Max the Champion

SEAN STOCKDALE is an ex-teacher who is now Communications Manager for NASEN. He has extensive experience of working with disabled children and promoting equality and inclusion.

ALEX STRICK has taught (EFL) and worked in children's play/youthwork. She has considerable experience of working directly with disabled children and managing projects seeking to develop equality and inclusion. She has also worked in the children's book world for much of the past fifteen years. At Booktrust, she managed programmes like Bookstart and Children's Book Week, was deputy executive director and regularly reviewed children's books for the Guardian. She is now a consultant to Booktruston all aspects of disability and diversity, as well as working with various other agencies and charities (she is co-founder of Outside In, the UK organisation dedicated to exploring books from around the world). She is regularly asked to talk at events and conferences and has been commissioned to design and deliver training courses for writers, illustrators and publishers on accessible and inclusive books, both in the UK and internationally.

ROS ASQUITH has been a Guardian cartoonist for 20 years, and has written and illustrated over 70 books for young people, including the bestseller The Great Big Book of Families, with Mary Hoffman, the Teenage Worrier series, Letters from an Alien Schoolboy-which was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize- and her debut picture story book It’s Not Fairy. Ros lives in north London with her husband and two sons. For more information about Ros, visit her website: www.rosasquith.co.uk