton floral with a yellow floral print and a peter pan collar. by @thecatchpoles

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If you'd like us to send you a signed bookplate - to stick into your copy of one of our books - we'll send out one last batch this week.

Comment or DM if you'd like me to send you the link (or find it in our bio).

Every year I read interesting, nuanced pieces about disability pride month. This year has felt more downbeat. 2025 is a lot.

Pride is great, but if you're just getting through - that's enough, too.

For us, it's been a month of bookplates, tea, the garden, and the lovely people who contact us about our books. The connection this space brings us with readers, with other disabled people, is so precious.

I can promise all bookplates will be hand posted by one of the girls 💌

📚 Book news 📚

Owning It - our anthology of disabled writers - is out in the US on August the 19th..

Owning It learning resources for teachers are in the pipeline.

Mama Car has been longlisted for the Diverse Book Awards!

What Happened to You? is out in French and Welsh!

And Mama Car comes out in the US in November.

📚

P.S Viola's little foot in frame at the very end!

#disabilitypride #diversebooks

[Image description:
Text reads:
I can't pretend disability pride month is a massive deal in our family, but - we're disabled, we're authors, so this month we thought we'd offer signed bookplates to anyone who wanted one.
A team effort. It's been lovely.
Video shows James and Lucy signing bookplates, and their daughters putting stamps on envelopes and taking them off to post. Viola swings in the background.] taken in Jericho, Oxford by @thecatchpoles

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📚☀️ Summer reading challenges and quiet reading time. Anyone else do this? Have a fixed reading time every day?

We started a few years ago. The first months were dicey - I discovered that if the time shifted at all, the whole thing came crashing down. So it's 6.15 every day - straight after we all have a cup of tea together.

And now - it just IS. Which honestly, as a disabled parent who often feels powerless, makes me feel a bit godlike. I invented a time of day and now it exists - actual humans say "quiet reading time" like it's Christmas, or breakfast. Something that exists. (See also: I created actual humans. But I digress.)

Having a clear time for reading worked better than I ever imagined. The peace is heavenly (now that sounding out days are behind us). Viola’s stopped claiming not to like reading (I guess you can be good at something but not enjoy it). It's just a lovely thing.

And the friend who told their child quiet reading time is law in the UK? Well, their reading did apparently improve, so 🤭

We keep going over the summer, and make chaotic summer reading challenge lists. A few people in DMs asked me to share them, which the girls thought was a great idea, so they're in the images and just below. They'd love to hear from anyone else with their own list.

Mainie:
Anne of Green Gables - unabridged
The Dolls' House by Rumer Godden
Badger Are Go II - Revenge of the Claw by Susie Lloyd
One Loki book by Louie Stowell
One Horrible Histories book
Hetty Feather by Jacqueline Wilson
Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden
Poetry for Kids: Emily Dickinson
The Borrowers by Mary Norton

Viola:
The Naughtiest Girl in the School by Enid Blyton
The Accidental Prime Minister byTom McLaughlin
Badgers Are Go II by Susie Lloyd
Alice in Wonderland
One poetry book - Now We Are Six, or You’re a Poet by Sean Taylor
Stories for 6 year olds by Julia Eccleshare
One Roald Dahl book
One graphic novel, eg Olga
One Beatrix Potter

I'm not expecting them to read them all, but they fought me whenever I tried to take one away so 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'll keep you posted on Anne of Green Gables 😊
- Lucy

[I.D in comms]
#bookstagrammer #childrensliterature #kidsreadingbooks

26.7.25 Photo of Viola - a 6 year old white girl with long hair - reading on a swing, wearing a pink floral Laura Ashley dress.
Text overlaid reads:
‘Quiet reading time
We have quiet reading time at the same time every day - it’s the best.’ taken in Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK by @thecatchpoles

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Happy Father's Day James - I've regretted not posting these all year, and this is my chance! I took them last Father's Day morning, and they're so characteristic of all three (perhaps especially the fourth photo 🙃) Though the girls INSIST on growing, so have of course already changed...

Parenting together is just the best shared project. I'm constantly pinching myself - we didn't for a moment take for granted we'd be able to do this. And James really was made for it.

British reticence is real. Can't say much more - my teapot will be confiscated or something 🤭 But I feel so lucky to be in this with him, and despite the paucity of adult legs etc, very very smug.

~~~

🦿Today, the girls arranged a Father's Day tree (see stories), and gave him amongst other things
- a shoe horn
- a dvd of amputee Douglas Bader classic war film Reach For the Sky.

Both of which feature in his Owning It chapter - something none of us noticed till James pointed it out!

~~~

Bonus book photo: couldn't resist slipping in @michellerobinsonbooks 's beautiful, tender book about fatherhood at the end. Illustrated by the incomparable @paddy 😊

~ Lucy

[Image description:
1.
James, Mainie and Viola sit on the floor in our bedroom, Father's Day 2024. Viola sits on James's leg, Mainie close by on the other side. Mainie is looking up at James and ruffling his hair, while Viola smiles at the camera. Mainie and Viola are wearing white cotton nightdresses, James a light striped linen shirt. They look natural and happy. Long dresses hang behind them.
Contd in comments.]

#fathersday #parentlife

15th June 2025 James, Mainie and Viola sit on the floor in our bedroom. Viola sits on James's leg, while Mainie sits close by on the other side. Mainie is looking up at James and ruffling his hair, while Viola smiles at the camera. Mainie and Viola are wearing white cotton nightdresses, James a striped linen shirt. They look natural and happy. Long dresses hang behind them. taken in Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK by @thecatchpoles

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